Author: Amrit Dhillon
Publication: Outlook
Date: March 24, 2008
URL: http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20080324&fname=Col+Amrit+%28F%29&sid=1
Introduction: Why didn't the Indian media
ask Scarlett's mom a few tough questions?
Thrusting awkward questions at a bereaved
parent is enough to make the hardest hack cringe in self-disgust. But on occasion,
it is called for-as in the case of British teenager Scarlett Keeling's murder
in Goa. However, the Indian media was so busy bashing the Goan police for
their disgraceful cover-up that they lost sight of Scarlett's mother's appalling
negligence.
Criticising Fiona MacKeown is difficult. She
has been resolute and resourceful in uncovering the truth in the face of callous
indifference from the police. Throughout her ordeal, she has remained calm
and dignified. But what possessed her to leave 15-year-old Scarlett alone
in a foreign country-in Goa, while she set off to tour Karnataka? Parents
try to find a balance between their urge to protect their child and their
child's demands. But there was nothing to wrestle about on this one.
Nowhere in the world do you leave a girl of
that age alone. Not even at home in Devon, England. Certainly not on holiday
in a place where there's no one to keep an eye on her, and certainly not in
a place like Goa, especially when you are aware-as MacKeown has admitted to
being-that your daughter has got involved in the sleazy drug and sex scene.
(Although to be fair, being on holiday can do funny things to one's judgement-either
pushing it towards excessive caution or excessive optimism).
MacKeown has said that Scarlett insisted on
staying back in Goa, threw "a strop", and she gave in. She gave
in? This was not about going to a party or buying a dress. It was an issue
of her safety. It was a perfect example of the crisis that currently assails
some British parents, as well as some Indian parents too: the inability or
unwillingness to impose their authority.
The results of this laxity in Britain can
be seen everywhere. Aggressive, unruly, malignant yobs with no fear of parents,
teachers or any adult. Bad parenting has risen to such levels that a British
school union leader complained recently that schools now had to teach children
everything-from basic social skills such as how to hold a knife and fork,
to moral values. Schools were replacing parents and the Church.
Assuming that MacKeown tried and failed to
impose her will on Scarlett, the alternative was simple. Cancel the Karnataka
trip. Or let some members of the family go but leave someone-MacKeown or her
boyfriend-behind to stay with Scarlett. MacKeown has justified herself by
saying that she left Scarlett with Julio, a 25-year-old local tourist guide
who was "like a member of the family". Since when do people you
have known for a few weeks become like members of the family? Just imagine
the opposite. A housewife from Lajpat Nagar going to Devon and leaving her
minor daughter alone with a barely known shopkeeper while she goes off to
explore the Lake District. The British tabloids would have had a field day
with that story.
In the Scarlett case, while the Indian press
has pulled its punches, the British press has asked pointed questions about
MacKeown's irresponsibility, just as it did in the Madeleine McCann case,
asking how the parents, on holiday in Portugal, could go off for dinner not
far from their apartment, leaving their three children alone.
Indian journalists did a fine job of exposing
the ineptitude of the Goa police but failed to put tough questions to Scarlett's
mother. This black-and-white, simplistic approach seems to stem from a confused
attitude towards foreigners and the feeling that asking such questions condones
or extenuates the crime. It doesn't. Even if MacKeown stands guilty of gross
dereliction of duty, it does not diminish the magnitude of the crime. The
point of asking such questions is to portray the whole picture, so that readers
and viewers can make up their own minds.
When it comes to Indians, there is no such
restraint or deference on the part of the Indian media, and that's good. The
Times of India's excellent story on Manjunath Kalmani, the paraplegic at Delhi's
Safdarjung Hospital, who had been abandoned by his parents, was a prime example.
"Why haven't you visited your son?" the paper's reporter asked.
The father's reply was feeble and selfish. Poor thing, he couldn't "bear"
to see his son reduced to a vegetable. Never mind his responsibility as a
father. Instantly, I formed an opinion of him. Just as I instantly formed
an opinion about MacKeown, when I failed to hear a single word of regret at
her fateful decision.
