views on news 07 november 2015

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VIEWS ON NEWS TMM SURVEY: How the small screen is confusing us about Bihar elections 42

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THE CRITICAL EYE

NOVEMBER 7, 2015

BEHIND THE LINES Rajshri Rai’s analysis of reality checks across the border 03 z Meena Menon’s account of what it’s like being an Indian journo in Pakistan 11 z

MURALI KRISHNAN: Will IPL fizzle without the Pepsi pop?

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KRISH WARRIER: The long and short of ads 38

BIKRAM VOHRA:

Playboy and the age of innocence 34

MAYA KRISHNA RAO: Why I Rage 30

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EDITOR’S NOTE

SHUTTING OUR EYES, CLOSING OUR EARS THE SHIV SENA and related right-wing attacks on Sudheendra Kulkarni and the vicious demonstration against the Mumbai launch of former Pakistan foreign minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri’s book, Neither a Hawk Nor a Dove, demonstrated not just uncivilized boorishness but also an attempt by authoritarian forces to prevent the spread of rational discourse and knowledge. Lost in the ugly imbroglio was the powerful fact that an uncountable number of Pakistanis for practical reasons of self-preservation and survival as well as a yearning for peace and brotherhood have tried ceaselessly to reach out to India over the heads and batons of their political masters and hate-mongering, jehad-preaching ideologues advocating the destruction of Bharat.

Kasuri’s book, with all its faults or questionable historical data, is one such attempt at creating an atmosphere in which the masters of India and Pakistan can reason together and lessen the bilateral tensions which make our region one of the most dangerous nuclear flashpoints in the world.

This is what Nehru wanted all along, what Mrs Gandhi wanted after the Bangladesh war, what Rajiv Gandhi, Vajpayee, Advani, Manmohan Singh and, apparently, Narendra Modi want.

So what stops us from moving ahead? For one, blind hatred and the desire to maintain political power with the aid of muscle and second, the attempt to muzzle an exchange of information through censorship and propaganda. Actor Naseeruddin Shah, one of

the participants in the discussion during the book launch, remarked: “I do not actually understand why anything said as a compliment to Pakistan must be construed as anti-Indian. If I say Imran Khan is great, does that make Sunil Gavaskar any less a cricketer?”

On Shiv Sena’s argument that terror and cricket or music can’t co-exist, Shah said: “The people who sponsor terror aren’t the same who bring the message of peace from across the border.” ctually, most Indians fail to realize or are prevented from knowing how strong these messages are from across the border. I would urge my readers to do no more than use Google or YouTube to look at Pakistani news and current affairs in their newspapers and major TV channels. You’d be shocked to see how much dissent and criticism there is of their own government regarding hidebound positions on Indo-Pakistani issues, including stances taken by commentators, writers and ex-servicemen on sensitive subjects which, if uttered in the same vein

by Indians within India, would be considered anti-national and subversive.

I am not jumping to the conclusion that Pakistan, compared to its Indian neighbor, is a liberal state. But then, what am I to think when I hear statements made publicly in the Pakistani media space questioning the very validity of the ideology that holds together Pakistan as a nation state or questions state or non-statesponsored propaganda against India?

For example, Anand Patwardhan’s documentary, War and Peace, shows girls in Lahore Grammar School on Gulberg’s Alam Road advocating the need for Pakistan to arm itself to the teeth to repel India’s nuclear threat and then, after the formal

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Editor’s Note

If you see Pakistani news in their papers or major TV channels, you’d be shocked to see how much dissent and criticism there is of their own government regarding hidebound positions on Indo-Pakistani issues.

GIVE DOVES A CHANCE (L-R) Pakistani school girls expressing their desire for peace on the TV show, War and Peace A banner on the Delhi-Lahore bus route, welcoming passengers from both countries

“debate”, admitting to the Indian cameraperson that they want nothing but peace with India and that the pro-nuke positions taken by them was no more than “rabble rousing” instilled in them by politicians using the anti-India card to get votes.

From the mouths of babes, sometimes wisdom flows. How many Indians have watched this? How many Indians realize that it may be patently false that all Pakistani children are routinely brainwashed and grow up believing in jehad against India?

How many Indians have seen Pakistani intellectual and commentator Hassan Nisar on major Pakistani TV channels, including Dawn, berating the mullahs, Generals Ayub Khan and Zia and the failure of Pakistan as a corrupt army-dominated state in comparison to the relative success of India? Or Pakistani ministers like Khurram Dastgir and others acknowledging Modi’s commercial success in the US and the demonstration of the power of India’s

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middle class on Pakistan anchor Kamran Shahid’s show? How many have seen Pakistani anchors highlighting the relatively comic failure of Nawaz Sharif’s team in Washington in comparison to the achievements of Modi’s delegation?

How many Indians have watched anchor Ejaz Haider’s show on Capital TV with Brigadier Fayyaz, and intellectual Dr Moin Yusuf questioning the recent official Pakistani “celebration” of the 1965 war when, as they admit openly, Pakistan indeed was the aggressor and then had to retreat in the face of Indian retaliation?

Dr Yusuf, in fact, stated that Modi’s diplomacy is successfully forcing Pakistan to remain bogged down in the quagmire of “old politics” while India is refashioning itself as a modern state. “If the trajectory of India’s progress continues to grow,” Dr Yusuf commented, “we will become another Bhutan.” He recommends that Pakistan should engage aggressively with India’s economy and international economic interests so that both become stakeholders in the quest for peace.

How many Indians have heard veteran journo Najam Sethi saying “we lost all four wars against India,” and stating aggressively that Pakistan invaded and started the wars in Kashmir, Siachen and

Hassan Nisar, commentator berates his country’s leadership and bemoans the failure of Pak as a corrupt state, in comparison to India.

Khurram Dastgir, minister acknowledges Modi’s commercial success in the US and the growing power of India’s middle class.

Kargil, “all of which backfired?”

How many of us in India have listened to Pakistan war heroes like Air Vice Marshal Abid Rao admitting publicly on Pakistan TV that even if Pakistan offered its territory to India on a silver platter, India would turn it down. “India has no intention of occupying Pakistan,” he said. nd listen to Air Chief Marshal Asghar Khan, another distinguished Pakistani warrior, speaking on the topic: “India an imagined enemy”, where he says: “We are obsessed with India. We believe India has started all the wars. This is wrong.” He blames Pakistan for starting animosities with India following Partition and the invasion of Kashmir. “We are in a mess,” the former Air Chief says. “Why would India want to inherit this mess?

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Najam Sethi, journalist says Pakistan started the wars in Kashmir, Siachen and Kargil and that “we lost all four wars against India.”

Asghar Khan, Air Chief Marshal blames Pakistan for starting animosities with India following the Partition and for its India obsession.

(by taking us over?)” His coup de grace? “We have no need for a nuclear weapon and if we use it, we will destroy Pakistan.”

I doubt that many Indians could speak in a similar language on Indian TV without their faces being blackened or a threatening notice from some government watchdog.

These Pakistani examples are only a random selection. How many people have heard these voices of sanity? If we close our eyes and ears to them and ignore civil society and cultural overtures, we do so at our own peril and at the peril of our stated intentions of everlasting peace.

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VOLUME. IX

ISSUE. 03

Editor Rajshri Rai Managing Editor Ramesh Menon Deputy Managing Editor Shobha John Executive Editor Ajith Pillai Associate Editor Meha Mathur Deputy Editor Prabir Biswas Art Director Anthony Lawrence Deputy Art Editor Amitava Sen Graphic Designer Lalit Khitoliya Photographer Anil Shakya News Coordinator/Photo Researcher Kh Manglembi Devi Production Pawan Kumar

C O N LEDE

11

Across the Border With distrust at its peak, neither Pakistan nor India have a permanent reporter based in each other’s capital any longer.

MEENA MENON, formerly with The Hindu, recalls her days in Pakistan—a mixed bag of suspicious government officials and the warmth of ordinary citizens

Chief Editorial Advisor Inderjit Badhwar CFO Anand Raj Singh VP (HR & General Administration) Lokesh C Sharma Circulation Manager RS Tiwari Vice-President (Ad-Sales) Vivek Mittal-09810265619 For advertising & subscription queries sales@viewsonnewsonline.com

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6 VIEWS ON NEWS November 7, 2015

SPORTS

How 18 Damaging Is the Pepsi Pull-out?

MURALI KRISHNAN examines the long-term impact of Pepsi’s withdrawal from IPL

T E N T S

BOOK REVIEW

Champions of a Hindu India

24

“It’s my Life”

TV REVIEW

New Wine in Old Bottle

30

What could be more symptomatic of the intolerant times we live in than award-winning writers returning their state awards in protest, asks MAYA KRISHNA RAO

TRENDS

Playboy and Me

The Long and Short of It

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KRISH WARRIER writes on the copywriter’s perpetual dilemma— on how to pack all in a catch line

AJITH PILLAI reviews the gripping book, Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India, by Akshaya Mukul

EDITOR’S PICK

ADVERTISING

41

Though the sets are getting tackier and the tasks are as bizarre, Season Nine of Bigg Boss manages to hold sway, writes MEHA MATHUR

Mixed Signals

42

A TMM survey of five channels—Aaj Tak, IBN 7, Zee News, ABP and India TV—throws up a confused picture of the issues involved and the possible outcome of the Bihar polls

Governance AGRICULTURE

34

BIKRAM VOHRA writes on his trysts with Playboy as a teenager, and examines what made it different from in-the-face sleazy content available now

MEDIA MONITORING

R E G U L A R S Edit..................................................03 Grapevine........................................08 Quotes........................................10 Media-Go-Round............................23 As the World Turns.........................29 Web-Crawler....................................33 Design............................................46 Breaking News...............................48 Vonderful-English............................54

Time for Another Revolution?

50

The days of the Green Revolution, with its over-use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, might be over, writes DEVENDER SINGH

Cover design: Anthony Lawrence

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November 7, 2015 7

Grapevine Food Diplomacy

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resident Pranab Mukherjee has confounded the Israelis.

He tried practicing some food diplomacy with them but it left a sour taste in the mouth of all.

Addressing the Knesset while in Israel, he said: “Indians enjoyed the taste of Humus.” Humus is a

chickpea chutney popular in the Mediterranean and the Arab world. But when this Bengali pronounced it, it came out as “Hamas”, the Palestinian militant group from Gaza Strip with whom the Israelis have been having an ongoing battle. Israelis are now pondering why Indians have such a peculiar taste.

Badal and Mandela

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he PM has gone on record to say that Punjab Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal is the Nelson Mandela of India as he has spent nearly two decades in jail only because of political differences. But the South Africans are not too happy over this.

Their “Father of Nation”

has been compared with Badal, which, even we would admit, brings Mandela a few notches down. Last heard, a defamation case was being prepared in South Africa against Modi and the appeal will go right up to the International Court of Justice in Hague.

