‘Stop Balaji from cashing in on Aarushi case’

In a swift reaction to an emotional appeal by Nupur Talwar, mother of murder victim Aarushi Talwar, the National Commission of Protection of Child Rights directed the I&B ministry to stop Balaji Telefilms from making a serial on it.

Updated on: Jul 6, 2008, 09:46:17 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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In a swift reaction to an emotional appeal by Nupur Talwar, mother of murder victim Aarushi Talwar, the National Commission of Protection of Child Rights on Monday directed the Information and Broadcasting ministry to stop Balaji Telefilms from including the Aarushi murder case in its popular teleserial Kahani Ghar Ghar Ki.

The Noida police had arrested Nupur’s husband Rajesh Talwar on the charge of murdering his daughter Aarushi and their domestic help Hemraj. The police had termed the crime as “honour killings” claiming Aarushi and Hemraj were caught by Rajesh Talwar in objectionable but not compromising position.

Balaji Telefilms had decided take inspiration from the sensational twin murders and show that the protagonist Parvati’s granddaughter is killed in circumstances similar to Aarushi’s murder.

“The serial is drawing inspiration from real life and parallels can be drawn to the case without naming Aarushi Talwar,” Nivedita Basu, creative director, Balaji Telefilms told media persons last week.

Taking a strong objection, NCPCR said Balaji Telefilms’ move would glorify the concept of “honour killings”. “They should not be allowed to make a serial on Aarushi murder case till the investigations are over. Otherwise, it will amount to influencing the investigation and the final outcome of the case,” NCPCR member Sandhya Bajaj said in a letter to I&B secretary Asha Swarup.

The commission’s letter is a result of Nupur asking the commission on Monday to stop Balaji Telefilms showing anything on the case till the investigations were complete. She also asked whether media has the right to vitiate public opinion to the extent that an innocent person (Rajesh Talwar) is made the victim of salacious machinations designed to increase TRPs of the channel.

Launching an attack on television channels, Talwar said most of the channels perpetuated the character assassination of Aarushi by graphically showing time and again, day after day, episodes in which they created events which were figment of imagination.

“The channels discussed these with so called experts and dissected the noble soul (Aarushi) sadistically and with perverted minds. They are equally if not more guilty of
violating the law and should face the same consequences as the investigating agencies,” she said, on her hard-hitting letter.

She held investigating agencies responsible for character assassination of Aarushi accusing them of creating a concocted story to justify their illegal action of blaming her husband for the murders without a shred of evidence.

Talwar has also asked the government to take stern action against television channels involved in character assassination of Aarushi, who cannot defend herself and has sought public apology from them.

The I&B ministry is considering action against some channels following protests from child rights organisations. But the NCPCR’s letter has given the ministry necessary arsenal to initiate action against the channels.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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