WE KILL- EEKKS…!!!

Don’t go by the name because you might just tend to read it otherwise. It is all about the Wikileaks! Though it was the inauguration of the First Amphitheatre of Manipal, somehow the main topic of discussion under a panel comprising of Dr M V Kamath, Honorary Director of Manipal Institute of Communication (MIC), Varadesh Hirengange, Director of MIC and Arvind Kumar, HOD Geopolitics and International Affairs, was the most intense event of the evening. Not forgetting there was band performance by the Death and the Strawberry and a very good street play by Adaa, a theatre club.

The evening started with the band performing soon after which Adaa took the audience on a roll with their play on the themes of nationalism and how the youth is favourably unsupportive of national interest causes. It was an outstanding play not only because of the theme but also due to the brilliant acting by the members of Adaa.

The next hot topic of discussion or rather the only topic of discussion was Wikileaks- An apt form of Journalism? Every member from the panel was to give their opening remarks and opinions on the topic and then the floor was thrown open for discussion amongst the panel and the audience (comprising of students from Manipal Institute of Technology (MIT), MIC. Kasturba Medical College (KMC) etc).

M V Kamath started with his opening statements where he very strongly opposed the actions of Wikileaks by calling them unethical as according to him, no government, country, citizens or a group of people have the right to tap information of any kind. Following him was Arvind Kumar, who spoke about Wikileaks in terms of national security. He said that the actions of Wikileaks could come as a threat to the national security of a lot of countries as foreign policies were being devastatingly affected due to the exchange of information which takes away the trust of the people from their government. Varadesh Hirangange, spoke quite on the contrary to both the former speakers calling Wikileaks’ work completely genuine and good as citizens, people and the other governments have the right to know what is going on in the world.

After this, as if the audience were possessed with the topic at hand, opinions, questions, statements, comments poured in like crazy. They were aggressive open debates on sub topics some of which were:

1. If USA’s sensitive spots are revealed wouldn’t it be a threat to the nation’s security?

2. To tap a phone a person/group needs the permission of the Ministry.

3. There are some things which journalists get as information but they cannot be revealed keeping people’s interest in mind.

4. What exactly is in people’s interest and the interest of the people?

5. How different or similar is diplomacy and people’s representation in a democracy or a country?

6. If USA is behaving like a global police isn’t it right in saying that it is also a global terrorist?

This and many more points were raised to an unsatisfying audience as the debate had to be closed down due to the time constrain. But every talk, every comment was worth the time given. Organised by MUTBI, this was the first event in the amphitheatre.

As per for the title of the entire article, I thought why not modify it and tell what Wikileaks is according to me. So as I have defined it, Wikileaks is “We kill- eekks...!” This is because the information passed across nations has created quite a ruckus among them and more or less media, in a broader sense is being blamed as many people think that all of this is entirely responsible for it. I do not know if I should say yes or no, but indeed, media has taken quite a pivotal role in guiding this movement. So, “we kill” means “we, the media has been responsible in one way or another in killing different emotions (in form of trust of the citizens on their governments, as an example), treaties, information, revelations etc.” As a matter of fact, this title happened to me as a result of brain storming with the word Wikileaks. So, keeping my opinion in the end, for all those people who weren’t present at the venue, guys you did miss out on a lot of wonderful and intelligent talking.!