Silent Modi

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hile the media and sundry politicians have been going out on a limb over the Dadri incident, what has the PM said/tweeted during this period? He has conveyed birthday greetings to Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma on September 29 and Bihar Governor Ram Nath Kovind on September 30 and trib-

8 VIEWS ON NEWS November 7, 2015

utes on the birth anniversaries of freedom fighters Shyamji Krishna Varma on October 4 and Nanaji Deshmukh on October 6. He also played host to German Chancellor Angela Merkel on October 4 and wished a sick Navjot Singh Sidhu a speedy recovery on October 6. However, he has nothing to say about the communal hatred that was swirling around then.

Faulty Stars?

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adhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Chouhan has many pressing concerns. Ahead of the Ujjain Kumbh Mela next year, where around 30 million pilgrims are expected to converge, the state government has constituted a team of nine astrologers to see that everything goes off well. Their work has

been cut out—to pacify the gods and grahas. These nine people are to ward off the evil effects of “Guru Chandal Yogam”, a planetary event involving Jupiter, Rahu, Gulika (Saturn’s satellite) and Ketu, which is expected to be a harbinger of a major tragedy. Rituals running into crores of rupees are to be performed. Where are the funds coming from?

Put on Your Dancing Shoes

New National Animal?

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DP MP Malla Reddy cannot hold himself when the music is right.

Recently, at a college event in Hyderabad, he was up on stage aping South Korean singer Psy and dancing to Gangam style much to the amusement of CMR College students. The video of this dance is believed to be giving competition to the original Psy video.

Reddy loves his videos, especially the ones which go viral. In his earlier video, “Nenu Malla Reddy” (I am Malla Reddy), he tells students how he started as a college dropout and became an MP.

Ramdev’s Business Acumen

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aba Ramdev’s Patanjali Ayurveda is soon to launch instant noodles at ` 15 a pack.

Its catchline is “Jhat pat pakao, aur befikr khao”. This is a smart move to fill the void left

by Maggi noodles. What is the next thing we will get from the Patanjali stable? Patanjali Sushi, Patanjali Khimchi, Patanjali Baklava?

here is an online campaign going on to declare the cow as the national animal. Started by Haryana minister Anil Vij, it adds fuel to the beef controversy. This proposal has been mooted because the cow is becoming endangered, says Vij. “Mafia has become active in the country to target the species,” he says. “The cow requires protection and the tiger can defend himself to a large extent.” No wonder the tiger is angry and despite Amitabh Bachchan’s campaign to save it, he was chased by one on a recent visit to Mumbai’s Sanjay Gandhi National Park.

Sweet Notings

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emember the rasgulla row between Odisha and West Bengal? The Odisha government has now formed three committees to take its battle to a successful conclusion.

The first committee of seven members will submit facts on the original sweet, while the second with four members will study Bengal’s claim for the GI tag and the third with six members will do the documentation to support Odisha’s claim.

—Compiled by Roshni Seth Illustrations: UdayShankar

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U O T E S

The new strategy of anti-Modi, anti-BJP sections appears to be to resort to “politics by other means”. The easiest way is to manufacture a crisis and subsequently manufacture a paper rebellion against the Government in the wake of a manufactured crisis.

—Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, in his blog post

They are not fringe elements, they are hangers on of a certain political system. Are we going to allow what some people have called the underbelly of this government to take over and start calling the shots, literally and metaphorically?

Chitra Subramaniam, founder, First Post

The ‘Idea of India’ is a nonsensical construct. It was built and backed by people now hoist on their own pétard.

Rajdeep Sardesai, consulting editor, India Today Group Will tweet much less now. Have learnt my lesson. I wish you all friends, the very best. Life is too short, this country too great.

Sagarika Ghose, consulting editor, TOI Group Good move @PMOIndia to declassify Netaji files. History must be based on primary sources not rumour and memory....

—Historian Romila Thapar, on NDTV

My name is Naseeruddin Shah and I believe that’s why I was targeted. It really pains me to say this. I have never been aware of my identity until now.

—Actor Naseeruddin Shah, on him being trolled for his positive remarks about Pakistan, in India Today 10 VIEWS ON NEWS November 7, 2015

If any Indian claims that he was never made conscious of his religious or caste identity, he is lying or living in La-La-land.

In which world is Shah (Naseeruddin) living in that he claims, in all innocence, that this is the first time he was being made aware of his identity?

—R Jagannathan, in First Post

Shekhar Gupta, editorial adviser, India Today Group #DanceBars ban was UPA’s stupidest obsession & good SC has stayed it. Funny, though, this is one UPA law that BJP govt also backs #BansUnite

Lata Mangeshkar, playback singer Namaskaar, If you have the power to make someone happy, do it.

The world needs more of that.

Shah Rukh Khan, film star There’s nothing I like more than working. A dancing nite with Kajol even better. V r the worst best dancers in the world!!!

Honest confession

Lede

Working in Pakistan

Living Life on the Edge N

OT a week passes when Pakistan is not in the news for all the wrong reasons. Last fortnight, two shameful events in Mumbai involving Shiv Sena activists grabbed the headlines. One was the drama that led to the blackening of Sudheendra Kulkarni’s face for daring to organize the launch of former Pakistan foreign minister Khurshid Kasuri’s book Neither a Hawk nor a Dove. The other was the storming of the headquarters of the BCCI where Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Shahryar Khan was to hold a meeting with his Indian counterpart, Shashank Manohar, to discuss the modalities of reviving cricketing ties.

If it is not such events, then it’s “Pak-sponsored” terrorism and tensions along the LoC that frequently dominate discussions on prime time.

Pakistan too is equally obsessed with news from India. However, given the levels of curiosity on either side, it is rather peculiar that neither of the two sides have a permanent reporter based in each other’s capital. In May 2014, the two India correspondents in Islamabad were denied an extension of their visas by Pakistan. As for the last Pakistani journalist who functioned out of New Delhi, you have to rewind to 2011.

However, mutual distrust among the governments is not reflected whenever there is people-to-people contact. Pakistani visitors are overwhelmed by the hospitality they receive in our country. Indians who go to Pakistan talk fondly of the affection and care they were showered there. Meena Menon, who was stationed in Islamabad as a correspondent of The Hindu till May 2014 recounts her stint in Pakistan—it was a mixed bag of suspicious government officials and the warmth of ordinary citizens that she encountered there.

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Lede

Working in Pakistan

What is it like being an Indian journo in Pakistan? Despite a stint fraught with dangers, gunfire and blasts, MEENA MENON, former correspondent of The Hindu, remembers the warm friendships she forged there

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PERILOUS BEAT (Above) Blast at a vegetable and fruit market in Islamabad on April 9, 2014

TACCATO gunfire and sounds of explosions rattled the glass windows of my house. I lived in what I thought was a sedate locality in Islamabad near Sector F8 Markaz or market, in a house rented by my predecessor quite close to Faisal Mosque. The district courts were a sneeze away, apart from the excise and transport department. It was a little after 9 am on March 3, 2014, when I heard the sounds of explosions and gunfire and I helplessly tweeted.

There was nothing on TV but soon, news of the suicide attack on the district courts filtered in. All this while the gunfire didn’t stop. I counted two deafening blasts.

I learnt that there were two suicide bombers and when I went to the court a little later, the legs of one of them were neatly arranged on a plastic sheet in

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front of a devastated court room. The narrow lanes of the congested court complex were full of glass pieces, blood and flesh which gloved policemen were picking up and throwing into a large bag.

One of them pointed to a smudge on the wall and said that was the mark of the head of one of the bombers. Some official-looking men directed the police to scour the area for the attackers and I had a sneaking feeling they were still around.

I had been in Islamabad for seven months or so when the suicide attack took place right in the heart of the capital city, declared to be safe by the minister of interior just before the incident. It was Peshawar that was always in the news for a series of bomb blasts in September 2013 and after. I met some of the relatives of little children from the All Saints Church bombing admitted to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences. One of them showed me some shrapnel carefully preserved in a glass

While the Shias, Christians and Ahmadis were constantly terrorized, one acquaintance pointed out that the most endangered minority in Pakistan was the secular brigade.

bottle recovered from a little boy’s neck. The boy didn’t survive.

COMPLACENT AIR The news that we covered in Pakistan was more often than not depressing and deadly. It was either drone strikes or bomb blasts or attacks on minorities. A lot of time went in monitoring TV stations and social networks. Since my visa was restricted to Islamabad, which some joke is not even in Pakistan, I had to rely on phone calls or journalist colleagues in other hotspots like Peshawar, Quetta and Karachi for authentic news. Officials too would often give details willingly and in the beginning, I was lulled into a sense of complacency since people were helpful and forthcoming with information and appointments, including some ministers and officials. I didn’t feel I was in a foreign country. But my more experienced colleagues

warned me that things could change and soon they did.

For the first three months, I wasn’t followed by security agencies and in fact, to my utter surprise, no one was stationed outside my house. However, during a visit to the visa office in December, a bearded man and his sidekick almost careened into me. I realized that this was not an accident. Later in the evening, when I was waiting to do an interview in a café, the same gentleman came there. And since that day, they were relentless. They even followed me and my husband on a hike up Trail Six, one of the many hiking trails in the Margalla Hills that encircle the capital. Unused to hiking, they were not dressed for it and in the hot sun, I could see their frustration and the pointlessness of it all. When we beat their vigil and took another route across the hills, our joy was complete.

All the people I met in the course of my work would be grilled soon after I had left them. Despite this, people remained helpful and met me. I also managed to get a pass to cover the parliament and attended both the National Assembly and Senate proceedings with some regularity. There was no fuss about giving me a special pass to cover the trial of General Musharraf for high treason and I was a frequent visitor to the Supreme Court. The Foreign Office too was very welcoming and we attended the weekly briefings where all questions were answered with great diplomacy.

While most people were helpful, including the Inter Services Public Relations who sent me

BRAVEHEART (Left) Mama Baloch led a 3,000km march from Quetta to Islamabad to highlight the killing of young men, including his own son, by security agencies in Balochistan

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Lede

Working in Pakistan

Following Mama Baloch’s interview, I was accused of trying to subvert Pakistan’s national identity and told to cover art and culture, which I said was a little difficult if I remained stuck in Islamabad.

ICE-BREAKERS (Above) The author, (third from right) with women activists from self -help groups in Pakistan

regular updates and SMSes, I hit a wall with requests for interviews of the president, the prime minister, the interior minister and the national security advisor. They seemed happy to talk to Indian TV anchors but were very reluctant to grant me an interview.

ENDANGERED MINORITY I also felt that coverage from Islamabad had to go beyond the usual political news and interviews and tried to do stories which reflected the situation there. I did meet some Hindus from Islamabad

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and Rawalpindi who often supported other minorities on several issues. They were demanding a temple in Islamabad and a crematorium. That was the time when many Hindus were moving out from Sind province to India and there was fear of persecution, trauma and forced marriages as well.

However, I couldn’t travel to those areas and while I didn’t meet anyone who wanted to leave Islamabad from the Hindu community, there were reports of temples being attacked in other areas.

While the Shias, Christians and Ahmadis were constantly terrorized, one acquaintance pointed out that the most endangered minority in Pakistan was the secular brigade.

The media too was under constant fire and the Express group was often targeted, with some of their staff being killed and their office in Karachi fired at. It was the attacks on Raza Rumi, a journalist, writer and TV anchor (his driver was killed), and Hamid Mir from Geo TV which really

Photo Courtesy: Meena Menon

sent a strong message of intolerance. Raza left the country, while Hamid Mir took a while to recover from his serious bullet wounds.

