It was a sleepy Monday evening and Hindi TV news channels were distracted, divided between admiration for the Congress’ ‘masterstroke’ (Aaj Tak) in appointing a Dalit Sikh chief minister in Punjab and bewilderment at the continuing divisions within the party — ‘disaster after disaster’, gloated Republic TV.
Suddenly, a news flash had them wide-eyed and agog — Mahant Narendra Giri had died and left behind a ‘suicide note’ (why must Hindi channels strain our eyes by spelling out English words in Devnagiri script?)
The news was simply too unusual to resist — when was the last time a revered religious leader reportedly killed himself and wrote a death bed letter that named names? So news channels jumped in feet first, indulged every whim and fancy surrounding ‘Maut ki Mystery’ (News 24) with their super sleuth reporting team sniffing around for (news) leads.
The mysterious affair at the Baghdambri matt has everything the channels could want: an eminent seer, a death by hanging, which could be a murder (‘Maut ya Murder’ asked several channels); a suicide note, a video recording, a prime suspect (Anand Giri) and his accomplices, blackmail, property disputes, politicians, money, and perhaps even women.
But it was the last rites that took up most TV time on Wednesday with exotic long-haired sants and gurus, some bedecked in maalas, at every turn. There was even the guest mention of a nylon rope, apparently used in the death—who bought it and when, asked Bharat Samachar.
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The headline competition
All of this brought out the best and worst in headlines — ‘Hatya ya atmahatya’ asked ABP News, ‘Atmahatya ya kya’, inquired Zee News, ‘Sant, suicide aur shishya’, ‘Sant, suicide aur sawaal’ was on Times Now Navbharat, ‘Maut, mahant aur mystery’ was Republic Bharat’s offering while ‘Suicide ya saazish’ appeared on India TV and ‘Baba baba aur blackmailer’ on News 18 India. How’s that for alliteration?
Over three days, news, clues and questions flew thick and fast across channels while we watched visuals of the mahant’s body lying in a vast ice box as people paid their respects to him.
We were told the mahant had been found hanging, in his room, the door was locked from inside—mercifully, no one leaked footage of the nylon rope, the room or the bed as they had in the Sushant Singh Rajput case, although NewsNation did wonder why his body was taken down before the police had arrived.
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Media, in search of clues
The ‘suicide note’ became the focus of the ‘investigation’ by the police and news channels. Its ‘5 pages’ (India TV) on Monday became ‘8 panne’ by the time ABP News revealed it late Tuesday afternoon. The letter, scrawled in large, untidy handwriting, was hotly disputed: prime suspect and Narendra Giri’s former disciple, Anand Giri, claimed what other sants also said — the mahant was not literate enough to write such a long letter – and who pens eight pages before death by suicide? (Aaj Tak).
Speculation ran amok: had he been forced to write the note? But by whom? None could say. And if it wasn’t suicide, then what was the truth behind his death, asked TV9 Bharatvarsh and Republic Bharat.
The suicide note reportedly named Anand Giri along with several others and news channels told us he had been ‘arrested’, ‘held’, ‘detained’ as the ‘accused’.
Next up was the video, apparently recorded before the seer’s death – did it point to suicide, asked TV 9 Bharatvarsh. But sant and mahant who were interviewed by the news channels and TV anchors refused to believe that the seer, who had counseled and advised others, could take his own life: such an eminent personality could have turned to anyone for help if he was depressed or troubled, or indeed blackmailed, they said.
News18 India and CNN news18 wondered how his aides, his security staff, didn’t know or sense the mahant’s disturbed state of mind (really?). When he didn’t have tea that afternoon (Republic Bharat), or come out of his room at 4pm (Aaj Tak), shouldn’t someone have raised an alarm?
Channels agreed that the suicide note and the video recorded before his death would reveal all.
The note had also mentioned alleged attempts at blackmail – ABP News said the mahant had written of his fears that a morphed photograph of him with a woman would be used against him. Fortunately, none of the news channels followed this line of speculation.
‘Investigations’ by ABP News revealed that property and blackmail were at the heart of the matter; Aaj Tak wondered who benefitted from the seer’s death; Republic Bharat found eight names on the police’s radar; TV 9 said land had been sold for crores; Zee Hindustan claimed Anand Giri continued to be in touch with his family even after he took ‘sanyas’, and that two women, in Australia, had complained of harassment; India TV found pujari Aghya and his son Sandeep Tiwari in the list of suspects, and a Samajwadi Party politician under the scanner. One Sumit Peer, journalist, claimed on News X that ISI could have ‘orchestrated’ the death as part of a much larger ‘conspiracy’ against the Yogi Adityanath government, months before assembly elections.
These theories rolled out on breaking news headlines, Monday to Wednesday afternoon. The mahant’s ‘murder mystery’ lives on after him but the chances are Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the US will put it to rest—at least on TV news.
Meanwhile, a word about the annoying habit Hindi news channels have of spelling out English words in Hindi: murder, mystery, mastermind, suicide, suicide note, blackmail, forensic report, investigation, depression, and many others found their way into this Hinglish khichdi. Now, it’s one thing for reporters or anchors to use these words when they speak, quite another when they appear in the written text and readers must screw up their eyes, squint in an effort to read what’s been written.
When it’s not easy to spell out ‘investigation’ or `forensic’ in Hindi, why do it?
Views are personal.
(Edited by Anurag Chaubey)