Campaigning, in style
Campaigner and former student leader Aires Rodrigues won a
round in another of his public battles, with prosecutor
Winnie Coutinho's resignation on the weekend. Coutinho was
apparently in line for a high court judge's post, which makes
the case a serious one.
Aires and a section of the media have been gunning for Ms.
Coutinho, though it can be easy to get carried away by
allegation and insinuation and to indulge in a 'trial by
media'.
Serious issues of propriety in public life, conflict of
interest, or worse, need to be tackled by an effective State
mechanism, which works to keep public life accountable and
transparent in an on-going manner.
We clearly lack the institutions and processes. We
are unlikely to get them in the near future. But
all this does not justify the media taking on
itself the role of playing judge, jury and
executioner in a campaign of public innuendo and
bitter charges. In the Coutinho case, even if the
charges are found to be true and relevant, the
unfair aspect of the campaign was more than clear
to anyone reading between the lines. All kinds of
personal and unrelated issues were dragged into the
debate, as if any means whatsoever were justified
once the target was decided on.
Another relevant question comes up here: who decides whom to
target and when? While Advocate Aires has taken up a number
of campaigns in the past, the focus for targetting
individuals -- rather than the wider issue involved -- is
cause for more than a little concern.
We may hardly agree with Aires Rodrigues' campaign against
compulsory helmets in Goa -- the orthopaedic surgeons and
doctors at the Goa Medical College mortuary have the
statistics to tell us why. But, beyond that, one can question
also whether he is doing the apt thing in targetting a single
individual rather than a wider malaise.
In the case of a church in Ribandar, Aires Rodrigues focused
on an individual priest. In the plethora of allegations and
counter-allegations, the rest of us are left wondering
whether this was a single scapegoat, whether sex-abuse by men
of the cloth is a wider issues that needs to be tackled, and
whether whether it was fair to attack one individual in the
first place.
With all the oratory at his command, an intelligent man like
Aires Rodrigues is bound to be convincing. Which makes it all
the more confusing when he lurches from being a strong
supporter of Manohar Parrikar, to being his bitter critic,
and then going back to his side of the ship. Political stands
are hardly irrelevant in today's Goa, since quite a few
campaigns have been used, misused and abused for political
purposes.
Not too long ago, the lawyer-campaigner took up a
campaign against the son of a politician, a young
man who perhaps earned part of the flak he got
because politicians are so unpopular in today's
Goa. Some saw this as well deserved; after all,
controversial politicians deserve to be beaten with
just about any stick which comes our way. But,
after many headlines and a long campaign, is it
fair to drop such a case without even a credible
explanation? One cannot but wonder whether others
involved in a similar case would get the same
treatment.
Even as Aires Rodrigues targets one public prosecutor --
assuming his charges are found to be accurate and justified
-- campaigners in other parts of India are raising wider
questions. For instance, some are comparing the process of
appointment of judges in India and the USA and highlighting
systemic failings.
It is fine to tackle individual cases of wrongdoing; that
could be a starting point. But we would certainly fail if the
wider picture is lost sight of. Secondly, campaigners need to
assure that their issues are not randomly selected, or worse,
chosen with bias. It is time campaigners also spent some
attention to ensure that society has enough self-correcting
checks-and-balances in place, rather than rushing to get
justice in the easy-to-manipulate court of public opinion.
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