Suicide attacks were increasing and I was particularly struck by one such incident when the young law minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Israllulah Khan Gandapur, was killed when he embraced a smiling visitor, a young man who came to greet him on Eid. The killing was probably linked to some political maneuvering by the minister, which went against the party which supported him. Deaths of army officers and ordinary people on the Line of Control, constant skirmishes and terror attacks were also part of daily news.

Though I kept up my requests to visit other cities, these were met with radio silence.

FINAL NAIL It was my interview with Mama Baloch who led a 3,000-km march from Quetta to Islamabad to

highlight the killings of young men by the security agencies in Balochistan that drew the curtains on my assignment in Islamabad, or so I think. My visa was not renewed and I was abruptly asked to leave, along with my colleague from PTI,

by May 18, 2014. The Hindu published a detailed op-ed interview with Baloch whose son had

ENDANGERED MINORITY (Top) A small church in Islamabad; (Above) A Christian family residing in a slum

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Lede

Working in Pakistan

The media was under constant fire and the Express group was most often targeted. It was the attacks on Raza Rumi, a journalist, and Hamid Mir which really sent a strong message of intolerance.

been killed. He founded the Voice for Baloch Missing Persons after that. I was summoned to the external publicity office and grilled for over an hour by a senior official who repeatedly said that I had concocted the entire interview and demanded to see my notes. Mama Baloch had said that if there was a referendum in Balochistan, most people would opt for independence from Pakistan.

Even if this was not new, obviously this was not something the Pakistan establishment wanted to hear, much less see in print. I was accused of trying to subvert their national identity and told to cover art and culture, which I said was a little difficult if I remained stuck in Islamabad.

After the loss of East Pakistan, there was great paranoia about independence struggles in other regions and Balochistan remains a quagmire of political turmoil. The Supreme Court has accepted that security agencies are responsible for the missing youth and these agencies often defy apex court orders to answer for their crimes in the court.

The issue is compounded by deep suspicions of RAW involvement in the Baloch insurgency and constant attempts to rake up India’s alleged

VIGNETTES OF DAILY LIFE Young boys selling plastic bags outside the Bari Imam Dargah in Islamabad

16 VIEWS ON NEWS November 7, 2015

subversive role, with Pakistan threatening to produce evidence to the United Nations. Quetta is out of bounds for journalists and you need special permission to visit it. Even Carlotta Gall who reported for The New York Times writes about how she was manhandled by security forces during a visit.

LIFE OF FEAR The slums of Islamabad reminded me of Mumbai.

That’s where many Christians lived and I did a story on tented camps where Christians fleeing persecution had set up home in filthy, stinking conditions. I met Ahmadis living in fear and attended protests by Shias who were constantly bombed in Balochistan and elsewhere. A constitutional amendment declares Ahmadis non-Muslims and their mosques cannot be called mosques but places of worship. It was with great difficulty that I ventured near one, secured by barbed wire, with no signs of it being a sacred place.

After the bombing of a church in Peshawar, I visited some churches in Islamabad where there was much fear and insecurity. One of the priests told me that they could not even afford a razor

fence which was considered a security against terrorist attacks.

Bombings are characterized by their brazenness and soon after the court blasts, the fruit market was the next target.

The tenuous relationship between the army and the civilian authority was strained by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ’s decision to prosecute General Musharraf for high treason and it was a joke if he would ever appear in court.

The day he did was marked by high drama and jammers in the court. Journalists clamored to chat with the former dictator who seemed affable and relaxed during his brief appearance. Sharif was to pay for this transgression later, with the army threatening to topple him and insidiously backing Imran Khan’s and Tahir-ul-Qadri’s parties to stage a massive protest against the government.

CHESSBOARD MOVES The other farce that played out was the Sharif government’s move to talk to the Taliban, something which was destined to get nowhere. But the charade was kept up for some time before the army decided to launch an operation to bomb Waziristan and “flush” out terrorists. Increasing American pressure to act against the Haqqani network was another reason for this operation, though it cannot be verified if the faithful Haqqanis were ever disturbed, though one of them was killed in the capital city. The nexus between the state and the Taliban was no secret and with the withdrawal of US troops imminent, there was greater pressure to dismantle terror training camps and weaken the Taliban. Drone strikes killed the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) head Hakimullah Mehsud on November 1, 2013, creating strife and division in the TTP which later splintered. It was difficult to verify

these deaths and events and with the government not willing to comment till much later, one had to rely on the TTP spokesperson.

Despite all the constraints, there was much that I enjoyed writing about. Interviewing former bureaucrat Shoaib Sultan Khan who has deep ties with India was one of them, as also meeting the humble but spectacular Abida Parveen and Haroon who created the comic Burka Avenger. The historic Murree brewery in Rawalpindi was a place I could not visit, though its charming Parsi owner, Isphanyar Bhandara, gave me an interview in Islamabad. Many Pakistanis were caring hosts and became my friends, making my stay memorable.

It is sad that today, the exchange of journalists between India and Pakistan has come to an end.

Till the paranoia that journalists are secret agents out to spy on each other’s countries prevails, nothing can change.

COMMON LINKS Cricket is a favorite past-time in Pakistan too

—Meena Menon was The Hindu’s Islamabad correspondent from August 2013 to May 2014, after which Pakistan did not renew her visa, nor allowed any Indian journalist to be stationed there VIEWS ON NEWS

November 7, 2015 17

Sports IPL Scandal Media Effect

LOSING SHEEN?

Fizz T Gone

Will IPL be the same again, with Pepsi pulling out as sponsor? What will be the impact on the tournament and the media?

BY MURALI KRISHNAN 18 VIEWS ON NEWS November 7, 2015

King XI Punjab's GJ Maxwell plays a shot against Royal Challengers Bangalore during a IPL-7 match (2014) at Bangalore

HESE are trying times for the cash-rich Indian Premier League (IPL) that has been thrown into drastic uncertainty. Just when the BCCI working committee was figuring out how the tourney will play out next year and finding a way forward, it suffered a major blow. Title sponsor PepsiCo expressed its intent of pulling out of the tournament, which has been marred by controversy. Chinese mobile manufacturer Vivo will be the new sponsor for the next two years.

PULLOUT IMPACT Pepsi’s exit will not only hit IPL but could also have a collateral impact on the media which

feeds off the advertising from the tournament.

Around 90 percent of the advertisement money targeted at sports in India goes to cricket.

So how damaging will the Pepsi pullout be?

Some media planners are of the opinion that the pricing of IPL could see as much as a 30 percent drop. Apart from the taint of the IPL, the next brand will probably have a shorter duration of the contract. Furthermore, the title sponsor might find it hard to build up its association with the League in two years, maintained Sam Balsara, chairman at media buying group Madison. Similarly, other media planners were reported as saying that they would expect to see a 25-30 percent decline in the title sponsorship rights.

In 2015, the T-20 tournament raked in close to `950 crore in revenue, up from some `850

crore in the previous season, according to media buyers. At that time, the broadcaster had increased its advertising rates for the season by 1015 percent to `4.75-5 lakh per 10 seconds —up from `4.25 lakh per 10 seconds in 2014. This is expected to change after Pepsi calls it quits, thus putting a huge question mark on the commercial viability of IPL. The new sponsor will have to re-build the brand which has been associated with Pepsi. It’s advertising will have to match that of the beverage giant and viewers and fans will have to identify with the new sponsor. Luckily for Vivo, BCCI has promised to re-auction the two teams under a ban—the Chennai Super Kings and the Rajasthan Royals. The two were under a cloud after the spot fixing scam of 2013.

NO ROOM FOR CHEERS (Above left) Cheerleaders during an IPL 7 match between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Chennai Super Kings at Bangalore (Above right) The IPL spot-fixing controversy in 2013 led to the arrest of cricketer S Sreesanth, among others

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Sports IPL Scandal Media Effect

So how damaging will the cola pullout be?

Some media planners say pricing of IPL could see as much as a 30 percent drop. The next brand will probably have a shorter duration of the contract, too.

FOUND GUILTY (Above L-R) The Supreme Court appointed committee has imposed a life ban on Gurunath Meiyappan and Raj Kundra for betting in matches

Currently, Paytm, the mobile commerce platform, is the title sponsor for all domestic and international cricket matches to be played in India till 2019, bagging more than a `200-crore deal as BCCI’s title sponsor for a period of four years. It was eyeing the IPL but the deal did not work out.

Incidentally, Pepsi had paid a whopping `396 crore ($60.8 million) for the five-year IPL title sponsorship in 2012. That was almost double of what DLF had paid for the previous five-year period. But Brand IPL’s reputation took a serious walloping after the 2013 spot-fixing scandal that led to a committee appointed by the Supreme Court to suspend two teams.

And along with the suspensions in July this year, the committee imposed a life ban on tainted co-owners Gurunath Meiyappan and Raj Kundra for betting in matches. That, by itself, would have been a cause for action and for the tournament to be red-flagged as their conduct was

20 VIEWS ON NEWS November 7, 2015

found to have affected the image of the Indian cricket board (BCCI), the League and the game.

Pepsi wishing to pull out of the tournament was coming. Insiders say the Cola giant had been mulling over this for a while. The decision clearly signaled IPL’s loss of credibility following the string of controversies and scams. Those in the know say Pepsi’s global chairman Indra Nooyi had made it amply clear that the company would only associate with ethical and clean sporting properties. A couple of years back, the beverage giant had terminated its contract with ace golfer Tiger Woods following an infamous sex scandal.

TOUGH TIMES An embarrassed BCCI tried to put up a brave face and issued a statement that “steps will be taken to address PepsiCo’s concerns” hoping that it will try to salvage the deal and convince the sponsor to stay on. A joint statement of BCCI and Pepsi said: “BCCI and PepsiCo have had a long-standing cordial relationship and have been in discussions to work out a solution which addresses PepsiCo’s concerns. Both parties will share it when ready.” But that effort came a cropper and Vivo had to be signed on.

Former International Cricket Council (ICC) president Ehsan Mani is forthright when he in-

Hounded by Controversy

S

ince 2008, when IPL’s maiden tournament kicked off and made a huge splash, the eightteam tourney, it was alleged, was open to corruptive influences. Controversies have dogged it ever since. There were worrying signs, in particular Pakistan bowler Mohammed Asif’s drugs controversy in the inaugural IPL tournament, which led to him being detained in Dubai for 19 days and questioned about opium possession.

In fact, an inter-state betting racket was busted in 2008 after a group in Bangalore with links to London was arrested following a wager

sists that Pepsi’s severing of ties with IPL is a blow to the Indian cricket board’s reputation. Mani went one step further and compared the PepsiIPL issue to the FIFA scandal that rocked international football which resulted in Sepp Blatter, the supremo, being suspended.

“When sponsors are not sure about the integrity of their product, they take exception.

