It is a common belief that ‘authority tends to corrupt and absolute authority corrupts absolutely’. This cliché gets reinforced when we look at the activities of the police post-Independence. The negative outlook towards the police gets even more resolute when we look at the role of the police during communal riots, particularly in the last decade. The connivance of police with the rioters more often than not is such as they not only give free hand to the rioters but even actively engage themselves in looting and arson. Such behaviour of those who are expected to maintain and protect law and order is indeed something that is bound to have serious consequences and it becomes imperative to put an end to such corrupt tendencies of the police.
However, with the mainstream media parroting the lines dictated by the police, how could one expose the reality? Radiance Viewsweekly since its very beginning has tried to expose the reality that often gets buried under the debris of false perceptions and one-sided reporting. It not only came up with the well-researched and well-articulated pieces, but also made the police connivance with the unruly elements an agenda and often came up with editorials, directing the attention of readers to the unholy nexus of the police with the right wing forces. It reported actively the events after the Batla House encounter (which still holds many unanswered questions, making the judicial probe absolutely necessary) and published reviews of the books on the subject of police falsely implicating innocent Muslim youths.
Radiance Viewsweekly, with its utmost capacity, took the daunting task to counter the police version and punched holes in the reports of the police by disseminating and highlighting the subtle and, more often, blatant flaws in the police’s version. One of the most interesting things about the magazine is that besides being maintained and run by the Muslim community, it never hesitated in roping in people from all walks of life and bolstered its claims by publishing articles and reports from the active members of the civil society.
Quickly responding to the fast paced events, it managed to present the alternative side of the events with empirical evidences. It took on the task to police the police from its very first issue. With the heading “Will Human Conscience sleep with the Police?” (Radiance, Vol. 1, 22 March 1964) it minced no words and tried to keep a tab on the police so as to make them more effective.
Besides articles, the magazine did well in the field of reporting as well. It brought forward and reported major events and programmes on police atrocities, organised by various groups, NGOs and human rights activists. It made a point to report documentaries and other fact-finding reports to give the overall coverage of the incidents. Many times it did cover stories to highlight the extent of atrocities done by the police followed by articles for a long period of time. The analysis of documentaries like ’Encountered on Saffron Agenda,’ a documentary on the Ishrat Jahan encounter case by Shubradeep Chakravorty, was done and a platform was provided to disseminate and propagate the reality which often did not get much attention in the mainstream media.
It must be noted that during the initial phase of the last decade, the police atrocities were a little less as compared to now. However, with the limited resources at hand, Radiance Viewsweekly zealously took on the agenda to break the mythical linking of terrorism with Islam and Muslims and after some initial shortfalls, the magazine, along with the help of Urdu media, managed to bring the fact on the table that it is not the extremism among the Muslim youth, rather the police witch-hunting which falsely implicated the Muslims for either medals or serving political agendas of some people. The magazine tirelessly worked to unearth the reality so as to improve the ever deteriorating position of Muslims in the country as there was a large chunk of people who started to believe that there does exist a nexus between terrorism and Muslims.
It not just criticised the police and its actions but analysed the reason behind it as well. It linked the communal nature of police, less regard for human values and morals and the growing culture of impunity with the growing trend in the number of incidents of police atrocities. The magazine further provided solutions to counter the growing trend by training the police personnel in the field of human rights and moral values. The following is one of the excerpts from the many many editorials written in Radiance Viewsweekly:
“The irony of the situation is that the police personnel, in course of the rather rigorous training, are, for instance, instructed the tit-for-tat theory and put to practice of calling most shameful names and beating the blue. It is a pity that our police force still resorts to the third degree measures of interrogation. As the authorities at the helm of the police training would have it, the personnel are not taught the importance of human rights and in particular, positive values like politeness, mercy and pity. The result is obvious; you teach a lesson in rather rude behaviour and the trainees would develop themselves accordingly….The need of the hour is to include the lessons in values and good manners and polite behaviour besides a chapter on human rights in the curricula of police training.” (Radiance, Vol. 30, 22-28 January, 1995)
In a way, the magazine has done a lot in the past and became the respect of being a credible voice of the Muslim community, however there is always a room for improvement. Though the magazine did publish some of the interesting interviews of human rights activists on high-handedness of the police, yet it missed out on many other personalities like SR Darapuri, SM Mushrif and others, who have been the insiders and must have had something interesting to unveil. Besides, in the events of police atrocities, it hardly interviewed the concerned police officials and reported first-hand information.