In the Payal Tadvi story, misleading headlines have led to ideological divide in the society

The news media have failed in reporting the Payal Tadvi  story

"They asked the camel, 

'Why is your neck crooked?'

 The camel laughed roaringly,

 'What of me is straight?'" 

                                                                         - Siberian Proverb 

The Payal Tadvi story has become a phenomenon in news reporting in India. Headlines mislead, purposely. Some are absurd. Some are inane, but dramatic nonetheless.

“Payal Tadvi, the “strong,” “bold” girl broken allegedly by caste”.  The inverted commas suggest that the writer has doubt about the adjectives describing the deceased. The use of the word ‘allegedly’ is more damning. Words matter, and in news reporting, they matter the more. If the word is used advisedly, the reporter or the editor knows that the charge of casteism is false. If not, then jargon is being used. Both scenarios are bad for reporting news of this magnitude. Was the word 'broken' in this headline used figuratively? If so, then the reporting is biased. Otherwise, the writer is directly attributing motive, cause and reason of Payal Tadvi’s suicide to a deliberate act against her because of her caste. Which is all the more troublesome.

“Accused doctors break down outside court.” Meaning of the phrase “to break down” is not exactly applicable to the happenings in or out of the Court on the day when the accused were produced in Court. To break into tears is a phrase used to signify extreme grief. In Indian parlance, breaking down has come to mean so overcome by grief that you lose sense of time and place. But that was not the case with the doctors who were produced before court. So what was being reported? Why are the three doctors being portrayed as victims when they are just accused in a criminal case?

“Did Payal Tadvi commit suicide? SC--ST Committee to tell this week.” It would be hilarious if the context were not deadly. Thankfully, all the article says is that the SC-ST Commission of Maharashtra has raised question whether it is a case of homicide. Yet, the headline unmistakably suggests that the committee was tasked with determining whether Payal committed suicide.

“On casteism, films may work where media has failed,” is the most absurd headline.  That of an opinion article. Accompanying the story is a picture of Payal Tadvi. Caption: “a trainee doctor who committed suicide due to alleged caste-based harassment by other doctors.” No mention of anything else. In black and white. Casteism as the cause of death.     

This fixation of reporting on the caste angle has created a backlash. There is now talk of ‘would they do this with a category accused?’ And sympathy for the accused who are being targeted ‘unfairly only because their communities can’t fight back.’

The state is bending over backwards to do all that is demanded by and on behalf of the Tadvi family. Yet their advocate says that the Tadvi family does not trust the Special Public Prosecutor. Variously, the demand for probe into Payal’s “murder” finds mention in print. In social media, furious debates around banal articles in print rage on. The complexities of the matter are reduced to inanities. The voice of reason is lost.

But reason is often the casualty in the era of 24X7 news, online news-portals and social media. A newsworthy story, even one touted as breaking news is replaced by the next big story. Entire episodes of an evolving story are forgotten.

But the story of Payal Tadvi’s suicide is like no other. For one, it hits all the right notes, to use a phrase sadly. Most importantly, it allows almost everybody the victimhood trope. Based on your viewpoint, the roles of accused and victim interchange. Some have termed the death institutional murder. It is not clear what the Tadvi family and their sympathizers (and they are legion) want. What most of the doctors want along with family members of the accused is their immediate release, reinstatement in service and fair investigation. Nobody is willing to come forth and say that it will happen in due course of time. Hence the typical reaction for any news regarding the issue is ‘omg’ (Oh My God for the uninitiated). Which is not at all warranted.

In every criminal case involving death, the accused are dealt with in a particular manner. After their arrest, they are produced before a Magistrate. The police seek custody which in instant case was granted for three days. Further police custody sought was rejected. The Magistrate took them in custody [MCR]. In case of abetment of suicide etc, if charges are proved, the punishment is imprisonment of more than 7 years. According to law, the matter is to be tried by a Sessions Court, which alone can grant bail. The news about judicial custody extended up to this or that date is thus pointless.      

Talk of the accused being treated like terrorists or hardened criminals is unreasonable. A person has committed suicide. Some people named as accused in the First Information Report [FIR] have been arrested. The court will decide whether they should be released on bail.

In the meanwhile, polarization of opinion in the society at large and the medical fraternity in particular is creating mutual distrust. This is being fed by irresponsible articles in newspapers. Headlines are one problem, but the statements in the articles are more troublesome.