They always want the highest ethical standards and even a hint of corruption makes them iffy,” said Mani, who held the reins of the ICC between 2003 and 2006. Ali Bacher, South Africa’s former powerful cricket administrator, termed the snapping of ties “as a serious wake-up call for Indian cricket. It is a very significant signal to the BCCI, and they need to heed it,” was Bacher’s succinct comment. Expectedly, IPL chairman Rajeev Shukla tried to play down the crisis. “They have been a long-time partner. We are in talks with them and have shared a cordial relationship. Both want to reach an amicable solution.”

EMBARRASSING CONTROVERSY But what is certain is that the sponsorship dilemma had roots in the betting controversy, which former BCCI chief N Srinivasan refused to deal with the way it should have been. Srinivasan failed to act when an illegal gambling

of $2 million. It was unknown whether those arrested had links with the IPL officials but rumors did the rounds. Also, a suspect fixture between Kolkata Knight Riders and Royal Challengers Bangalore was not properly investigated.

Even after the spot-fixing controversy in 2013 which led to the arrest of cricketers S Sreesanth, Ankeet Chavan and Ajit Chandila, bookmakers continued to be active.

When batting legend Sunil Gavaskar revealed that two cricketers were under

investigation over possible corruption in IPL’s 2014 edition, which was then already reeling from betting and spot-fixing scandals, it took everyone by surprise.

Other scandals to hit the League were former IPL chairman Lalit Modi’s tweet naming stakeholders of the Kochi Tuskers Kerala franchise, which came back to singe both him and Shashi Tharoor who was then a minister in the UPA government. Lalit Modi was suspended from his post as IPL chairman and commissioner, and Tharoor lost his cabinet job.

POOR LEADERSHIP (Above L-R) Former BCCI president N Srinivasan refused to deal with the betting controversy in IPL; Global chairman, PepsiCo, Indra Nooyi wants a clean image for Pepsi

Vivo, a Chinese mobile manufacturer, is the new sponsor. It will have to devise new advertising for fans to identify with it.

This might not be easy given the IPL’s association with Pepsi.

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Sports IPL Scandal Media Effect

Ali Bacher, South Africa’s former cricket administrator, termed the snapping of ties “as a serious wake-up call for Indian cricket”.

He said that it is a very significant signal to the BCCI, and they need to heed it.

Former International Cricket Council president Ehsan Mani insists that Pepsi’s severing of ties with IPL is a blow to BCCI’s reputation.

He compares the issue to the recent FIFA scandal.

and match-fixing scandal engulfed the IPL and the team he owns—Chennai Super Kings.

Anyway, his son-in-law, Meiyappan, who was manager of Chennai Super Kings, was one of the prime accused in the case. Not only did Srinivasan decline to set up an independent probe into the matter, but he also refused to step aside, despite calls from all quarters.

It required the Supreme Court to step in, appoint a committee headed by former Supreme Court Chief Justice RM Lodha to look into the charges and the “conflict of interest” issue. The rest is history.

Clearly, new BCCI president Shashank 22 VIEWS ON NEWS November 7, 2015

Manohar, who took over recently, has his hands full, attempting to bring probity and transparency to Indian cricket following the damning Lodha committee report recommendations.

So how will IPL 2016 pan out? And will there be a dip in television viewership should advertising brand owners decide not to throw their weight behind it? Industry experts still believe that brand IPL is a hot and lucrative property.

“We don’t know why Pepsi decided to pull out before the end of the contract, but we do know that this will not affect IPL’s business as it has increased its viewership by 30 percent in the last one year despite teams quitting and Lalit Modi getting it a bad reputation five years ago,” says Rohit Gupta, president, Multi Screen Media (MSM), the official broadcaster of IPL. But this is a rather optimistic picture.

What is certain is that the upcoming edition of the IPL is bound to lose its zing. At the core of the problem is the credibility crisis that plagues the league. The IPL has had no dearth of critics ever since its inception. The purists saw the new format of the game as not real cricket and have been warning the BCCI that it would eventually bring unhealthy commercialization to the game.

The slew of scams associated with the league has only confirmed the worst fears.

One extreme option, says Amol Karhandkar correspondent of ESPNcricinfo, was for the BCCI to have suspended the IPL for two years to give it time to clean up its act. But that was not going to be an easy call. Suspending the tournament would not only have affected the brand, it would have had huge consequences on BCCI’s revenue, and as a result, the revenue of state associations and players.

What the future holds for the IPL is tough to guess at the moment. But it will require deft handling by the BCCI to keep the tournament alive and kicking. But more than anything else it has to put an end to match fixing, spot fixing and related scams which have given IPL a bad name.

EDIA-GO-ROUND

Does Pepsi ad mock FTII protest?

A

new one-minute Pepsi commercial is facing flak for allegedly mocking the protesting students of Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune.

In the ad, the students are shown protesting against the college administration. The leader of the protest announces that till the demands are met, they will not even drink water. Just then, a student among the protestors is

shown gulping down the beverage.

“Pepsi thi, pi gya,” says the student.

A Twitter handle belonging to the FTII student protestors, Wisdom Tree @FTIIWisdomTree, expressed their disappointment over the ad.

However, PepsiCo issued a statement saying: “...the latest Pepsi TVC has no correlation whatsoever with the ongoing protest by the students of FTII and in fact, viewers are sure to have noticed, that in the TVC’s fictitious situation, the placards are clearly opposing a fee hike in a college.”

PeeCee nominated

Lookout notice

for People’s Choice Award

issued for Goa journo

P

riyanka Chopra has been nominated for Favourite Actress in a New TV series category at the People’s Choice Awards for her debut American thriller series, Quantico, according to a DNA report.

Priyanka plays the lead role of Alex Parrish, a FBI recruit in the show. Upon getting nominated, Priyanka tweeted: “Wow this is such an honour! First year and a nomination! Thank you @peopleschoice what’s say people? #quantico.”

The People’s Choice Awards is an American awards show recognizing the work of people in which the general public votes. Voting is open on the website peopleschoice.com, along with Facebook and Twitter until October 22. The winner will be announced in Los Angeles on January 6, 2016.

Google’s goof-up

H

F

ollowing a First Information Report filed by two women journalists against the Goa bureau chief of PTI, Rupesh Samant, for alleged sexual harassment, the Panaji women police station has issued a lookout notice against him.

According to a NavHind Times report, the lookout notice against Samant was issued after he reportedly evaded the summons on several occasions. The notice has been pasted in all the police stations. Samant is accused of allegedly stalking the two victims, sending them vul-

ISTORY can be interpreted in many ways but cannot be changed. But search engine Google changed history when a search for “India’s first prime minister” showed the name of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, accompanied by a snippet from Wikipedia about Nehru, but with a photo of Narendra Modi, The Times of India reported.

This is not the first instance when the search engine has shown PM

gar messages via the mobile phone and making sexual advances at Herald Cable Network (HCN) where the two victims worked. Samant was an anchor at HCN.

Modi’s photo under the wrong search query. Earlier this year, PM Modi was categorised in the “Top 10 criminals in the world” along with criminals like Dawood Ibrahim and Al Capone.

Later, Google apologized to the prime minister. Social media was quick to react. A user tweeted: “Google Just Loves Narendra Modi. Har Jagah Modi ki pic laga deta hai Google. Ab toh India ka first prime minister”.

—Compiled by Vijay Patil

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Book Review Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India

Charioteers B of the Rashtra INDIAN IDOLS Kalyan depicts Hindu gods on its covers

This gripping book on Gita Press, established in 1923, and its periodical, Kalyan, shows how they shaped and moulded Hindutva as we know it today

BY AJITH PILLAI

24 VIEWS ON NEWS November 7, 2015

EFORE delving into Akshaya Mukul’s Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India, it would be appropriate to underscore two points. This remarkable book must be considered essential reading for anyone who wishes to understand the evolution of Hindutva as we know it today and the various cross-currents that shaped Hindu nationalism from the 1920s onwards. It is also the result of five years of painstaking research which took the author to Gorakhpur, Lucknow, Banaras and Allahabad. It involved spending considerable stretches of time digging up archival material in various libraries to join the dots and plot the strands that redirected contemporary Hindu thought and political philosophy.

The result of the effort was a manuscript that ran into 2,20,000 words—too wordy and unwieldy in this day and age of snappy reading. It had, therefore, to be trimmed to 1,65,000 words

and even then, publishers refused to bite it. It goes to the credit of HarperCollins that it thought it fit to commit Mukul’s work to print, thereby providing us access to his enlightening work which puts modern-day Hindu nationalism and its growth in a context that many of us may not even be aware of.

SPIRITUAL VENTURE The central framework on which the narrative rests is the history of the Gita Press which was established in Gorakhpur in 1923 by two Marwari businessmen—Jaydayal Goyandka and Hanuman Prasad Poddar. It was started more as a spiritual venture than a political or business enterprise. But things changed in 1926 with the launch of Kalyan, a journal which was used from time to time as a vehicle for propagating social as well as political ideas to the Hindu community.

In fact, post-Kalyan, the Gita Press allied itself with Hindu right-wing parties, including the Hindu Mahasabha, RSS, Jan Sangh and the BJP. Though the political role it played has not been highlighted, Gita Press is a well-known name. In most middle class Hindu homes, copies of the Ramayana and Gita have rolled out from the press at Gorakhpur. Its staggering output is a manifestation of its reach and popularity. Till 2014, Gita Press sold 72 million copies of the Gita, 70 million copies of Tulsidas’s works and 19 million copies of the Puranas and Upanishads. And the Hindi edition of Kalyan enjoys a circulation 2,00,000, while its English version, KalyanaKalpataru, sells 1,00,000 copies. This is huge when you consider that most religious journals can boast no more than a circulation of a few thousand copies.

COMMUNAL TONE The book’s main focus is on Kalyan. According to Mukul, the journal’s political positioning was evident from its inaugural issue in the turbulent 1920s when there were a series of Hindu-Muslim

RURAL LEAP (Above) In 2013, there were 89.6 million households with TV in rural India, much more than the 77.7 million urban households

riots, right from Malabar in the South to Lahore in the North and Bombay and Calcutta in the West and East respectively. Poddar’s essay in the inaugural issue blamed Muslims for the violence and “bemoaned Hindu inaction”. It called for “sanghbal (unity of strength)” and invoked “coreligionists not to turn the principle of non-violence into cowardice”.

In the pages of the journal, Hindu involvement in the riots was portrayed as defending the religion—the very thought that justifies communal violence in the present day context. Mukul quotes Jaydayal Goyandka’s response to a query from a concerned Kalyan reader who had an arrest warrant issued against him for rioting.

Goyandka’s response is telling: “Why worry

RIGHT ASSOCIATIONS (Clockwise, from top left) Eminent liberal minds wrote for Kalyan, including MK Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore, Munshi Premchand and Dr BR Ambedkar, seeing it as a right vehicle for communicating with people

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Book Review Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India

about arrest? It should be a matter of joy if you are hanged for a public service like this.”

JOURNAL OF STANDING Many saw the journal as a vehicle to communicate to people and the best intellectual and political minds in India wrote for Kalyan. These included Mahatma Gandhi, Rajendra Prasad, Madan Mohan Malaviya, S Radhakrishnan, Gopinath Kaviraj, Radhakamal Mukherjee, Rabindranath Tagore, Munshi Premchand and Harivanshrai Bachchan. This mix of writers and thinkers—what they wrote was a lot different from the editorial line taken by Poddar—attracted many readers. It became a thinking person’s magazine. Jawaharalal Nehru was the only

Marwari businessmen Jaydayal Goyandka (left) and Hanuman Prasad Poddar (right) were the brains behind the Gita press. They started it more as a spiritual venture than a political or business venture.

