Satyameva Jayate - Adi Shankara from the Mundaka Upanishad

This is in response to my last post on how GOD and media gang up against good news. Here we see their other face...after all everyone has Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in them. :-)

The above quote in Sanskrit means that "Truth Alone Triumphs.". It is also one of the main pillars of the Indian Constitution, and it appears in our national emblem and the ever impressive Ashoka Pillar.

We are used to seeing the famous quote bear fruition only in movies, as truth rarely prevails in real-life. Its only in desi movies, the disgruntled and frustrated hero takes upon himself to right the wrongs with his one-man army against a gang of corrupt politicians and ruthless mafia. But thanks to the media uproar, justice was served in two ghastly murders that I have followed in the last decade. Certainly, it was heartening to see Ms. Jessica Lall and Ms. Priyadarshini Mattoo finally get justice against powerful men. For more details on these 2 cases, refer to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jessica_Lal and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priyadarshini_Mattoo.

While Jessica's case is more or less settled, it is disconcerting to note that Santosh Singh, the man found guily in Priyadarshini's case, is now appealing to the Supreme Court of India raising questions about the validity of DNA evidence. Hope this poor girl gets justice...

While it appears that media uproar did make a difference to these two cases, it makes me wonder if media uproar resulted in public uproar or the vice-versa? In other words, does media really care about doing good for the public or does it feed on public's fetishes? Another way to say that would be, does media highlight only those news that capture public's imagination, to make a few more quids, or does it ever highlight injustice even when it slips out of public's thoughts?...

Hmmm, maybe this will go down for another post, another time...:-)