“Open communal war and ‘an eye for an eye’ cannot be a solution to any issue particularly for intellects like doctors.” This is a direct quote from an article on a blog. It is from a literal translation of a Marathi article published in a popular daily. Use of the two unhappy phrases is best avoided in any situation signifying conflict. To suggest that there is a possibility of open communal war, and demand for “an eye for an eye” is recipe for disaster. And terrifying if true. But the statement is apparently false. Moreover, the last clause of the sentence is condescending and patronizing. More so because the writer is a doctor, and writes as a doctor, not as an objective observer.  

That is the biggest issue with regard to the case. The identification of many doctors with the accused is a direct result of the misreporting of the media. It is necessary to understand that law provides a certain set up for the accused to be dealt with. The apparatus is good, the systems are in place.

The infrastructure for provision of a fair trial has been in existence for more than a century. There is no cause or occasion for anybody to feel that law will not be followed. In instant case, a Special Public Prosecutor has been appointed. On their demand, arrangements have been made for the Tadvi family to have their own lawyer.

The media have so far reported many things. The various fact finding commissions and organizations involved have informed us of others. Advocates for the State, the accused and the Tadvi family have given statements. Tellingly, the police machinery has maintained decorous silence. So officially we do not know how or where the investigation is going.

No direct evidence linking the accused to the suicide has yet been found. There are reports that the accused are guilty of ragging. There is said to be no evidence of caste angle to the issue. For the act or acts to constitute a crime, the intentions of the accused are important. Caste based harassment is a vague term. An offence under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, in this case can be framed on the ground that the accused intentionally insulted and intimidated Payal with intent to humiliate her in a public place within public view. The catch is that according to Payal's own statement, the accused did not know her caste. Last they spoke, police were looking for evidence to substantiate the claims of Tadvi family that she was harassed due to her caste. There is still no report of anything incriminating being found.    

News reporting is an all consuming affair. The very print media which made the accused the villains of the piece may find something else, and report it without full verification. They may also report that according to unspecified witnesses present in the ward that day, Payal had done something which may alter the perception altogether. A new angle, unimaginable till now, may emerge. And it may turn out to be true.

Like the camel in the proverb said, nothing in the Payal Tadvi story is straight. 

 © Shrirang Choudhary

This post is a part of a series about the suicide of Payal Tadvi. 

Please share with due credits.

 

Understanding the death of Payal Tadvi and corresponding issues.

THE SAD DEATH OF PAYAL TADVI

And so these men of Indostan

Disputed loud and long,

Each in his own opinion

Exceeding stiff and strong,

Though each was partly in the right

And all were in the wrong! 

                               -        John Godfrey Saxe

Payal Tadvi died on 22^nd May 2019. She was a resident gynaecologist at the Nair Hospital. It was reported that she committed suicide. Initial news reports suggest that she was harassed for availing reservation as a Scheduled Tribes [ST] candidate. First Information Report [FIR] was registered by the police. Three senior doctors in her unit were accused of ragging and harassing the deceased as well as abetting her suicide. In due course, they were arrested and sent to police custody.

For a Marathi version of this article here.

At first glance, Payal was just another casualty of the punishing apprenticeship that resident doctors must face- endless working hours, too much to study in too short a period, routine duties in the hospital apart from lectures to be attended; typical hierarchy in medical colleges where people barely 3-4 years senior to you are in charge, and above all the loneliness or feeling of isolation that this brutal training for specialization in a surgical branch entails.

But there were nuances to Payal’s death. She was a tribal, a Muslim and an educated lady from a community where literacy is rare. The social media erupted into frenzied discussions. Within a day of her death, Payal Tadvi became a trending topic on social media. Payal Tadvi, an unknown lady became a cause for many agenda.  

The very private tragedy of her suicide became a breaking news story because of its nuances. It set 

many tongues wagging. Overzealous reporters, ever eager for sensational news, hunted for drama and the tone was set. The unbearable burden of being a resident doctor and the sheer determination required to complete it is a big factor in a MBBS becoming a specialist. This was conveniently ignored by the press. It just wanted a sensational story. The experience of doctors having undergone worse situations in their own education was ignored. The vulnerability of a majority of junior resident doctors to be prone to suicidal thoughts was ignored. The issue of a married lady fighting her own demons as well as the system was turned into a conflict with three hapless seniors who happened to be of open category.