26 VIEWS ON NEWS November 7, 2015

big political figure at that time who never wrote for Kalyan despite requests from Poddar.

But the journal was far more than a vehicle for intellectual discourse. Not because RSS leaders were closely associated with it but because of the positions it persistently propagated. Through his research, Mukul discovered the 1947 plan that Poddar drew up for a Hindu rashtra that he believed should be the outcome of Partition. Some of Poddar’s postulates have a familiar ring: “India should be called Hindusthan or Aryavarta; it should purely be a Hindu nation entirely organized on the basis of Hindu culture and the national flag should be saffron...; as a matter of basic principle cow slaughter should be banned; the official language should be pure Hindi (not the corrupt Hindustani) and the script Devanagari.... The Indian army should consist of Hindus.... Muslims should not be appointed to any high post...”

Kalyan also reposed faith in the caste system and saw the Hindu Code Bill, which was taken up in 1948 when BR Ambedkar was the law minister, as one that was detrimental to the majority community since it introduced two types of marriages: the sacramental and the civil.

At the height of the controversy in 1949, Kalyan carried an allegoric account of a swami who saw a dream set in a courtroom. The case being heard was that of a Brahmin woman who was lured into marriage by a doctor from Madras.

He claimed he was from her same upper caste but turned out to be “a chamar (untouchable caste of leather workers)”. The man usurped and sold all the money given to the woman by her father and sold her property. Ambedkar was the lawyer for the husband and argued that his client had done nothing wrong under the Hindu Code Bill. However, the judge ruled in favour of the woman.

When Ambedkar protested, the judge told him he would “request mother nature to throw out black English rulers just the way real English rulers had been made to leave”.

Untouchability was an issue that Kalyan was very touchy about. In the “temple entry for all” issue, one of its essays said that untouchables had the right to “worship nature gods, the sun the moon, the fire, the earth, the Ganga, the banyan tree, etc. The other forms of gods, ie., the cultural statues brought to life through chanting of Vedic hymns, could only be worshipped by a dwija (twice born), and this was the basis on which the dharamshastras bar the entry of untouchables into temples”.

COW SLAUGHTER When it came to cow slaughter, Kalyan brought out a special edition in July 1947 in which it reminded readers that “cow protection alone could save life and religion since the cow is the life of the nation”. The journal literally launched a campaign which it sustained for years. Much of the arguments against cow slaughter that we still hear are exactly the same ones propounded in the

Kalyan reposed faith in the caste system and saw the Hindu Code Bill as detrimental to the majority community. It was also touchy about untouchability and opposed the temple entry for all.

columns of the journal several decades ago. Incidentally, cow slaughter and untouchability were among the several issues on which Gandhi had differences with Poddar.

According to Mukul, the Gita Press was initially started as a counter to what was happening within the Marwari community. Westernization, both Poddar and his fellow founder Goyandka believed, was taking younger members of the community down the wrong path and away from the core values of Hinduism. They were marrying outside their castes and indulging in

EMOTIVE ISSUE (Above) Cow protection and worship, espoused in Kalyan, remains an important plank of right-wing parties in India

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Book Review Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India RIGHT PATH The founders of Gita Press were keen that Marwari youth retain Indian values

GITA PRESS AND THE MAKING OF HINDU INDIA

By Akshaya Mukul Publisher: HarperCollins Price: `799, 539 pages

a decadent life. The publishing project started out by providing reading material to the young and to awaken the Hindu consciousness and set right wrongs in society. But it turned political in no time with Kalyan.

But Kalyan was also a publication that promoted bhakti and gyaan. The typical reader, therefore, was not necessarily a believer of hardcore Hindu right-wing ideology. He or she had to be spiritually inclined to be interested. Poddar and Goyandka had a winning mix.

Mukul has said in an interview that the two “were unique in the sense that they created a very Bania model of Bhakti”. He further elaborates this point by citing from what he has written: “They were saying, ‘Do certain things, take the name of Lord Ram 50,000 times and you will get what you want in life.’ It’s a quick return, like a business.

They were the first ones to also start Gita and Ra-

28 VIEWS ON NEWS November 7, 2015

mayana tests with centers going almost up to Madras. At these centres, they’d test people’s knowledge in the Gita and the Ramayana. Then, they started the bank—in Bihar and UP—old people were invited to write the name of Ram and send the notebooks to Gita Press and feel, ‘Oh, I’ve taken the name of Ram 5 crore times’.” The promise of shakti in exchange for bhakti was popularized by Gita Press. Also, the concept that reciting God’s name helps accumulate punya (moral or spiritual merit) was also made into a trend that still holds true today.

Every page of Mukul’s book is packed with information that involves serious study. It is without doubt a gripping look at a recent slice of our political and social history. But don’t expect the book to be a page-turner falling into the genre of pop history. In fact, it is volume that you would like to refer to even after you have read it once.

S THE WORLD TURNS

Jail term, whiplashes for Iranian director

I

ranian filmmaker Keywan Karimi has been sentenced to six years in prison and 223 lashes for what was considered a provocative video clip and a documentary, Writing on the City. It describes political graffiti in Iran. A court said his work

had insulted sanctities in Iran.

Karimi is best known for his 2013 short film The Adventure of the Married Couple, which portrays the life of a couple who barely meet each other because of their different work shifts.

HuffPost takes a hit

H

uffington Post’s US traffic declined considerably over the past year, reports the International Business Times, based on data provided by comScore. From 113 million unique visitors in September and 126 million visitors in November last year, it saw the number of visitors shrink to 86 million in September this year.

On the other hand, HuffPost’s rivals have seen a steady rise: Business Insider (from around 30 million to 41

Foxy image wins prize

A

mateur wildlife photographer Don Gutoski of Canada has won the 2015 Wildlife Photographer of the Year for his image of a red fox carrying the

million), Vice Media (from around 36 million to 61 million), and BuzzFeed (68 million in August 2014 to 85 million a year later).

HuffPost explained this slide by clarifying that its focus over the past one year had been on global traffic.

body of its Arctic cousin after a fatal attack in Canada’s Wapusk National Park.

The competition was organized by London’s Natural History Museum.

The photograph, though depicting the brute force of nature, mesmerizes with its symmetry of heads, bodies and tails and even the expressions on the faces.

The Junior Wildlife Photographer of the Year went to 14-year-old Ondrej Pelánek from the Czech Republic for his image, “Fighting Ruffs”. The birds are waders and are known for their “rough” behavior during courting. This year there were 42,000 entries from 100 countries.

US scribe convicted in Iran

W

ashington Post correspondent Jason Rezaian has been convicted in Iran on espionage charges. He had been detained in Tehran for more than a year, according to reports in the Iranian media.

Though the journalist has been convicted, the specifics of the charges are not known.

Rezaian, a dual citizen of the US and Iran, was arrested in July 2014 on charges of spying on Iran’s nuclear programs and providing the US government with information on individuals and companies evading economic sanctions, the Iranian News State Agency reported.

The verdict has created outrage in the media, among lawmakers and the general public in the US.

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Editors’ Pick Maya Krishna Rao

The Government is Getting Nervous About Writers Speaking Out in One Voice

VON brings in each issue, the best written commentary on any subject. The following write-up, from The Wire, has been picked by our team of editors and reproduced for our readers as the best in the fortnight.

What could be a better way to protest against the growing imbalance than award-winning writers of the country returning their State Awards?

E INDIA UNDONE Mohammad Akhlaq’s killing puts a big question mark on the country’s liberal ethos

VERY freedom is under every kind of attack today—the right to life, to speech, to express, to choose which god to pray to, what food to eat and clothes to wear, what partner to choose…the list goes on. The attacks can be verbal, physical, rape and murder. The brutal killings of Dhabolkar, Pansare, the later lynching of Mohammad Akhlaq in Dadri, followed by the motivated indifference of both the cultural bodies and the government was when it became difficult to stay silent anymore.

As I see it, some fundamental issues to do with freedom are on the front burner today, and they are all connected—will someone tell me what I should speak, who

30 VIEWS ON NEWS November 7, 2015

my friends should be, what theme I choose to work with and the perspective from which I interpret it? And if I don’t comply, must I fear for my safety?

Life and cultural expression are not separate, they lie on a continuum when tolerance is under attack. Returning an award is an expression of that, fundamentally. It’s not about polarising, it’s about gathering around and fighting for a single theme—tolerance.

CONVERSATION HAS CHANGED It is not just writers and the creative community who sense that the key of conversations in the country has changed in the last year or so. It is not even about individual crimes like rape and murder, which do happen

everywhere in the world. The point is the general environment—it is about a whole atmosphere that seems to be manipulated by some machinery. Terrible statements and vicious attacks, typically aimed at inflaming passions between Hindus on the one side and Muslim and Christians on the other, are everyday occurrences. Dalits, adivasis and women are often particularly singled out. Those involved are from the broad Hindutva stream. Anyone can make that out. But more worryingly, there are ruling party MPs, and ministers.

Both from goon squads—who enjoy protection from the government—and from within the government of today, there has been a steady, continuous, threatening move to redefine who makes a ‘good Indian’. It’s not enough to be simply Indian anymore. On the one hand, women are reminded that they are not ‘Indian’ enough unless they follow a dress and behaviour code, Hindu women are extolled to produce 4 -10 children to solve the ‘menace’ of rising numbers in the minority communities and, on the other hand, the Culture Minister, Mahesh Sharma promises to “cleanse every area of public discourse that has been Westernised and where Indian culture and civilisation need to be restored—be it the history we read, our cultural heritage or our institutes that have been polluted over years.”

So much so that even the first citizen like the late President of India, APJ Abdul Kalam needed a good chit from Sharma. Referring to the late President he described him as someone who was a humanitarian and a nationalist, “despite being a Muslim.” It was a BJP minister who appealed to Parliament to throw out the word ‘secular’ from the preamble of the Indian Constitution. These are only some examples from the last few months.

A BLIND EYE Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s response has usually been to turn a blind eye, to remain silent for long periods or to choose to attack ‘pseudo-secularists’ for ‘polarising politics’ when he should actively reining in, with a firm hand, all those within and without the government who whip up an ethos of intolerance, who humiliate, rape and kill in the name of Hindutva. A government with 282

Even late President of India, APJ Abdul Kalam needed a good chit from Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma. The minister described him as a nationalist, “despite being a Muslim.” seats in Parliament carries weight, carries an even bigger responsibility, carries the power to ensure an environment of tolerance and a sense of security for every Indian. It was he who needed to take the lead.

How can one not be outraged? How can one not express outrage? How can one not choose to do it through an action that will get the government to sit up and take note?

What is truly amazing is the ‘award returnees’ did not sit together to decide on this course of action. It’s more like an electric current that’s zigzagging its way, even as this is being written, and ‘charging up’, as it travels through the length and breadth of India, our India.

