Suddenly the jungles of Sathya-mangalam are all set to be inundated by a sea of humanity (cops excluded) with every kuppan, subban and even their appans wanting to do his bit of negotiations to get Rajkumar released. Of course, the offer is strictly for negotiations only and not for nabbing Veerappan in which case these volunteers would quietly back out.
Again, the kidnap victim should be a reigning VIP so that the intending saviour would be assured of a fair share of the reflected limelight. Such an inference cannot be deemed to be totally misplaced for Veerappan during his long and chequered career had hacked and hijacked scores of innocent victims and not one of the current champions bothered to bid for a trip to the jungles to argue their case.
But a high profile hostage, being the owner of a high valued life automatically deserves a higher rating. Hence the race to the thickets. Indeed this fad started about four years back when the current emissary who was then just another editor, still to patent the jungle trail of Veerappan, scooped the brigand and his views on a score of issues and beamed them over satellite for civilisation to discern the tough life led by compassionate bandits.
Since then, the State has witnessed the evolution of a brigand media with members of the profession spending a good part of their time amidst dense flora and then surfacing in their offices to dish out steaming hot scoops on Veerappan’s exploits. But then all that passed easily for investigative journalism with the brigand turning out to be the proud USP for the emissary’s magazine, with the emissary himself getting felicitated at a vulgar function wherein all the leading lights of the social spectrum heaped praise on him and the bandit too in the same breath.
It was sunny days too for the nephew’s channel and not a day passed without the beaming brigand holding forth on what is wrong with the civilised society. But the frequent tete-a-tetes of the members of the fourth estate at the brigand’s sprawling estates did not cause a single official eyebrow to be raised. Nor did these mediamen think it fit to help the law to catch up with the most prolific killer of our times.
The specious logic was that it was the duty of the police and that they are bound by journalistic ethics to protect their source even if it means shielding a savage. The ambit of press freedom was conveniently enlarged to include brigand’s freedom also. It did not seem to appeal to these gentlemen that they owed a larger duty to the nation to protect the people from a manic killer whose only possible nemesis could be at the gallows and not amnesty. It was a source that deserved to be extinguished, and not preserved even if it meant carrying blank pages on their magazines!
But then the media only owes a moral duty to the society and that is something that cannot be enforced but only be elicited if not forthcoming voluntarily. But then what of the government? Is protection of the subjects a matter of choice that is to be exercised only in breach?
No one is expecting the rulers to protect each and every citizen from an angry neighbour or a disgruntled relative running around with a sickle whom the government may find it difficult to identify. The enemy here is perhaps the most consistent murderer of our era and has been strutting around the scene for the last two decades with his killer instincts flashing like neon signs.
The whole world knows him to his last whisker and his whereabouts too, with a margin of error of just a few square kilometres. There is also no information that the brigand had quit the jungles for a short holiday to say, Hong Kong or the Himalayas- the brigand media would have certainly updated us on this piece of info besides wishing him bon voyage.
Then what stopped the government from launching a manhunt to nab him, dead or alive? Did it not occur to them that so long as the brigand was free he was also free to kill or kidnap and it was only a matter of time before he struck again?
The conspiracy of silence and criminal negligence on the part of the political establishment of the State apart what causes maximum anguish is the CM’s unabashed expression of reverence and respect for the brigand. Sure, Veerappan has, with every strike, proved his uncanny villainous traits to all and sundry, and it is also a fact that some misguided elements in the media and public feel enchanted by his exploits, but is it proper for the government of the day and its Chief Minister too to join the fan club?
How else can one explain the CM’s confidence that Veerappan would never harm a helpless hostage and his premature announcement that his regime would do try its level best to meet all his reasonable demands, even before the demands have been spelt out? Who would decide what is reasonable? Veerappan or the CM?
If I were the brigand’s media advisor, I would counsel him to maintain silence. That way the government can be relied upon to offer him more than what he really expects and Veerappan may well end up with a huge consumer surplus. Does he not deserve it for his sterling services in savagery?
If the booming voice of Veerappan has evoked a sense of awe amidst the mandarins of Ft.St.George, the scene at Bangalore’s Vidan Soudha is even more pathetic with the government announcing that the cases against Veerappan would be dropped forthwith. They could be expected to do little better when on their knees and would have sunk deeper had not the good earth come in the way.
In fact, it’s CM Krishna who chided the reporters for writing that the STF has encircled the brigand’s hideout, went a step further and advised the scribes to refrain from spreading such canards lest the bandit gets angry. So, any talk of catching the brigand has now become a canard!
Strange are these times when rank outlaws get to be treated like in-laws!
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