Media crooks
1. In 1996, my first year in journalism, I was exposed to vultures like Barkha Dutt. A speeding Blueline bus overturned right in front of the TOI building on BS Zafar Marg, New Delhi. Around 5 passengers were injured, including one whose intestines spilled out.

2. I had been on my way to get lunch when this happened. Good citizens had already started taking the injured to hospital. There wasn't anything I could do so I returned to my media office, totally nauseous. As I sat down I mentioned the accident to my colleagues.

3. Hearing that, one of the photographers grabbed his DSLR and rushed out like a bat out of hell. It was unbelievable. No empathy or concern. Not sure what he got, perhaps just the empty bus and a few human body parts. But he returned ecstatic.

4. I suddenly realized I was in a profession that fed on other people's misery. While reporting is a job that has to be done, like cremation, post mortem or assassination of enemies, it has to done with empathy. That is what missing in the Indian secular media.

5. When I wrote the Bengal Famine story in 2014, it impacted me so much that I couldn't enjoy food for weeks. Until the tragedy of 3-7 million Indians who had been starved to death by the British didn't leach out my system. A bit extreme case perhaps.

6. Every tragedy need not become a personal one for the reporter because then you can't do your job properly, plus it will cause burnout or worse. But this macabre dancing at cremation grounds by Barkha Dutt and her gaggle, including Western media types, shows a sick mindset.

7. Live casting from a cremation ground, hospital emergency wards, and the homes of the dying must not be allowed. The authorities and local citizens must enforce this "No Vultures Here" rule. At least 30,000 Japanese died in the tsunami. Ever seen a single picture of the dead?

8. Why are deaths and tragedies of Indians so freely peddled by the media. Because they are irresponsible and do not care a rat's tail for ordinary Indians. Plus, Poverty Porn does not sell these days, so media crooks are into Disaster Porn.

9. It is time India passed a law banning disrespect of the dead, dying and suffering. Also, voyeurs like Barkha who defame India in the foreign media should face a 10 year prison sentence. How is adding to the panic during a pandemic not a crime?

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