In both pre- and post-independent India, artists and writers have expressed their thoughts, have protested whenever there has been a threat to what constitutes humanity and humaneness. Many among the writers who have stood up to be counted today have done so in the past too. I have personally made dance, theatre, comedy shows taking up a range of issues from AFSPA to the Babri Masjid to the 2002 pogrom in Gujarat, the policies of the Congress government, its complete inertia in VIEWS ON NEWS

November 7, 2015 31

Editors’ Pick Maya Krishna Rao

through creative writing, statements or marching on the street. Many of us will continue to do in so many different ways. And no one can dictate what the issue may be or the form it will take. But, yes, it will always be around restoring humaneness, around the politics of humanity.

Author Nayantara Sahgal returned her Sahitya Akademi Award in protest against the “unmaking of India”. She pointed to the killings of MM Kalburgi, Govind Pansare, Narendra Dabholkar and Mohammad Akhlaq.

A well-known man of letters, Ashok Vajpeyi, former chairperson of Lalit Kala Akademi, joined the protests by fellow-writers and returned his Sahitya Akademi award, saying, “It’s high time that writers take a stand.”

answering questions posed by youth who walked daily in the wake of the horrific gang rape of December 2012.

Yes, we have voiced outrage when the previous government did not ensure protection to MF Husain in his own country but, equally, we expressed outrage at the circumstances that led to his self-imposed exile, that is when the same right wing goons destroyed his works of art and attacked him. All this, after the 90 odd years that he lived, practiced and rose to the top as an artist in this same India.

Yes, many of these writers have expressed outrage at communal riots that took place during the regime of previous governments; yes, they have spoken up, whether 32 VIEWS ON NEWS November 7, 2015

OVERWHELMING PUBLIC RESPONSE The award is one instrument I had and I hope that by giving it up, along with many of my colleagues, it will help to jolt the government on the one hand, and on the other, reassure all those who believe that intolerance should not be tolerated, that it affects every one of us. I hope many in the juries who chose us support us today for that reason. From the overflowing public responses, particularly through social network sites, it is clear that in returning the award we have only lived up to the expectations of our readers and audiences.

The question is, why, on all those occasions, was there no excitement of the magnitude we see these days—from ministers, the press, saffron-robed ‘cultural leaders’ and an anti-liberal section of the population? Why so much agitation now—just because every day more and more writers and artists are doing the simple act of returning their awards or resigning from state-supported cultural bodies?

The answer, so plain to see, is because they are nervous. Writers of the highest calibre, with a large public following, from a wide range of languages, from different corners of this country, who were chosen to be recognised with top honours by the top cultural bodies of India, are speaking out in one voice. In a way that is unprecedented in this country—by returning their awards. Everyday, their numbers grow, even as this is being written. Their readers and admirers cheer them for their bold step. They take up front page news, everyday. Unprecedented.

Enough to get news channels to invite them on a daily basis on prime time. Enough to get the government nervous. Enough to give an alternative, humane voice and politics, a shot in the arm.

Maya Krishna Rao is a playwright and theatre actress.

She has returned her Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in protest

Web Crawler What Went Viral

Twitter’s verdict on Prez debate

T

witter users felt Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders (extreme left) was the clear winner of the first Democratic presidential debate, judging by the fact that he rapidly outpaced the other four candidates in getting new

Silver lining in Syria

“Todies” give it back

T

ragic tales from Syria have become all too common over the course of the country’s civil war. The scale of the devastation is so massive that it might seem surprising that there are places inside the country that look mostly untouched by war.

However, Ashraf Zeinah, one of Syria’s most prolific photographers, is chronicling wedding frolics, music concerts and basketball in Syria’s Latakia province—he has gained nearly 2,000 Instagram followers and 18,000 more on Facebook. Before the war, he travelled around Syria capturing architectural sites, work that has ended because of the fighting. He now takes pictures of weddings and other public events.

Twitter followers.

Sanders gained 35,163 new followers during the 150-minute debate. Meanwhile, the other four Democrats gained a combined total of just 23,219 new followers led by Hillary Clinton (left), who added 13,252 new followers.

In the second Republican debate, Carly Fiorina gained 22,000 Twitter followers and her poll numbers reflected a similar jump, as she rocketed from fringe candidate to second place.

W

riter Salman Rushdie caused quite a furor by terming Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s internet supporters as “Modi Toadies”.

Rushdie has joined many other liberal-minded writers in India, protesting against recent actions by right-wing Hindu groups.

In response to negative messages he received for his stance, Rushdie tweeted: “Here come the Modi Toadies. FYI, Toadies: I support no Indian political party and oppose all attacks on free speech.

Liberty is my only party.”

The term drew criticism from supporters of the Indian premier. Viv J tweeted: “Sad that so many of us ‘Modi Toadies’ who’ve defended u over years are now dismissed as sycophants.”

Murder caught on video

V

ideo footage of a laborer being beaten to death in Amritsar remained unnoticed by the state labor office, inspite of the fact that it went viral on social media.

The video, recorded by a person present at the scene, allegedly shows Ram Singh hanging upside down and being beaten with an iron rod by Jaspreet Singh, his employer, at the factory where he used to work. Singh later succumbed to his injuries.

Assistant labor commissioner of Amritsar Vipan Pariar told The Indian Express:

“I have checked with my sources. I have no knowledge of such an incident.”

Jaspreet allegedly kidnapped Singh from his home on October 15, suspecting him of theft. Singh’s body was later recovered from a road. Although a police case was registered against Jaspreet Singh and two others, no arrests have been made so far.

—Compiled by Anuj Raina

VIEWS ON NEWS

November 7, 2015 33

Trends Playboy Nude Photos

How I Learnt to Love Rock the Rabbit

With Playboy deciding to stop publishing nude photos, what does it mean for its reader? Here’s an account of an impressionable 12-year-old boy who chances upon this mag and the impact it left on him

BY BIKRAM VOHRA

I

REMEMBER I was 12 when I chanced upon my first Playboy copy in our home in Ambala Cantt. We were living on Race Course Road and my dad was commanding an armored regiment. In his bedroom in the side drawer near his bed under the files and some serious books, one of them a super edition of The Rubaiyat of Omar

34 VIEWS ON NEWS November 7, 2015

Khayyam, was this slightly crumpled but plump issue of shiny paper. This is 1960, remember, and a 12-year-old was mighty innocent as compared to his counterpart today. It looked wickedly inviting.

One of those days, luck was on my side. I was alone at home and was able to sneak the mag into the bathroom where I sat riveted for over an hour visiting the pages with the sort of slack-jawed dis-

belief only the truly naive can conjure.

Is this what women looked like? After that first sortie, I revisited the magazine whenever opportunity arose. I was by now able to get to the favorite pages easily since I had memorized them.

Naturally, the law of diminishing returns kicked in and the excitement of engaging in the forbidden paled.

REBEL WITH A CAUSE It struck me one day as I was listlessly turning the pages that if dad had one, he may have more. It was a kind of epiphany and I felt I was a rebel with a cause. They had to be tracked. Since this issue had a month written on its cover, there were, hopefully, at least 11 other issues from the past year somewhere in the house. All I needed to do was look for them.

I discovered two more. One, under my father’s neatly pressed shirts and one under the shoe rack.

Re-igniting my slipping passion, I had another enjoyable and deliciously guilty time as I leafed

through new playmates.

Then, one day, all three mags disappeared. Gone.

My private world destroyed. My flock of skin-showing friends had done the dirty. Like they did with the Scarlet Pimpernel. I searched high and low but the magazines remained elusive.

Had dad found out that his adolescent son was on the prowl...what evidence had I inadvertently left behind?

But there was no admonishment, no change in the mood and the normality puzzled me. In fact, my uncle was over, also an army officer and everyone seemed to be in a good frame of mind.

SUPERB ARTICLES Then I overheard my dad talking to his brother about how the articles in the magazines were firstrate. Not the pictures, the articles. At that moment in time, I was unaware this would be the global defense for investing in Playboy and truth be told, the articles were damn good stuff. In fact, the interviews were of such a high standard that they began to

There is a deluge of smut and sleaze that makes its way into the minds of a 12-yearold today. It has no class, it’s just undressed bodies and makes you feel unclean.

GRAND LIFE Playboy founder Hugh Hefner’s manion in Los Angeles where he held his lavish parties

VIEWS ON NEWS

November 7, 2015 35

Trends Playboy Nude Photos

THE SHIFT The first issue of Playboy, after the change in its policy

The interviews in Playboy were of such a high standard that they began to be seen as the finest in the world.

Presidents, actors, singers, writers, celebs jockeyed to be presented in between gatefolds.

Terry Berelowitz @terrycraigmini Oct 13 @PlayBoy"I only buy Playboy for the articles" - NOW this well used excuse WILL ring true #onlyforthearticles mike claiborne @claibss Oct 13 @PlayBoy Soooo the highly respected writing in Playboy will now be the sole reason for news stands to load up on extra copies now Scott @b4mv01 Oct 13 @PlayBoy in other news, Playboy goes bankrupt...

Longie @DaLeftHook Oct 13 @PlayBoy Thank god my grandpas aren't alive to see this. They're rolling over in their graves.

be seen as the finest in the world and it became a point of honor to be selected as a subject in Playboy.

Presidents, actors, singers, writers, celebs jockeyed to be presented in between gatefolds and the three or four Playmate series per issue. These included American writer and dramatist Joseph Heller, children’s writer Roald Dahl, James Bond author Ian Fleming, writer and journalist Gabriel-Garcia-Marquez, Canadian writer Margaret Atwood, Japanese author Haruki Murakami and American writer and director Norman Mailer.

What started as a fragile camouflage for viewing intimate nude pix became a hallmark of quality journalism...who’d have thought. Many a magazine attempted to clone itself on the original but never reached the incandescent writing and in-depth reportage and research that marked a Playboy interview.

Many years later, as a journalist myself, I shared with my father my teenage tryst with his magazines.

Over a drink, we had a good laugh and he said, “I knew whenever you took them.”

“You did?”

“Of course, I did, I am your father.” Which was explicit enough. Mum joined in and said: “Those awful magazines, one day I’ll throw all six of them away, such trash.”

36 VIEWS ON NEWS November 7, 2015

Six. I thought there were three.

I was mortified. I had missed three hiding places. She never did. Throw them, that is. And I inherited them.

Loaned them to a friend about 15 years ago.

Then the other day, when I read that the jaunty, impertinent Rock the Rabbit was in hospital, dying of neglect and buckshot that has hit his vital organs, it all came back.

My daughters said, dad those mags are dada’s “heirlooms” (we are that kind of family), we must get them back.

So I called the friend as I write this, certain that after such passage of time he’d be clueless. But I received a message on Facebook saying the mags were safe and I could send someone over to collect them.

That’s the thing with Playboy, no one ever throws them away.

What will we do with them? Guess we’ll read the articles.

PLAYBOY MAKEOVER Paradoxically, new age Indians have no real contact with the history of this magazine or the brilliance of its writers. Playboy soon became synonymous with lifestyle and pizzazz.

The iconic Playboy bunny, born in the nude (like

all of us) in 1953 earned his reputation for wearing a tuxedo while disrobing the most beautiful women in the world.

