Different Yardsticks
R. Rajagopal | 08 November 2024 | The Telegraph
Who awaits us in heaven or hell is one of the enduring mysteries of mythology. The issue figures in the “Swargarohana Parva” in the Mahabharata, which mentions Yudhishthira’s dismay at Duryodhana’s presence in heaven.
On October 9, Ratan Tata died. Three days later, on October 12, G.N. Saibaba died. It will be preposterous to speculate who went to heaven but the managers of the imaginary purgatory must have reserved a place of pride for the media organisations that treated the two deaths with markedly different yardsticks. Reams of newsprint were devoted to the coverage of Tata’s death, life and times. The death of Saibaba was reported dutifully — ‘dutifully’ is the operative word, if not a euphemism for indifference. Few newspapers devoted space to substantial discussions on the need to institutionalise mechanisms for easier and swifter compensation for malicious prosecution…