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Brahmanical media goes for worse
stench in
mortuary reporting
WSN Network
MUMBAI: It is
difficult to tell at times which of the two emanates a worse stench:
the rotting bodies in the mortuary or the thoughts that find way
into cold print in sections of the Indian electronic and print
media?
Here is a sample
from the Indian Express' report on Tuesday: “The State is simply
wasting money and electricity to keep these bodies intact.” This was
the view of. a forensic doctor in J J Hospital who, along with other
doctors, had just finished inspecting the cold room and condition of
bodies of the eight slain militants, which lie stacked inside.
Forget the law,
forget the norms, forget even basic courtesy to the dead. Now, with
its 5,000 year of 'sanskriti' and cultural values, the real face of
Indian brahamnical class comes to the fore at times like this when
it brings the full force of hatred to bear on the bullet-ridden
bodies of slain terrorists.
No one could
have any sympathy with the men who killed innocents and held
hundreds of families at ransom, and much of the violence was
meaningless and cowardly, but then will people stoop to the level of
hating rotting bodies and switching off the air conditioner to save
a few pennies so that bodies may "suffer" more?
The bodies have
been included in the latest body tally compiled for eight hospitals
in Mumbai among 19 unclaimed bodies of “foreigners” following the
Terror attack. While bodies of eight of the militants are in the J J
Hospital, one has been shifted to the
Nair Hospital.
“We do not
expect anyone will come forward to claim these bodies. They may keep
lying in the cold room for months,” said one of the doctors who had
also performed autopsies on the men who caused the death of the 27
other victims, whose bodies, similarly, lie unclaimed.
The J J
Hospital’s cold room, with its blood-splattered floor and
overpowering stench, has, thus, become something like Mumbai’s
no-man’s-land.
The Express
reporter said as per the hospital records, 170 autopsies have been
performed following the attack with 134 bodies being handed over to
relatives. In all, 36 bodies are unclaimed, including those of the
nine militants. In J J Hospital, bodies of eight militants lie along
with 10 other foreigners. The number of unclaimed bodies of Indian
victims here is 17.
The doctors said
that the militants were all aged between 20-25 years. “They could
easily be mistaken for college kids of Mumbai. Each of them has
multiple bullet injuries with most of the bullets going through the
bodies because of high-velocity firing,” one forensic doctor said.
“And since they were killed in the end, their bodies are in good
condition in comparison to the victims.”
Like the police,
the doctors also say that they found nothing on the bodies which
will help in their identification.
Top police
officers handling the Mumbai investigations, point out that it is
early days yet to take a decision on the burial or dispatch of the
nine bodies of the militants.
Says A N Roy,
Maharashtra’s
Director General of Police, “That decision will not be taken by us
and we have not raised this point with anyone in Government as yet.”
3
December 2008
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