With the advent of the net, it all went away.

Thanks to internet and porn on the cob (or the click of a button), Rock lost his support base, with fans dropping from six million to 8,00,000 and revenues declining so rapidly that Rock may have to hock the Playboy mansion, the Playboy jet with his mug on the tail and Playboy souvenirs that once stood for style, pizzazz and sexual discernment. Perhaps all that will be salvaged is the string of upmarket Playboy clubs.

The deluge of smut and sleaze that makes its way into the minds of an Indian 12-year-old today while his fond parents think he or she is studying, bruises the innocence.

It has no class, it’s just undressed bodies and makes you feel unclean. There is something whorish about the easy access to gross viewing and ironically, you do not even have to pay for it.

So much more degrading than the innocent first stirrings of an earlier generation whose ignorance of things sexual collided with the suspicion that there was something wonderful out there, not yucky or cheap or tacky, but beautiful, caring and full of grace.

Playboy put women on a pedestal.

Porn makes sex seem unwashed.

In comparison, Playboy is almost evangelist.

That Playboy lost to the latter in the long run and has had to end its 58-year-reign at the top, is in many ways sad.

PRIZED POSSESSION Thousands of adolescents from my generation owe their introduction to the opposite sex and the au naturel pose to this happily smuggled magazine that was once banned in India and contributed extensively to the private collections of collectors at airport customs whose onerous duty covered con-

fiscating the copies from passenger luggage and outwitting ingenious hiding places.

In fact, the primary function of false bottom suitcases was for one to buy the latest copy of Playboy and conceal it under the official workload in that niche. Many a copy bought at Heathrow has been left behind in the seat pocket as the plane glided into an Indian airport.

It is no wonder Rock is on life support. What chance has the bunny got against such shotgun blasts of porn given for free?

For sure, the purists will never opt for mass and explicit net fare and shall continue to seek the relatively slick and highbrow visuals in Playboy but their numbers are few and dwindling.

And they are not going to be Playboy’s target audience any more. Starting its next issue, Playboy will meekly surrender to the mass taste for sexual material by calling off its celebrated Centrefold, its stable of Playboy bunnies and its famous monthly Miss series that created the most coveted annual calendar.

It is sad but we wouldn’t hold out for Rock’s recovery. The cheeky rabbit with the James Bond savoir-faire has lost his raison d’etre and it’s a pity because, dammit, we loved the quality of the articles, didn’t we?

So, thanks dad, for the gift of honesty, for not letting on that your son had discovered half your cache and thanks Playboy, for some great reading...oh, okay and super pictures.

And Mum for knowing that boys will be boys.

And not throwing them away.

WHAT PIZZAZZ The Playboy jet, with Rock the Rabbit on its tail

VIEWS ON NEWS

November 7, 2015 37

Advertising Copywriting

Does Length Matter?

In an ad, what works best? A short or a long heading? A crisp or a weighty body copy? It would be best to have more information in your headline so that the rest of the page is read

BY KRISH WARRIER

LONG, YET NOT BORING The headline of a famous magazine ad on Rolls-Royce is a staggering 18 words

38 VIEWS ON NEWS November 7, 2015

A

N advertising innovator, who is often called “The Socrates of San Francisco”, Howard Luck Gossage, (1917-1969) nailed it when he said: “Nobody reads ads. People read what interests them. Sometimes it’s an ad.”

Which, in turn, begs the question: what works best—long or short copy? And what about headlines? The correct answer to both is like the answer to a Zen koan (takes time for this realization): The one that works.

Traditionally, the practitioners of copywriting have advocated short headlines—eight words or less. This is amply demonstrated even when you take a cursory look at the ads in The 100 Greatest Advertisements... by Julian Lewis Watkins—95 percent of the most effective headlines from the early years of magazine copywriting were less than eight words.

But magazine copywriters were more concerned about space constraints—hence the brevity. On the other hand, the direct mail industry shows different results: Only 50 to 60 percent of the most effective headlines are eight words or less. Which effectively means that longer headlines work, too.

In today’s context, when anything beyond 140 characters is considered labyrinthine, what about online? We are all familiar with “web sales letters or landing pages that have a headline that looks like a short paragraph”.

Do these freighter-length trains of thought actually work? These long headlines can’t possibly be working, right? According to an “eye-tracking study” (understanding the way the eye moves when scanning any document) released by user-interface expert Jakob Nielsen, webpage visitors read in a “F” pattern, “scrolling intently across the top of the page where the headline should be, then making their way back again across the first subhead, then down the left hand side of the page to see if anything else is of interest”.

So, one can safely say that it may be prudent to include more information in your headline than eight words can get across, in an effort to get the rest of the page read.

The headline of one of the most famous magazine ads, written by none other than David Ogilvy himself, reads: “At 60 miles an hour the loudest noise in this new Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock.”

A staggering 18 words!

IT IS THE MESSAGE The headline for the famous Volkswagen ad was just a word: Lemon

S

o, when it comes to headlines, what’s the bottom line? Write the shortest headline possible that also convincingly conveys a unique benefit to the reader—which, in turn, will spur them to read the body copy.

The headline for a famous Volkswagen ad was one word: Lemon.

Another headline, for Zippo lighters, again was a single word: Matchless. So don’t say it

Does anyone read a long body copy? The answer is: Yes, they do, if it’s relevant and interestingly written. And for many products and services, long copy outsells short copy by a large margin.

VIEWS ON NEWS

November 7, 2015 39

Advertising Copywriting

readable long copy ads. The ones that immediately spring to mind are the ones for Mauritius Tourism

by Alok Nanda. Then, of course, anything written

by Agnelo Dias.

The common refrain of most clients has been “nobody reads body copy”. The only thing worse a client could ever say to a copywriter is the obnoxious—“maza nahin aaya” or “headline mei punch nahin hai”.

R

SUBSTANTIAL READING (Above) The Mauritius Tourism ad by Alok Nanda has a long body copy

Write the shortest headline possible that also conveys a unique benefit to the reader, which, in turn, will spur them to read the body copy.

cannot be done because people have been there and done that.

Which brings us to the second question: Does anyone read the body copy? Especially long body copy? The answer is: Yes, they do read long body copy if it’s relevant and written interestingly. And for many products and services, long copy outsells short copy by a large margin.

“When you get someone captive and reading your piece and you’re one on one, you have a chance to tell your story and connect with the prospect,” says Craig Simpson, co-author of The Direct Mail Solution. “It’s just you and them; I’ve found when we increase copy length, we increase response.”

You may say: Well, that’s ok for direct response; what about newspaper and magazine ads? The answer, again, is the same: Write relevantly and interestingly, and people will read you. Don’t believe me?

Take a look at the classic Neil French ad (a bit of a stretch for a beer, but oh-so-readable).

Here’s a piece of sage advice from celebrated author Elmore Leonard and it applies equally to copywriting: “My most important piece of advice to all you would-be writers: When you write, try to leave out all the parts readers skip.” Tongue firmly in cheek, but so true.

Indian advertising too has produced eminently

40 VIEWS ON NEWS November 7, 2015

eturning to the question about the length of body copy, I always go back to an Abraham Lincoln story. When asked: “Mr Lincoln, how long do you think a man’s legs should be?” Lincoln replied: “Long enough to reach the ground.” Yes, the basic rule of copy length is the same as headlines—as long as necessary, but no longer.

Here’s what Bob Bly says about the length of copy. It will depend on three things: The Product: If the product or service has more features and benefits, there is a need for long copy.

The Audience: Today, especially, prospects are seeking more information. Consider high value items like a car. People will go through reams of information on the internet before making a purchase decision.

The Purpose: What’s the objective? If you are generating a lead for a service business, then you need fewer details. But an ad that aims to make a sale, must overcome every objection the potential buyer may have.

In the final analysis, at the cost of being repetitive, while writing copy, remember to keep it only as long as it needs to be in order to make a persuasive argument, but not so long that your readers are bored stiff and feel sleepy, or worse, go off to attend to something else.

One way to avoid this would be to pre-test your copy. In the absence of formal research, you could run it by a friend, your wife or a colleague to gauge their reactions. You’ll be surprised by how people consume ads.

TV Review Bigg Boss

Double Trouble

Season Nine of Bigg Boss is a hit with viewers, thanks to a new element that has been injected into it

BY MEHA MATHUR

I

T has all the boredom that characterized the last few seasons—host Salman Khan sleepwalking through the show, inmates routinely bitching, bizarre tasks being performed to earn the weekly grocery and the tedium of cooking and cleaning in the same living area. Yet, Season Nine clicks. Perhaps the new element—Double Trouble—infuses life after a few seasons of misses.

Remember the aviation theme that “crash-landed” after a few days last year or the hellish experience of the Jannat and Jahannum theme in Season Six? The inaugural episode of Season Nine required contestants to choose their partners for the season.

It brought out their whims and fears—made clear by the rejection of Prince, the rustic Roadies winner, by four contestants. It was a regular mix of small-screen actors, models and foreign beauties trying to get a foothold into India. Rimi Sen of Hungama, Baghban and Kyonki fame and Aman Yatan Verma of Khul Ja Sim Sim and casting couch fame, upped the participants’ profile.

The contestants are supposed to do every chore as a pair. They eat together, with even their plates, spoons and bottles being joined and even sleep on joined beds. So what if their real-life partners in the same show are going through hell. At least model Keith Sequeira—Raymond’s Complete Man—is fine with his girlfriend, Rochelle Rao, being com-

fortable with Prince. He himself can’t get over the beauty of Iranian model Mandana Karimi, who is quite a force to reckon with in the house, compared with the guest appearances of previous foreign faces.

The sets are getting tackier by the season. All kinds of colors and themes are there, without much coherence. The tasks are just as bizarre. The first task had actor and author Digangana Suryavanshi and actor Roopal Tyagi burying their faces into the potbellies of two men, with the rest of their bodies hidden behind black curtains. When it came to getting her head tonsured or getting a Big Boss tattoo etched, Rimi Sen refused. There were angels too.

The captains for Week One, actors Vikas Bhalla and Yuvika Chaudhary (of Om Shanti Om fame) were asked to change any two partnerships after consulting all inmates. The two took great pains to ensure that most pairs who were comfortable with each other were not disturbed. What understanding!

Despite all the negatives, it was heartening to note that people could actually win hearts. Prince, who was rejected by one and all on Day One is every inmate’s favorite now.

Bigg Boss remains a favorite among young viewers. If the rationale behind shifting the show from 9 pm to 10.30 pm was to make sure that kids didn’t watch it, it failed. Many from this segment are cutting their sleeping time to catch the buzz.

The sets are getting tackier by the season. All kinds of colors and themes are there, without much coherence.

The tasks are just as bizarre. But despite the negatives, there are people there who could actually win hearts.

