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People & Their Problems
New Delhi, 1 November 2013
Gold Hunt
Over
ABSURDITY Vs
REASOING
By Nikhil
Gajendragadkar
The gold
hunt is over, mercifully. But not before the Archaeological Survey of India,
the Geological Survey of India and the Indian media ended up becoming a
laughing stock. A sadhu’s dream sent them on a spin, which eventually made them
fall flat on their face.
After nearly
a fortnight’s search for “1,000 tonnes of gold”, the ASI has put down its tools
and conceded there was none at Raja Rao Ram Baux Singh’s fort in Unnao, in
Uttar Pradesh. Instead, the excavation led to some pieces of pottery, dating to
the Buddhist era, being found. However, there is a silver lining. The absurdity
of the entire episode in the 21st century has raised a big question:
why is normal reasoning a scarce commodity in this country?
A review of
this maddening treasure hunt is worth a re-run. An unknown village, called Dondiya Kheda in Unnao district, hogs the limelight
mid-October after self-styled Sadhu Shobhan Sarkar claims there is hidden
treasure in the premises of the fort. The State Government falls prey and the
media, particularly electronic, goes to town about it. It so happened that with
the ASI and Geological Survey of India teams descending in the village, the media
sniffed ‘good news material’.
However,
they blew the entire event out of proportion. While someone
staking a tall claim about gold being buried in a 19th century fort,
the administration reacting and national agencies swinging into action, may be
covered, it cannot hog limelight. Worse, the TV channels had a field day
sensationalizing the gold hunt, with their headings and style of reporting as
though it was “true story of the king’s treasure”.
Interestingly,
few days before the unfolding of the gold drama, Shobhan Sarkar had told
concerned officers that the media would focus on it, obviously dead sure that
he would extract good publicity for himself. But what makes matters worse is
that the Union Minister of State for Agriculture Charanda Mahant wrote to other
ministers! The Government machinery moved surprisingly fast and the project of
excavation was sanctioned and commissioned in less than a month, this when the administration
normally takes months to arrive at a decision. That was news.
Search for ‘hidden
treasure' is an age old phenomena. Many want easy money, some look for
adventure-and many want both. Hunt for sunken ships; for example is quite
popular in the West. Commercial ships or battle ships from the era of World War-II,
to even earlier times or Middle Ages, still interest many. But there is some
basis for that venture. Historical evidence of ships sailing from European ports
to say Asia, or documents detailing some kind
of battles in the sea, may guide further search. Searchers follow trail of the
ships journey, they map the sea bed, many tests are conducted and after months
or years' research they take a dip. Discovering ‘Titanic’ is the most famous
example among these.
Similarly, before
undertaking any excavation, historical evidence is carefully studied, facts are
checked to verify whether any precious goods were really transferred from some
point to other by any wealthy or influential person. Possibilities are
ascertained of the treasure's existence and then the hunt begins. Sometimes
efforts bear fruits, many a times they prove useless.
In the case of Dondiya
Kheda, no historical evidence substantiated existence of any kind of treasure
hidden in the premise of the fort of Raja Bux Singh. There were no stories
making the rounds either for many years. The king participated in the first war
of Independence
in 1857, led by Nanasaheb Peshwa of Pune. (Peshwa was Prime Minister of the Maratha
Empire). He fought along with Rani Lakhsmi Bai of Jhansi. But was caught in Varanasi and was killed by British rulers.
Meanwhile, Raja Bux Singh lost his kingdom. What happened after that? Who took
over his dominion? What was the role of the British army? And, was there any
money left in the fort, are some important questions, which simply weren’t
taken into account.
The ASI and GSI claimed they
were not acting on Shobhan Sarkar's dream but were going by scientific
evidences. But they could not and have not, so far, disclosed those evidences.
Additionally, they couldn’t make it clear what they were looking for.
Naturally, why they undertook the absurd exercise, remains a big question or
rather a mystery.
The media too took
everyone on a merry go round. In the beginning, the print media kept a little
distance from this episode, but given the coverage in the electronic media, it
followed suit. What did the viewers get for days? Simply seeing visuals of people
thronging the venue (the fort) and the team of ASI personnel roaming around…the
TV correspondents speaking very fast from the spot ‘live’ with crowd of
onlookers in the background. To make the story more authentic, correspondents
were interviewing villagers.
Eager to grab the
opportunity of a lifetime to appear on the TV screen, villagers were saying just
about anything, supposedly giving the ‘true version’ of the story; that is what
they are claiming. So we heard them say: ‘yes there is gold hidden somewhere in
the fort, some people found gold coins before”, and so on and so forth. Some
channels went overboard and even arranged debates and discussions. As with so-called
‘national’ channels doing it, the regional language channels were not far
behind.
Where was the objectivity?
Checking and researching facts before broadcasting a story, were given a toss.
Even the ASI and GSI enjoyed the media glare. In the “gold rush”, everyone
joined the proverbial bandwagon. Sadly, in the race to attract eyeballs and
increase “ratings” the media added to the confusion. Worse, it gave extra
mileage to belief of gold being buried in the fort. Fortunately, there was
none, for if there was then the gold unearthed would have led to a new wave of
superstition throughout the country.
It is only hoped that the
media and the Government has learnt a lesson. The GSI too needs to be cautious
and watch out when it says that there could be gold buried, on the basis of
magnetic value. It so happened that there was no metal. Only some pieces of
pottery from the Buddhist era. The incident should be a lesson for all. All
that glitters is not gold, all players in this episode must realise. Let’s
begin a new search - for sanity and reasoning. This is the need of the hour.
----INFA
(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)
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