It has to say something eloquent about our media priorities that 17 Indians who were bootlegging and actually cold-bloodedly murdered a rival in the UAE in what is an ongoing turf war compelled the stalwarts of the Indian media to desperately call their Dubai based brethren for insight into the absolutely legal court verdict that automatically goes into appeal. Anything, they wailed, anything at all.
In comparison to that frenzy, the 120 Indian sailors who might be facing imminent death after being kidnapped by pirates while they faced the caprice of the oceans and were engaging in honest seafaring, have evoked a faint little bleep on the media radar. No one has called anyone in Dubai seeing how this was their destination and efforts by Gulf newsmen to get a handle on the story from India are met with impatience and a sort of yesyesyes, but can you get us something on the 17 Indians who are to be hanged. One newsperson in India was not even aware of the piracy.
Lets get the issue of the 17 bootleggers out of the way first. Firstly, no one is hanging them. The procedure will take its own course so there is no undue haste. They are confessed criminals. The kidnapped 120 are innocents plying a trade. Are they that insignificant and faceless that no one seems to care a hoot about them. Just a bunch of fishermen, big deal.
What makes it all even sadder is that almost as many Indian media reps have called about Shoaib and Sania to check if it is true they are getting married. Yes, sure, we only write what sells. It is a business; stop being quixotic about it. Agreed. You are right. Which is why it is a strident tribute to the way media and politicians delude themselves on their levels of commitment. The External Affairs Ministry had Minister Vyalavar Ravi alert the Indian embassy and express great horror over the sentencing of these gangsters. Not a soupcon of the same sort of concern for the fishermen being held at gunpoint, men who could become victims any moment. Perhaps the Ministry would like to know the date of the Sania-Shoaib wedding.
What Price 120 Fishermen?