TELEVISTA
Too much time to crime
Amita Malik

It is amazing how fast crime stories have increased on the small screen. It is not merely a question of Scarlett Keeling in Goa or a police officer in Delhi. In fact, for some time, many channels have started a crime slot in which they make a daily record of crimes during the day. One or two channels, with perhaps a perverted sense of humour, even make their anchors look like fierce criminals with dark beards and ominous faces.

Then there is the other positive side of crime coverage. The media was of great help in the Jessica Lal case, for instance. Some reporters, like Siddharth Pandey, have built up formidable reputations for following up crime and, in some instances, even help solving them. But what alarms me is the approach in following up crime. There is one channel in Hindi which has made a practice of finding every day some case of domestic violence, or a messy divorce, or cases of wife beating, and then following up such cases in detail.

It was sad to see nine bodies being taken out of the Bhakra canal, near Kachwa village in Karnal district

Human nature being what it is, I suppose some viewers look forward to such daily happenings being aired on the screen. But what bothers me is the extent to which crime is taking up space on the screen. In fact, to the older favourites of politics, sports and the cinema, we can add crime to the list. Last week, apart from the top cop’s murder, we had the sadder spectacle of nine bodies being found in a canal with everyone puzzled as to whether it was suicide or murder. Shown on the screen were handwritten suicide notes large enough and long enough for everyone to read them. One almost felt it was an invasion of privacy.

Highlighting on TV the personal anguish of individuals is in poor taste. But then privacy has become one of the great casualties of television. Some people seem to like it. On the other hand, India is one of the countries where the often murky private lives of leaders are never mentioned or discussed in the media although everyone seems to know about them. The resignation of the Orissa Speaker last week over an alleged scandal was an exceptional case. It had become so public that the media did not have to be discreet about it.

In a series of car accidents, where VIP progeny dropped big names to evade arrest, it mercifully did not seem to work in every case, and one inebriated driver who had dropped his grandfather leader’s name did not seem to get very far with it.

Like it or not, sport has continued to dominate the news and provided some welcome relief from crime and other disturbing events. What with Rahul Dravid reaching a great milestone and his small son clapping for him from the stands with his mother holding him up, these are the human interest touches one loves to see.

Then there was another endearing touch to the Nawab of Najafgarh’s second triple century. When the media rushed to his residence in Delhi to get some sound bytes from the family, they found Viru’s mother busy in the kitchen. She was preparing puris, halwa and kheer, his favourite dishes to celebrate. But when the media pointed out that he was thousands of miles away in Chennai and could not taste any of the preparations, his mother said very sensibly: "We always celebrate his success like this, no matter where he is". She had a point because it is the family’s celebration which matters the most, next to the country’s.