Covering CDS Gen Bipin Rawat’s death, TV news turned sober—in a long time

The reporting was so circumspect that only Republic TV and India TV were willing to go even so far as to reveal that CDS Rawat was in hospital, at around 3pm.

File image of CDS General Bipin Rawat | Photo: Suraj Singh Bisht | ThePrint

SHAILAJA BAJPAI, The Print: After a very long time, television news was sober—barring the anchor on ABP News who was punch drunk on her own adrenalin, unable to contain the stress of broadcasting such very sad news.

‘It has been a tragic afternoon,’ said the CNN News18 anchor at approximately 4.30pm Wednesday, and so it was for anyone watching the news about the fatal crash of an Indian Air Force helicopter in Coonoor, Tamil Nadu that had 14 onboard, including the Chief of the Defense Staff Bipin Rawat.

The coverage

As the afternoon unfolded, it was also a chronicle of a death, almost foretold. Once we had seen the footage of the gnarled aircraft’s debris burning like a forest fire, and News X announced, ‘horrific images pour out; fumes erupt from site; chopper destroyed completely; 4 charred to death,’ you feared the worst—that all onboard had died.

Yet, for up to five hours, news anchors and reporters, heroically straining at the leash to appear calm, collected and factually correct, revealed little about the crash or its victim count, keeping us in suspended animation, even as all the coverage was leading us towards the inevitable conclusion that Rawat and the others on board had died.

Thus, the number of casualties they gave out was always vague and varied from channel to channel and changed as the afternoon wore on—which was understandable, given the nature of the terrain and the remote location. Still, we could have had one standardized figure.

While India TV and Republic TV were the first to say 11 were dead by approximately 3pm, NDTV 24×7 said five dead while CNN News18 and Times Now claimed four had been rescued and were in hospital.

By 4.50pm, many news channels announced that 13 people were ‘reportedly’ dead (Times Now) – but that the identities would only be released by the military authorities (India Today). Several added that the bodies were being identified by DNA tests.

The reporting was so unusually circumspect that only Republic TV and India TV were willing to go even so far as to reveal that General Rawat was in hospital at around 3pm. After its lurid descriptions of the accident site, News X went into its shell and declared that Rawat was given ‘first aid’ treatment. This was contradicted by India TV which repeatedly said Rawat’s condition was very critical. Soon after 5 pm, it added that ‘barring the CDS, all dead’.

One expert on News 18 India was clearly very confused and confused the viewers: ‘I fold my hands and pray that they are all safe…’ he said even as the news anchor repeatedly told him that 11 deaths had been announced.

Meanwhile, all channels were lined up outside Rawat’s residence in Delhi and we saw Defense Minister Rajnath Singh pay a visit, along with a spate of other officials. Zee Hindustan told us that it could see a woman inside the premises crying. It looked ominous, but still the officials and news channels were silent.

It was 6pm when news channels finally announced what we all felt in our bones: ‘Gen Bipin Rawat dies in chopper crash’, said NDTV 24×7 based on an IAF tweet that declared his wife and 11 others on the helicopter flight had died.

Thereafter, news channels took a deep dive into Rawat’s career and the possible causes of the crash–expect to see much more coverage of Rawat and the accident over the next few days.

Nagaland: too far for TV

Just a few days earlier, there had been an equally terrible incident thousands of miles away in Nagaland which had received very different treatment.

When 15 civilians perished in an Army ‘ambush’ at Mon in Nagaland Sunday, you’d  have thought news channels would rush to the spot, train their cameras on the tragic events, visit the bereaved families and make efforts to discover what intelligence or other failures led to the ambush. 

Alas, little of that happened – there were more pressing demands on the TV news channels’ time: ‘Vic-Kat ki shaadi’ (CNN News18) for one; racing after actor Jacqueline Fernandez as she responded to Enforcement Directorate summons, for another (ABP News); and Wasim Rizvi’s ‘ghar wapsi’ as he changed his faith and name — he is now Jitendra Narayan—for another (Times Now Navbharat, Zee Hindustan). Then, there was Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in New Delhi where ‘Putin-Modi will embrace’ (News 24) and the PM’s ‘gift to Gorakhpur’ (CNN News 18) — the inauguration of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences premises and the reopening of a fertiliser plant.

And finally, there was the prospect that the ‘Farmers may end protest’ (NDTV 24×7) to cheer about, after the centre’s letter to the farmers’ leaders ‘ceding’ almost all of their demands (Times Now).

So where was the time for grieving families and the dead in Mon?

Rewind to the week beginning 3 October (also a Sunday) when nine people died in Lakhimpur, Uttar Pradesh–Union Minister Ajay Mishra’s son was reportedly involved in the incident. At the time, reporters and TV news channels had rushed to the spot and remained there for the better part of 10 days. We were bombarded with carpet coverage of video clips of various aspects of the clashes, eyewitness accounts and interviews with the families of the victims as well as the minister and his son and much more.

Admittedly, Lakhimpur is approximately eight hours from Delhi-Noida where most news channels are headquartered. However, flights from Delhi to Kohima, the Nagaland capital, are only two-and-a-half hours, so sending a team out there wasn’t like sending them to Siberia.

Yet, news channels were oddly restrained, more concerned with politics of it — the Home Minister’s Parliament statement, the Nagaland Chief Minister’s demand to repeal AFSPA, Opposition parties outrage — than the dead or their families. Republic TV, India Today and NDTV 24×7 did visit some families but more than that no one seemed to care.

Death was meant to be a great equaliser but not on television news.

Views are personal.

(Edited by Anurag Chaubey)