With another employee at News 18 Kerala channel trying to end life by hanging, all eyes of the public and the media fraternity in the State are on the channel. The person, who is undergoing treatment at Amrita Hospital in Kochi, after he failed in his attempt to kill himself by hanging, is one among the accused in the case in which a woman employee tried to commit suicide.
It is informed from the hospital authorities that the person is still in the ventilator. The man reached a hotel at Kattappana by 4 am on September 7 and tried to hang himself by 8 am. He was rescued and shifted to St. John’s Hospital at Kattappana where he was underwent CT scan which reported his brain and spinal activities normal. He was then shifted to Amrita Hospital on Thursday night and continues to be in ventilator. “We suspect a brain injury but cannot say at this point how deep,” a hospital staffer said.
In the light of the developments, the woman employee who works in the same organisation and had survived an attempt to kill herself several weeks back, speaks to The Kochi Post.
“I don’t blame corporates. It is not the corporates which malign the situations. It is the people who handle the corporate organisations,” she begins. She was one among the staff who was trained by the organisation at its Hyderabad office prior to the launching of its Kerala office in Thiruvananthapuram.
“I had given my 100 per cent during the training period at Hyderabad. It is evident from the Hyderabad team’s reaction when they visited me at the hospital where I underwent treatment following the incident. When I asked them why they signed the papers in which I was named among other colleagues to be sacked, they said they were wondering how my name was included in the list,” she said.
Referring to her colleague who tried to take the extreme step, she said: “It is quite unfortunate the person who handles a very senior position in the organisation has to go through a tough time like this. The moment I heard the news, I just prayed for his life. Because I knew how much it would affect the people around. I thought of the time in which I went through the same situation. I know how my parents and in-laws had felt during that period.”
She further said, “But in this case, this is invited unlike my situation. I heard from some close sources that the person, after he returned to the organisation after several days of the incident, had made an apology to one of my colleagues for behaving rudely with me. Almost nine months starting from November I went through a trauma-kind-of situation. I was being bullied every now and then and the insults were showered on me by the people in the top brass of the organisation. I seriously do not know why they teamed up against me. Many a times I had felt that I was being avoided and alienated.”
“They wanted me to join in any of the groups in the organisation. Groupism is at its peak in News 18, similar to any other organisation. I did not believe in such frivolous ideas. I always had my own stand. I would complain about news readers who would make 30-40 mistakes in a presentation. I needed perfection in my work. The professionalism that I learned from the training period at Hyderabad taught me to be perfect and sincere in work. They might not have liked it,” she said.
“The Dalit factor is a reality. I have never been allowed to speak up. When they felt that I was capable of deciding they tried to belittle me. They said I underperformed and was inefficient and incapable. I could have easily managed a situation in which I quit the job by myself but in this case I was being fired for reasons I felt so strange. I could not stand it. I considered my job as superior. I silently suffered all the humiliations because I needed the money that was being credited to my account every month,” she said.
“I can only say what happened to me. I don’t know what really happened in this case. I don’t know if there is any other reason for this. I don’t know what statement he gave to the police. But if he said it was because of me, I feel this is a confession from his part. It was my decision to stay away from office during the period of investigation. But I have always felt bad for the fact that the accused people continue to be working there in the organisation while I am outside. ” The woman has not joined work after the incident even though she is receiving her monthly salary.
