How news died on the #SheenaBora murder trail

Anchors and panelists couldn’t stop marveling at Peter Mukerjea’s naivety. Obviously they know nothing about love.

WrittenBy:Abhinandan Sekhri
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You cannot possibly be in the online news space and not have anything to say on the Indrani and Peter Mukerjea case. The wall-to-wall coverage is understandable even if I don’t agree with it. I see the inevitability. What I don’t see the inevitability of, is any random gossip or theory, however bizarre and unsubstantiated, being passed off as a news report. But the competitive world of online news does that.

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So even we need to ride this trend and have something on this case on Newslaundry. I figured I’d give it a shot. But could it be a little more honest, something I believe? So here goes.

TV panels last night, (August 27, 2015) were either a huddle of hysterical detectives trying to crack the case (if you were on Arnab Goswami’s show on Times Now) or a psychology-sociology-gossip mash-up, a sort of Oprah meets mohalla janaani gupshup session type chat (if you were on NDTV and Barkha Dutt’s The Buck Stops Here). Whatever the style, the content was simply ridiculous across channels. Young Sheena Bora didn’t have a say in her murder but much of the mainstream Indian news media gleefully committed hara-kiri on her account, ably assisted by panelists. Last night news was dead.

Whether it was Nina Pillai on NDTV congratulating herself and Tavleen Singh on how well they have brought up their children as opposed to Indrani Mukerjea, or the slightly unhinged ranters on Times Now, what many had in common was the disbelief that “a man as smart as Peter Mukerjea” could not have known the truth behind Indrani’s relationship with Sheena and much more about the entire macabre situation.

Here is a little mash-up of something too many people are saying.

The one thing that struck me from Peter Mukerjea’s interview with Arnab and the discussion was how “smitten” Peter was with Indrani as stated by friends and acquaintances pulled out of the woodwork to dissect the couple. This is as much (if not more) a tragic love story as it is a grisly murder mystery.

If I had to write this into a screenplay (which it has all the ingredients of and I suspect someone is already in the middle of a pre-production meeting) it would be a tragic love story rather than a whodunit. Because it is possible for a person to be so in love with another that they will believe anything that their lover tells them. It has nothing to do with intelligence as suggested by too many panelists and anchors. It has to do with passion and how powerful that emotion is. It trumps reason, logic and brilliance. What is sad is that all those commentators and anchors are not even aware that such a feeling exists. You’d think they’d have felt it in their lifetime at least once or known someone who has.

I don’t know whether Peter Mukerjea knew or did not know what exactly Indrani’s relation with Sheena and Mikhael was.  I don’t know whether he was in on the alleged murder, or knew or suspected anything or not. I don’t know if he really believed if Sheena was in the US or not. The limited point here is that – yes it is possible for an intelligent and rational man (or woman) to believe what sounds absurd and unbelievable to you and me, if he (or she) is “crazy in love”. It’s a cliché, but that’s the power of true love. The insanity and irrationality of passion is as real as logic and reason. I can’t claim that is how it was for Peter and Indrani, I’m only saying, yes it is possible. The casualness with which that being an impossibility in life is thrown around, is what is foolish.

The almost orgasmic exhilaration of complete surrender in love can make you feel invincible to the world and completely vulnerable to one. People feel that way. That kind of insanity exists. We have tomes of literature and timeless ballads written on it. Never having felt that way in life doesn’t make you smarter or wiser, it just makes you less fortunate. It’s one of the headiest rushes that life’s many experiences have to offer. One could argue that kind of craziness lasts as long as the first flush of romance does, when you can’t keep your hands off each other, and you’re young. But for some lucky ones it can last longer – years, even a lifetime into old age. It’s not impossible.

While that kind of love can lead you to a happy and nirvana-esque place, it can also lead to an ugly hell, like it may have for Peter Mukerjea.

Who did it and who didn’t, I don’t know. But to innocently believe the implausible and to disbelieve the plainly obvious – is possible when you’re in love. It has nothing to do with intelligence.

Harivansh Rai Bachchan said it pretty well in this poem and it sounds even better when his son lends his voice to it.

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