Why I didn't know Kailash Satyarthi ?

Why did the media ignore Kailash Satyarthi ? It was barely hours after the news broke that I stumbled upon this post by none other than Mr Kingshuk Nag, TOI's Hyderabad editor', on a popular social media portal. Nag goes on to explain it further in his blog which was carried prominently by TimesofIndia.com. “I have a confession to make. I have not heard of Kailash Satyarthi till the news broke about him...,” the first line explains it all about our media, more so our elite English media of this country. Irony is you hardly expect such a story under the banner of TOI. Thanks to Nag, it created quite a flutter on the day.

Interestingly, there were many such voices on social media who were quite vocal about their ignorance. As reads one of them, “I too had not heard or read about him. Isn't it sad how our media spend all their time discussing politicians and completely ignore the good things people are doing!.” As sums of another observer, “ We are late-lateef: Gandhi first got recognition in South Africa, Vivekananda in the US...so the Govt of India's turn to do a serious think about it!!!.”

A quick glance of news channels would tell you how our media fraternity is good at making up. Series of stories on Kailash Satyarthi and there was no end to it. As if, all of a sudden, the reporting on child rights became so fashionable on Indian soil except for Times Now which was still discovering the mystery behind Sunanda Pushkar's death. Coming to the story, while most of the reports be it print or electronic were passing the news, there was hardly any story explaining why media had shut the door on the matter of Kailash Satyarthi earlier or it was just a coincidence ?

The following update from a little bird on Facebook suggests an exclusive yet to come. “I had tried to help his media person a friend of mine about ten years back..very few journalist wrote on NGOs.. however I was very politely told as Satyatri had broken from Swami Agnivesh who had lots of friends in media...he may not be covered......this may answer many ???

Prominent Hindi daily Dainik Bhaskar though mentioned that Kailash Satyarthi used to write for the newspaper. Incidentally, the newspaper also repeated the editorial of 10^th October 2006 on Child Rights issue the same day. Social media, like any other day, had quite a few interesting updates on the person. The man was recognized by the US State Department in 2007 as a "Hero Acting to End Modern Day Slavery", said one post by Ch Sushil Rao, a media professional based in Hyderabad while another on sharing stage with Jairam Ramesh and the likes for a programme in the same city a couple of years back.

A common check with an IT engineer sharing the home town and the school with the person would give a better perspective on the entire episode. “He was one of us doing his job caring little for any tangible and quick benefits including media coverage,” that's how sums up Vijaya Shrivastava, an IT engineer at NTPC Korba, who hails from Vidisha in Madhya Pradesh.

So it was truly ironical that Kailash won it without most of us knowing him, forget the media and then international media. It was ironical he shared it with a Pakistani when firing was on along the LoC of both the countries. It was ironical even that Malala's rise to fame put her in a context opposed to Kailash's journey so far.

For many, Malala has been western media's blue-eyed girl whose story fits well into the western narrative of the oriental oppression, in which the context underlying the creation of the oppression is left out. “The Western world can feel good about itself as they save the native woman from the savage men of her home nation. It is a historic racist narrative that has been institutionalised,” comments Assed Baig, the Pakistan-origin journalist based in the UK, adding “the actions of the West, the bombings, the occupations the wars all seem justified now. See, we told you, this is why we intervene to save the natives.”

Elaborates a fellow thinker, Another reality is the story of Abeer Qassim Hamza al-Janabi, 14-year-old Iraqi girl, who was gang raped by five U.S. Army soldiers and killed in her house in Yusufiyah (Iraq) in 2006. She was raped and murdered after her parents and six-year-old sister Hadeel Qasim Hamza were killed. Also not irrelevant to mention is that Abeer was going to school before the US invasion but had to stop going because of her father’s concerns for her safety. And while the West applauds Malala (as they should), I am afraid it might be for the wrong reasons, or with a wrong perspective. It feels like the West wants to gain an agenda that suits them or the policies they want. That is also why Malala’s views on Islam are rarely presented. She uses her faith as a framework to argue for the importance of education rather than making Islam a justification for oppression, but that is rarely mentioned.

xxxx

All of us are habituated with a free and fair media that asks question to almost everybody with an objective to uphold the basic principles of democracy. We are often used to extensive coverage on certain issues in the media, at times trivialisation of news. Media points fingure at many things since it is its job. But who is out there to point fingure at media when media itself is caught on wrong foot, or misses something to cover, or jumps the gun ?

In the end, my question largely remains as it is. Why I didn't know Kailash Satyarthi ? Why I knew it from Reuters the other day, not from TOI or HT or Bhaskar or Rediff.com before ?