The assortment of public figures that jumped in to voice their opinion was of various intellectual hues and political colours. From the Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar to Sujaat, the son of Prakash Ambedkar; from Kanhaiya Kumar, the newly defeated candidate in the elections to Akhilesh Yadav, all found something or the other to paint the issue with broad brushes of divisive ideas.

Payal’s caste is of course the biggest factor in the picture. However, identity politics would not have mattered had the issue remained restricted to the harassment allegedly meted out to Payal by her seniors. But on 26^th May, Payal’s mother added to her allegations. She said that Payal was made to sleep on the floor by her seniors. She also alleged that the Payal was discriminated against because of her caste. These charges polarized the issue. It was now not a case of seniors versus a junior resident. It became a case of harassment of a Dalit by so called upper caste people. The charge of atrocities attracted because of these afterthought allegations catapulted the matter beyond a relatively routine case of suicide to a debate between the reserved and open categories. Some media portrayed it as a battle between Savarna and Dalits

Yet, the issue of why Payal committed suicide remains unanswered. Statements by Payal’s brother, her mother and her husband have made rounds of the press and news channels. Statements of various persons unconnected to the death have also been made public. This is a lapse on the part of the investigating machinery. If these statements have been given by the witnesses themselves to the reporters, they should have been more circumspect before publishing them. The point which nobody has talked about is the absence of any incriminating statement by the deceased. But that is part of another piece.

The reporting around Payal’s death has become a perfect illustration of the parable of the blind men and the elephant. Whatever could go wrong has gone wrong with the reporting of story. The death was so tragically politicized. There are various versions of the story. Doctors view the suicide simply as a result of the stress of residency in gynaecology. Experienced medical officers say that the surgeries and procedures that a gynaecologist has to perform as a matter of daily routine are very taxing. All doctors agree that more doctors and better infrastructure is needed in Indian conditions.

Some doctors have written posts on social media expressing their differing opinions. To some, Payal may have been a victim of depression which went untreated because it was not diagnosed. To others, she was overwhelmed by the rigourous duties associated with her job. It was argued that she was not able to handle the stress. That she had been admitted to MBBS because of reservation quota. 

Post graduate seat in gynaecology is a dream for many a doctor. Many may have been better equipped than Payal to handle the stress and the rigours of the course. They may have studied much harder than Payal did to get her seat, both for MBBS and then for PG course. It may be true that Payal died because reservation is a bad policy. Even otherwise, rethinking of reservation is required on many fronts. It is argued by many that reservation has bad effects. People not equipped to undergo the rigorous training bag a post graduate seat. It might be Payal that was inadequate, academically and temperamentally, to complete her specialization. It may also be equally true that Payal Tadvi committed suicide because of her personal issues. There have been reports that she was divorced from her husband.   

But all that is besides the point. The point is that a life is lost. If it was suicide, the conditions which led to it should be thoroughly investigated. It can become a case study in how best to prevent further loss of talented life. If the suicide was a result of harassment and/or ragging, adequate punishment should be meted out to the accused. But ragging, in common understanding is the physical or mental harassment of a student by another. It is common sense that a person who had endured undergraduate medical education and attendant troubles would not fall prey to suicidal thoughts at post graduate level.

However, no doctor is ready to accept the version of the story in which Payal is a victim of casteist harassment. They have alternative theories about the case. Some say it is suspicious that Payal had divorced her husband and yet there is no investigation from that agle. Some say that because Payal was admitted by reservation to MBBS she did not study hard enough to be a good resident. Some, more outspoken, say that Payal had become used to spending time away from duty. According to them, this made her irresponsible, leading to her neglecting duties.  

It is indeed a tough job to become a doctor, much less a specialist. Anybody who has a doctor as a friend or a relative knows the harsh conditions in which they receive their education. Life is harsh during that time. Death is harsher, particularly if it becomes a national issue, and sadly, politicized for no fault of the deceased.

Accurate and unbiased reporting about her death would be a tribute to Payal Tadvi, who in her death has become a symbol of how even deaths are politicized.

©Shrirang Choudhary

This post is part of a proposed series on the issue.

Please read the next post. Payal Tadvi: A metaphor for things gone wrong

Please share with due credits.