Different treatments

How different newspapers report events makes interesting assessment. For instance, the report of the Patna youth shot by Mumbai police on October 27 makes interesting comparison.
Almost all national dailies had the report about Rahul Raj in their front pages on October 28. However, they differed in the content and details of the report.

The Times Of India put the age of Rahul Raj as 26. The Indian Express in its report said he was 25 years old. Interestingly, The Times Of India, on the reports in its inside pages reduced the youth’s age by three years. (Two reports in a later page of the TOI puts Rahul’s age as 23).

The Indian Express in its report mentions that the incident (Rahul Raj’s gun battle) took place at around 9 am in Kurla’s Bail Bazar area.
The TOI which relies more on the police version, says that Rahul boarded the bus at 9.15 am, that it after the incident (as per The Indian Express report) took place.

The report by The Times Of India which quotes Macchinder Ghule, (Hindustan Times put his name as Mahendra Dhule) the bus conductor, states that Rahul was carrying a bag and he kept opening it and checking something.

The Indian Express quotes one of the passengers of the bus, Abdul Rashid Sheik, that the only unusual thing about Rahul Raj was that he kept “shifting seats”. The newspaper also points out that the youth scribbled something on two currency notes and threw them out of the window. On the Rs 50 note he had written “Call the Police Commissioner” and on the Rs 10 note he wrote “I have not come here to harm anyone”.

TOI, which also pens the incident report in minute detail with a first hand account of the bus conductor who was held hostage by the youth, does not mention any such happening as throwing chits out of the window.

Hindustan Times in its report quotes Kundan Prasad Singh, Rahul’s father saying that his son had arrived in Mumbai on October 25 evening. This again does not coincide with the details with the other two dailies which mention that Rahul Raj had arrived in the city on morning of October 26.

The Hindustan Times story appears like a crime report. It says that 25-year-old Rahul Raj pulled out an iron chain and a gun, attacked the bus conductor, and began indiscriminate firing”. The reports in other dailies however convince us that Rahul was only upset with Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray and his campaign against Biharis.

The only passenger injured in the “indiscriminate firing” (as per HT) was 25-year-old Manoj Bhagat. The newspaper should verify its claims.

Trapped in deep waters

A member of the Megh Pyne Abhiyan explains flood situation in Bihar

Pix: Dipu Shaw

As the Government officials and agencies discuss the flood situation in Bihar, experts and organizations working in flood affected north Bihar area blame the Government’s flood control policies for the state’s nightmare. Dipu Shaw reports…

Dr. Dinesh Mishra, fellow at People’s Science Institute recently released his book on floods in Bihar titled “Trapped Between the Devil and the Deep waters”. The “devil” that Dr. Mishra refers to, are the corrupt Government officials who “gain from the almost regular Bihar floods”.

This time the Kosi River nicknamed as the “sorrow of Bihar” has devastated the state as never before. More than two million people in 14 districts of Bihar have been affected by the Kosi floods. The central government has sanctioned Rs 1000 crore for relief operations declaring it a national calamity. The National Disaster Management Authority has also been pressed into action in the state. It was reported by the Government that all the marooned persons have been rescued and shifted to safer locations. Reports from the flood ravaged area, however, point to the contrary.

Kavindra Kumar Pandey of the Megh Pyne Abhiyan, which works with the flood-affected in north Bihar, was recently in the flood ravaged area. He contends “There is rampant looting and molestation by anti social groups. The relief camps and food material is also insufficient”.

Even the flood management policy of the government has received some serious criticism.

“It is a totally man made flood”, says Himanshu Thakar, Delhi coordinator of South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers & People. “The Kosi has breached for the eighth time, no doubt that the floods could be avoided”.

Dr N.C. Saxena, former Secretary of the Planning Commission of India is critical of the Government, both at the center as well as in the state of Bihar. He points out how there is no provision of a third party monitoring of the state expenditure. “When World Banks provide money, teams from Washington can come to monitor and survey the expenditure and its use, but for the government’s money, no one can know where it goes”, he says. “It is not the lack of funds that is affecting relief operations in Bihar. It is its improper application.”

Experts observe that it does not pay to tamper with the flow of a river that carries a heavy sediment load. And River Kosi carries a lot of silt with it. Dr. Mishra gives the example of the Hwang Ho River which has 18 embankments on it. “After breaching for the ninth time, the river did not return to its original course. Then, they built embankments on the new course”, he mentions. “When a heavily silt laden river is embanked, the sediment gets trapped within the embankments lifting the bed level and necessitating the raising of the embankments. There is a practical limit to which the embankments can be raised and maintained.”

The CSI fellow who is considered an expert on Bihar floods also suspects many deaths in the Kosi floods. “The dead bodies will be covered under the heavy silt and many would be carried away by the river. No one will come to know about them as the bodies will not be found”, he says.

Addressing the audience during the official release of his book at India International Centre he recommends a combined effort. “The layman who lives on the riverbed, the engineer who works with contours and maps in his office and the politician who takes decision need to come together to save Bihar from the devastation”, he suggests.