The Indian Media is on trial. A young intern alleged that a retired Judge had made an improper advance towards her. The media reported it extensively. The Chief Justice of India appointed a three-Judge inquiry to examine the issue and report its finding. A section of the media is outraged that the police in Gujarat was protecting or allegedly keeping an eye on a young lady even with her and her familys consent.
The Goa incident involving Tarun Tejpal and a young journalist is in a different league altogether. The victims complaint makes out a clear case of rape. The definition of rape was amended by Parliament subsequent to the Justice Verma Committees recommendations. The ingredients of an offence of rape as amended by Parliament are squarely made out in the victims e-mail. Why was the offence not allowed to be reported forthwith? Were any pressures brought on the victim not to lodge a complaint? How can an offence of rape be compromised by an atonement that the guilty will not attend office for six months?
It is unheard of that a private treaty between Tarun Tejpal and Shoma Choudhary wipes out the penal consequence of rape. How can Shoma Choudhary so definitely say that the victim will not depose before the police? Is she not guilty of tampering with evidence in a rape case by pressuring a young employee to conceal the offence?
The grievance of the citizens movement after the gang rape of Nirbhaya in Delhi was that sexual assaults are always underreported. Is this what is happening in this case? Just because the assailant has connections in the Congress party the nation is deprived of the sage advise of P Chidambaram,the caustic comments of Kapil Sibal and the exaggerated tweets of Manish Tewari.
Manish Tewari was in Goa recently. He discovered Hitler there. What a pity that he could not discover a serial rapist in Goa. Additionally we will all await if the outrage in the media is proportionate to the offence. Or will journalistic pressures e brought on the young journalist to conceal the truth. May be secular philandering is to be dealt with a different standard. We all wait to see if the young lady testifies to the truth or not.
Lodge FIR,arrest Tejpal: BJP
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE
NEW DELHI,NOVEMBER 21
Coming out strongly against Tehelka founder and editor Tarun Tejpal,the BJP Thursday demanded his immediate arrest for sexually assaulting a female colleague.
Partys deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha Ravi Shankar Prasad told The Indian Express: What business does the Tehelka have to maintain that it is an internal matter of the magazine? It is a clear case of a commission of a congnizable offence. The police must register a case and criminal investigations should begin forthwith. And,Tejpal should suffer the consequences of law.
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It is time Tejpal sheds double-standards and turns himself over to the police, he said. Making light of his decision to go on a six-month leave,Prasad said this supposed self-purification has no meaning in law and therefore,the law must take its course.
BJP spokesperson Meenakshi Lekhi said,I want the Home Minister to ensure lodging of an FIR and an immediate arrest of Tejpal. The media,she alleged,was adopting double-standards in its coverage of the Tehelka case and the issue of an alleged snooping on a woman by the Narendra Modi government.
The Tehelka incident,in her view,amounted to a virtual rape,but it had been totally blacked out by the media. A blanket is sought to be put on the case, she said.
