Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Pathetic Journalism - With Rs 2 lakh in pocket, poor beggar dies rich


First of all, does this news really need to take space on the front page of a national daily? I do not think so. Instead of reporting that a man died, and being not so loud about it, TOI instead chooses to celebrate that the beggar died rich!

Anyways, another example of pathetic journalism and hopeless editing is this news article by TOI. I am posting the full article below, before TOI amends it --


AJMER: In his death, an anonymous beggar has confirmed Ajmer as the city of alms.

As his corpse lay at Panigram Chowk near the city's historic dargah on Sunday, none could recall his name. Someone called the police and his body was taken away.

But as word got around that cops had found a booty of nearly Rs 2 lakh from the dead man's pockets, scores gathered to claim they were mourning the death of a relative.

"He was about 60 years of age and had torn clothes and a shabby bag with him. We searched his body to learn his identity and found Rs 1,500 in the inner pocket of his pants," said a constable who was ordered by the Dargah police station to fetch the body for an autopsy. The matter was again reported to police station and the body brought back. "There were a total of Rs 1.98 lakh in his pockets. We later came to know that he used to change coins into Rs 1,000 and 500 notes from shopkeepers," said a police officer.

Finding that the man had died rich, police started a search for his identity in the Dargah Bazaar and soon many beggars showed up claiming to be relatives. "More than a dozen beggars came here to claim his body but none could give proof of his identity," said the officer. All they knew was that he came into town three years back and had no friends.

A post mortem confirmed he died from lack of treatment for a host of ailments. The body was cremated by the Dargah committee.

As per rules, police will wait for 90 days for a relative to claim the money they got from the deceased and after that it will be submitted to a city magistrate.

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If you read the second last paragraph, the writer says that the body was 'cremated' by the Dargah committee. In a country which is so religious, and has many religions staying together for years and years, for a national daily to not know that Muslims are not cremated is sheer shame. Muslims are buried, and not cremated. They have made a bigger blunder by actually saying, that the beggar was cremated by the Dargah committee. WOW!

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Sidharth Mehta
Dubai, UAE
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Pathetic Journalism TOI, India, Incredible India, Sid Mehta, Sidharth Mehta, Siddharth Mehta, Dubai, UAE, The Great Indian Nightmare, Where the mind is without fear!, Times of India, Journalism, News

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