RASHOMON EFFECT

 

RASHOMON EFFECT. 

    A video emerged, post the Mayor elections in Chandigarh where the returning officer is seen surreptitiously writing more than he is required (he has to only sign the paper) on the ballot papers indicating that probably he is purposely trying to deface the ballots to make them invalid. The matter is being heard in the Supreme Court of India.  

   The results of the elections for the Mayor of Chandigarh were announced on 30th Jan. The results were in favour of BJP candidate Manoj Sonkar who secured 16 votes while the Congress-AAP candidate Kuldeep Kumar got 12 votes. Congress AAP side charged that there was something wrong with the process as 8 votes were declared as invalid which had made all the difference to the results. The matter reached the High Court for annulling the elections saying that the fraud and forgery has been committed . The High court refused to stay but sought response from from UT administration and municipal corporation of Chandigarh within 3 weeks. Not satisfied the team landed in SC where the Chief Justice Of India DY Chandrachud saw the video and lost his cool. He said," It is obvious that he(the RO) has defaced the ballot papers. This man should be prosecuted. Look, why is he looking at the camera? Mr. Solicitor (General), this is a mockery of democracy and murdering the democracy, we are appalled. Is this the behavior of a returning officer,”. His remarks indicated that the video makes it clear that the RO has tampered with the papers.    

    The Rashomon effect is a phenomenon described as a contradictory interpretation of an event by different people i.e. the same event is interpreted differently by different people. The term became common after the Japanese movie ‘Rashomon’ by the brilliant Akira Kurosawa. The story revolves around the narratives of four eye witnesses to a rape cum murder. All the four describes the event in great details to the jury, sounding totally convincing, but for the fact that all versions are mutually contradictory.  

    The video (of the Chandigarh Municipal election) is one . It is seen by multiple people on the SM platforms, as also by the persons involved in regulating the election process. It has also been seen by the High Court judges. They did not find this video as a proof enough for tampering with the fair election. But the Supreme Court saw enough proof in the video to make some scathing attacks on the Returning Officer and calling the whole process of counting as a murder of Democracy. The social groups were also divided. Many calling it outright cheating, others calling it some sort of plot with reasoning that 'Why would a senior Officer (RO) do any manipulation knowing fully well that there are CCTVs all around'. Majority though failed to give any opinion. Few said that 'We need to hear from the other side also'. Some opined that they need to see the entire video and full proceedings before commenting. Conspiracy theories were constructed. XYZ channel had foretold that X party is not happy colluding with Y party and has therefore decided to purposely made their votes invalid. As many different views as people.

   As the matter is being argued in SC by the Solicitor General of India, who acts as advisor and appear on behalf of the Govt. of India the video evidence, was seemingly not acceptable to the regulatory body of elections, neither the High Court found it worthy of putting the elections null and void. So, it appears that the state is not in agreement, at least at this stage, as SG is heard saying that the SC must see the other side also before making any comments. This is Rashomon effect.

  But why does it happen? Are they lying? No. Here lie the relevance of the term- We all human beings interpret incidents based on our own perceptions. Thus, even when the incident is an ‘independent constant happening’ it is assimilated by people through the feeding pipe which has its membrane lined up with their experience, attitudes, expectations, and memory. Akira Kurosawa left the film Rashomon without any finality of which version was the truth. When questioned about his philosophy he revealed that man is unable to set his or her ego aside when recalling events. The narrative is not about truth but turns into a narrative about ego. All people want to make themselves seem better than they are. He further elaborates that human being are so inherently dishonest as to be incapable of telling the truth, even to themselves, and even when it might be in their interest to do so.

    Presently the nation is divided in two broad groups. One supporting the Government and the other opposing it. Both groups are interpreting the posts in a manner in which they align with their preferences and tastes. To hell with the truth.