Reading a news report of how a college teacher in a small town in Assam molested his student and then tortured her physically was grisly in the first case to say the very least. The teacher, thanks to the promptitude of the law has been arrested, there have been understandably vocal protests by the students and the society. The victim has given a statement to the police, the teacher apparently is the palpable and guilty culprit.
So much, so good.
Newspaper reports should be more explicit, and state facts, and not suggest, like poetry or fiction.
Instances like this are not uncommon in India. Some of them are revealed, some of them are not. Sexual offense is culpable and brooks no delay in taking action. The teacher in this context has coolly and phlegmatically stated that he has been framed, and the 'tests' will reveal the truth, and nothing but it!
However the last paragraph of the newspaper report I read was intriguing, and couched in a cryptic language. A spokesman of the student's side said that they were in relationship, and our young lady was distressed on hearing that her apparent paramour was in reality married!
This leaves it like an open ended drama, keeping us guessing and titillating our very fertile and fecund imaginations!
In matters like this, I have noticed that newspaper reports are like modern fiction, ambiguous and suggestive! The last para gives us enough room to doubt even the young lady's antecedents, and what eventually led to the allegations. If he rang her up and called her to his house, why did she go there in the first place?
Newspaper reports highlighted a bizarre teacher student relationship, outside the confines of the classroom, into the world of privacy. Cause effect is not mentioned, excepting for that fortuitous comment, and cleverly insinuating last paragraph. One can only feel sorry for the young lady, her tangle and how love can be deceptive. One does not feel so sorry for the young man, who seems to be more of a playboy than a teacher, who dissembled cleverly (God knows how he did it) and tried to rid himself of guilt by trying to torture her.
But newspaper reports should be more explicit, and state facts, and not suggest, like poetry or fiction. Or is it why they are called 'stories'?
