When Media Turns Predator, and the State Stays Silent

 

A mother on media trial

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The disappearance of medical student Ananya Bhat from Dharmasthala remains one of Karnataka’s dark, unanswered mysteries. Her mother, Sujatha Bhat, has carried the wound for over a decade. Instead of dignity, she has been given humiliation. Kannada TV channels and some motivated YouTubers have dragged her to the dock, treating her not as a victim but as an object of ridicule. They question her morals, her motives, her very sanity—anything to distract from the real question: what happened to Ananya?

Journalism, or Lynch Mob?

Every newsroom knows the ethical line: victims and complainants are not to be hounded. Yet these platforms cross that line with relish. Sujatha is in the twilight of her life, alone and vulnerable. For them, that weakness doesn’t matter. Trial by media has become torture by media. This is not journalism. It is a smear campaign designed to protect entrenched interests by shifting the blame onto the powerless.

The Silence of Power

More disgraceful than the media’s conduct is the government’s indifference. When a commentator like Timrodi criticized an RSS ideologue, the State pounced. Non-bailable sections were slapped on, and the man was dispatched to custody. But when a grieving mother’s character is torn apart on television, the same State shrugs. No FIRs, no arrests, no warnings to broadcasters. This is not neutrality—it is complicity.

Law for the Powerful, Apathy for the Weak

The law provides remedies. Defamation, mental cruelty, obstruction of justice—each could apply to those targeting Sujatha. Victim-protection statutes demand she be shielded, not slandered. Yet the State looks away because Sujatha has no constituency. She is not a political heavyweight. She is not an ideologue. She is just one woman demanding the mortal remains of her daughter to perform last rite. And grief, in today’s politics, has no lobby.

A Dangerous Precedent

This is the true danger: the message sent to every citizen who dares question the powerful. Speak up, and you will be destroyed—not just in life, but in reputation. The State will not defend you. The media will devour you. What remains is fear, silence, and impunity for the guilty.

A Test of Conscience

The Sujatha Bhat case is no longer just about a missing daughter. It is a test of whether our democracy can still guarantee dignity to the powerless. A media that behaves like a predator is shameful enough. A government that pretends not to see is worse—it becomes an accomplice by omission.

If Karnataka cannot protect even a grieving mother from public vilification, then the rot is deeper than one missing-person case. It is a collapse of morality in both journalism and governance. And that collapse should haunt us all.