BENGALURU: A television news channel’s brightly lit studio is ready for an in-depth show on a story that is breaking. Prime time anchors Anand and Brajesh are seated at about eight feet apart from each other. In the backdrop is a display panel identifying the channel—Insight Today TV. In front of them are laptops, mikes and other paraphernalia typically seen in a TV studio. When the scene opens, the anchors are processing the news inputs popping up on their laptop screens. A journalist on the news desk, young and lanky, rushes in with the latest. He somehow manages to look distraught, excited and confounded all at once.)
Journalist (panting): Oh my God! They’ve gone!? And th- they, they’ve taken it with them. This is HUGE! The biggest news of our lives!
Anand (sharply): Breathe, man! (continuing) Who’s gone?
Journalist: The reporters are saying there’s not even one left in the city. Not one. All gone. Every single one… (he trails off, as if contemplating the gravity of the situation)
Anand: Arrey! But tell us who? Where did they go? Don’t speak in riddles. There is nothing about anyone or anything disappearing on the wires.
Journalist: Sir, believe me, they’ve just gone, each one of them. God only knows where. It must be magic, sir, black magic!
Anand (exasperated): You first said ‘it’ has gone. Now you are saying ‘they’ have gone.
A goat could have disappeared. A bride could have disappeared. Birds could have disappeared. (Raising his voice) What has gone? Who has gone? Don’t confuse us.
Journalist (tongue-tied): I don’t know how to explain…. It’s just… so unbelievable. Sir, there is no one left! The mean the Muslims. Muslims have gone. Some say they have taken the Qutub Minar with them.
(A second journalist, bespectacled and stout, and possibly the first one’s senior, marks his entry and joins the discussion.)
Second journalist: Did you get any feedback on where the Muslims have disappeared?
First journalist: No one knows. Or, I have not been told. There is no official information.
Anand (looks at his laptop screen): There is some mention about it on the wires now—PTI has one take. But no details.
Second journalist (to the first journalist): How do you know they have all gone? What’s your source?
First journalist: One of our reporters has reliably learnt that Rasheed Ghosi’s buffalo shed is closed…(pauses) and so is Khalil Darzi, Salaru Saloon, Asghar Ali Perfumery, Mohammad Siddiq Tobacconists. All Muslim houses in Nakhas and Aminabad in Lucknow are empty. I don’t know what is happening, the Muslims and everything Muslim seem to have disappeared.
Second journalist (dialing a number on his mobile phone and speaking into it): Ask our legal correspondent, Sumir Lal, to check on the courts. He must find out if the case against the Rehmani brothers — you know, the terrorism case — is still being heard?
First journalist: I have already asked Sumir… (his mobile beeps) Ah! He has sent a text message… (he looks at his mobile) The hearing has been on today since the morning.
Anand: But you said just now that all the Muslims have gone then how have the courts managed to hold the brothers back? How are they still around when the others have vanished? Is your big news authentic? Or is it some nonsense picked up from WhatsApp!
Brajesh (leaning in, finally entering the animated discussion): See, we can’t just jump to conclusions. Perhaps all Muslims have not gone. If we generalise like this, we’ll be guilty of playing up what seems to be very patchy information. We have to wait for some kind of official confirmation. Meanwhile, we can break the story on our news bulletin. I suppose we cannot ignore it completely since other channels are running it. Someone go tell Archana — she’s presenting in Studio Two I think— to slip in the rumours are gaining ground that many Muslims have gone missing from Delhi.
First journalist (butting in): Sir, look, I am not going by WhatsApp forwards as Anandji alleges. I am going by feedback from our reporters. Here, there is news flashing on my cell that incoming trains have no Muslim passengers. The Intelligence Bureau has also confirmed this, although I know we cannot always take their word — these days, the IB chaps are as guilty of putting out fake news as some of the news channels! But this is too sensational, too fantastic, how can anyone cook up a story like this?!
Anand: Check the courts. Get in touch with someone covering the hearings. Have Muslims with charges framed against them been prevented from err…err… disappearing? Have they been presented in court?
First journalist (thinking aloud in a lighter vein): Perhaps those who disappeared have conveniently left behind all the murderers, pickpockets, rapists, thieves — someone did some cherry picking!
Second journalist (interrupting him abruptly): This is no time for your jokes. If this is true, it’s serious, with major political implications. Call your contacts in Tihar Jail. Find out if the Muslim criminals are still in their cells?
First journalist (dials Tihar Jail and puts his call on speaker phone): I am calling from Insight Today. Is that the warden?
Warden (over the speaker phone): Yes sir, I recognize your voice. I’ve been flooded by calls all morning. Before I share anything, let me make it clear, this is strictly off-the-record. I’m telling you only because I know I can trust you, and your editor is an old friend.
First journalist: Yes sir, I understand.
Warden: The truth is…they’ve all gone—all the Muslim convicts. Simply disappeared. They have even dug up (pauses) — please don’t quote me on this — the terrorist Guru’s grave. They just scooped out the earth and took away the skeleton. It’s missing.
Second journalist (speaking into the phone): Warden Sahib, this is Arjun here, how can they disappear with a grave?
Warden’s voice: Not the grave, but the skeleton They…
(Excerpted from The Muslim Vanishes by Saeed Naqvi, with permission from Penguin Random House India)