Why isn’t there so much hype and hoopla on scribe Pankaj Mishra’s attack

Despite so much of hype and hoopla over the despicable murder of outspoken journalist of left leanings Gauri Lankesh in every nook and corner of the country, the SIT inquiry of the Karnataka government does not seem to have reached towards any definite headway, except saying that the killers were the professional murderers and they were three in numbers. But one thing which surprises us the most is while the entire media fraternity of the country, particularly with left leanings, have protested all over the country and given maximum coverage to slain scribe Gauri Lankesh, which she definitely deserved, the way she was diabolically murdered in a cold blood at a point blank range for being anti establishment, and another journalist with low profile ranking of the Hindi print media Rashtriya Sahara similarly shot at by two bike riding gunmen in Arwal district of Bihar and is now in critical condition in hospital has not invited the attention of our media friends, organisations and newspapers as well as electronic news channels.

Is it because the news of the  injured Hindi journalist of a village of distant Bihar, Pankaj Mishra won’t give enough TRP to sell his news or he wasn’t of left leaning or of Hindi media that neither his news got a single column space in the dailies of Delhi nor the channels have picked it up and neither a single journalist or political organisation has protested to demand justice from the Nitish BJP combine government. Why this injustice with the critically injured Hindi scribe Pankaj Mishra of Bihar? Are we waiting for his bad news to demand the arrest of the shooters or still finding his ideological antecedents? Such type of partiality by the journalistic fraternity or organisations believing in a particular ideology sends a wrong and politically incorrect message across the spectrum and gives a handle to the divisive and reactionary forces to divide the unity among the journalistic fraternity.  While Uttarakhand Journalists Forum strongly condemns the brutal and barbaric cold blooded murder of Gauri Lankesh it also expresses its serious concern over the incident of a murderous attempt on Pankaj  Mishra at Arwal district in Bihar and urges upon the Karnataka and Bihar governments to order the CBI inquiry to catch hold of the culprits at the earliest.

The media organisations of the country should also come forward for the injured journalist Pankaj Mishra of Rashtriya Sahara victim of a murderous attempt. It is reliably learnt that he was writing against corruption and corrupt politicians of Bihar.  Pankaj was shot at yesterday morning by motorcycle riding gunmen who also snatched a bag carrying one lakh rupees withdrawn from the bank after injuring him grievously. Police says it’s a case personal enmity.

SUNIL NEGI