VIEWS ON NEWS

November 7, 2015 41

Media Monitoring Bihar Elections TMM Survey

POLLS AND THE SMALL SCREEN SEPTEMBER 16 TO 25, 2015 TOTAL TIME: 120 HOURS

A TMM survey of five channels—Aaj Tak, IBN 7, Zee News, ABP and India TV—throws up a confused picture of the issues involved and the possible outcome of the polls

By VON Team

42 VIEWS ON NEWS November 7, 2015

Percentage of seats distributed among NDA partners out of the total of 243 seats in Bihar

Percentage of seats distributed according to caste (Mahagathbandhan)

8.23% 16.11%

28.92%

16.46%

GEN OBC OTHERS

65.84%

9.46%

54.95% BJP

RLSP

LJP

HAM

Includes the Bhartiya Janata party (BJP), Rashtriya Lok Samata party (RLSP ), Lok Janshakti party (LJP) and Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM )

Percentage of special programmes of 30 minutes’ duration on Hindi channels 12

10.40%

10 7%

8

Percentage of seats distributed among Mahagathbandhan partners

ZEE NEWS AAJ TAK IBN7 ABP

8.00% 6.25%

6 4 2 0 1

16.87%

41.56%

41.56%

RJD

JDU

CONGRESS

Includes Rashtriya Janta Dal (RJD) Janta Dal United (JDU ) and Indian national Congress (INC )

2

3

4

Percentage of special programmes on Hindi news channels of one-hour duration 3.30% 3.50 3.00 2.50 2.00 1.60% 1.60% 1.60% 1.50 1.00 0.50

AAJ TAK ZEE NEWS ABP IBN7

0 1

Percentage of seats distributed according to caste (NDA)

2

3

Percentage of overall coverage on Bihar elections 15.85%

27.16% 34.97%

4

17.08%

15.41%

14.58%

15.83%

21.25%

37.86% GEN

OBC

OTHERS

AAJ TAK

ABP

IBN7

ZEE NEWS

INDIA TV

NDTV

Graphics: Lalit Khitoliya

VIEWS ON NEWS

November 7, 2015 43

Media Monitoring Bihar Elections TMM Survey

ISSUES IN BIHAR

Murder over beef—political face-offs 10.40%

INDIA TV

The main issues of Bihar which were not given importance by political parties

15.60%

The issues that were hyped by political parties

AAJ TAK

13% ABP

15%

ZEE NEWS

15% IBN7 Amitava Sen

Old heroes are still in media, but media gave space to new political heroes as well. Coverage given to new political heroes by prime channels (in percentage)

OLD POLITICAL FACES

V/S

NEW POLITICAL FACES

14%

44 VIEWS ON NEWS November 7, 2015

8%

12%

3%

11%

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Design

DESIGNS THAT MADE IMAGINATIVE USE OF PHOTOGRAPHS, FONTS, COLOR AND WHITE SPACES TO LEAVE AN IMPRESSION

By ANTHONY LAWRENCE

The tiny creature, with its deadly tentacles, has got a chance to feature on the Economist cover, everyone’s dream.

It’s a naked quest for supremacy between the Western Block and Russia in the Middle East once again, and the artist has depicted it literally. If you go by the illustration, the poker-faced Putin has already done the “Check-Mate” act vis-a-vis Obama.

46 VIEWS ON NEWS November 7, 2015

There’s a glow of hope in this hand illustration, with a sea of humanity marching for every cause conceivable, notwithstanding the pessimistic tag-line

Three cheers to liberty. Yes, a Japanese whiskey maker has made ice cubes in the shape of the famous statue. Among the other sculptural marvels you can raise a toast to are a Zen temple, Batman and the Sphinx.

Don’t fret. This is only Portuguese street artist Sergio Odeith’s 3-D art, giving the impression that the creepy crawly is bursting forth from a wall. The aggressiveness of the creature is contrasted with the warm flow that emanates from the choice of colors.

A New York School of Visual Arts student, 24-year-old Leah Foster, has actualized our childhood dream of mountains of cakes. These 10-feet pillars have thousands of cup-cakes stacked one above another in no particular color order. But can you eat the cakes and have the pile-up intact too?

The plethora of issues bogging India is conveyed in the clutter that we see on the cover. When will sanity prevail in India?

VIEWS ON NEWS

November 7, 2015 47

DATE 6/10/15

6/10/15

6/10/15

8/10/15

8/10/15

8/10/15

9/10/15

9/10/15

NEWS

NEWS

CHANNEL TIME

Uttar Pradesh government submits report on Akhlaq’s killing in Dadri to center. Report does not mention any motive for the murder.

10.42 AM

10.43 AM

Modi and German Chancellor Angela Merkel present at the NASSCOM programme. Modi says India unaffected by the global recession.

12.10 PM

12.11 PM

12.12 PM

12.12 PM

4.20 PM

4.21 PM

4.23 PM

4.24 PM

At his second rally in Bihar at Begusarai Modi calls Mahagathbandhan an opportunistic alliance. Says Congress did nothing in its 35 year tenure for Bihar.

12.15 PM

12:18 PM

Mulayam alleges Dadri issue a conspiracy by some elements. Blames Muzzafarnagar culprits for this.

2.12 PM

2.13 PM

Another program of Ghulam Ali cancelled in Pune after the Mumbai program.

The program scheduled for October 10 cancelled after Shiv Sena threat.

2.04 PM

2.05 PM

2.06 PM

2.07 PM

Lalu mounts attack on Modi saying he has insulted the backwards, not fit to be PM. Says he would complain to Election Commission.

10.17 AM

10.18 AM

10.19 AM

10.20 AM

Kejriwal drops Food and Supplies Minister Asim Ahmed from his cabinet on graft charges. Demand s CBI inquiry. Asim replaced by Abrar Hussain.

4.18 PM

4.19 PM

4.19 PM

4.19 PM

10.45 AM

10.47 AM

Four-fold hike in salaries of Delhi MLAs proposed, from `12,000 to `,50,000

48 VIEWS ON NEWS November 7, 2015

12.20 PM

2.14 PM

12.22 PM

2.16 PM

Here are some of the major news items aired on television channels, recorded by our unique 24x7 dedicated media monitoring unit that scrutinizes more than 130 TV channels in different Indian languages and looks at who breaks the news first.

DATE 10/10/15

10/10/15

NEWS Only NDA can provide development to Bihar, says Amit Shah at an election rally in Navada. People won’t forget 15 years of misrule by Lalu, he says.

CHANNEL TIME

1.00 PM

13/10/15

14/10/15

15/10/15

16/10/15

16/10/15

1.02 PM

1.03 PM

1.04 PM

Two blasts rock a peace rally in Turkish capital Ankara; many dead.

1.30 PM

12/10/15

NEWS

1.31PM

1.32 PM

1.33 PM

Noted writer and activist Sudheendra Kulkarni’s face blackened by Shiv Sena activists at the launch of former Pak minister, Mehmud Kasuri’s book.

10.01 AM

10.02 AM

10.03 AM

10.04 AM

Raid on Amitabh Thakur’s house in Lucknow by the Vigilance Department.

Charged with owning disproportionate income.

10.40 AM

11.38 AM

11.41 AM

11.47 AM

Giving his first reaction to the Dadri lynching, PM Modi says he is pained by the incident but the center had no role in this, his govt doesn’t support this.

9.02 AM

9.03 AM

9.03 AM

9.04 AM

Supreme Court stays order on dance bars issued under Section 33 of Maharashtra Police Act. Asks Maharashtra government to file appeal.

12.19 PM

12.20 PM

12.21 PM

12.22 PM

Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar says: “Muslims can stay, but in this country they will have to give up eating beef.”

10.05 AM

10.06 AM

10.07 AM

10.08 AM

10.35 AM

10.38 AM

10.38 AM

Supreme Court declares NJAC unconstitutional.

10.39 AM

VIEWS ON NEWS November 7, 2015 49

Governance Agriculture

How Green Was my Revolution?

A parliamentary committee has recommended giving top priority to organic farming. Is it time to dump the Green Revolution with its over-dependence on chemical fertilizers and pesticides?

BY DEVENDER SINGH

50 VIEWS ON NEWS November 7, 2015

W

HEN the government takes a broadbased and telescopic look at agriculture, it must relook at our farming history. That would give planning a truly holistic perspective. According to a UN report of 2014, if we have to address food security, the only way is through organic farming. Closer home, the Estimates Committee of the Lok Sabha, tasked with the responsibility to examine fiscal estimates and efficiency of expenditure, in its report of August 13 has made a wide range of recommendations for promotion of organic farming.

According to the committee’s report , the allocation of ₹300 crore for 2015-16 for the existing components of organic farming put together under Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY) is ridiculously paltry when compared to the subsidy on chemical fertilizers which stands in the range of ₹70,000 to ₹1,00,000 crore each year. Also, the financial assistance of ₹20,000 per acre up to three years for the promotion of organic farming needs to be extended for 4-5 years as soil rejuvenation takes longer to reverse the adverse impact of chemical fertilizers. The report quotes agriculture scientists who say that fertilizer subsidy has done the maximum damage to Indian agriculture as the imbalanced use of chemical fertilizers has degraded about 121 million hectares of land.

tended objective of sustainable agriculture which has the potential to increase 30 percent more employment by way of resource recycling, certification process, product marketing and packaging.

Notably, organic produce is increasingly being preferred by developed countries and major urban centers within India. The current global trade in organic food of $60 billion is likely to touch $100 billion. India, despite its varied agro-economic zones and huge potential, contributes only one percent to the global trade in organic produce.

Taking note of the severely adverse consequences of chemical-based farming and its cascading impact on our ecology, the food chain and water bodies, the committee has recommended bringing out a comprehensive policy on organic farming. This envisages setting up of standards, financial support, research, education, insurance, minimum support price and extension of subsidy on equal terms vis-a-vis subsidy given to

BUSTING A MYTH (Below) Chemical farming in India has only enhanced the production of rice and wheat

Despite the benefits of organic farming, the programs for promoting it have been disjointed, lacking in inter-departmental integration and have not been able to achieve the envisioned outcomes.

GO ORGANIC In fact, the report also says that the representative of the ministry of agriculture admitted candidly before the committee that despite the benefits of organic farming, the programs for promoting it have been disjointed, lacking in inter-departmental integration and not able to achieve the envisioned outcomes.

The committee has, therefore, recommended that the allocations for the promotion of organic farming be scaled up substantially to meet the inVIEWS ON NEWS

November 7, 2015 51

Governance Agriculture

History tells us that before the Green Revolution changed things dramatically in the 1960s, our framers confirmed to the principles of organic farming.

SLOW POISON (Top) The use of chemical fertilizers on fruits and vegetables has affected our health adversely (Above) Organic farming nourishes humans, animals, birds and millions of micro-organisms

fertilizers.

It has also recommended certification, market promotion, production and patenting of bio-molecules and setting up a regulatory regime for their production, storage, transportation and application and ensuring adequacy of green manure.

Further and more importantly, considering the tremendous benefits of organic farming, including its great employment potential, the committee has pushed for the implementation of the National Mission on Sustainable Agriculture through a single nodal ministry—agriculture ministry—by procuring suitable integration of different implementing departments or organizations and all allied schemes pertaining to organic farming.

52 VIEWS ON NEWS November 7, 2015

PERILS OF GREEN REVOLUTION History tells us that before the Green Revolution changed things dramatically in the 1960s, our farmers confirmed to the natural principles of organic farming. In fact, according to Sir Albert Howard, a scientist drafted to India by the British government in 1905, the Indian soil was fertile and without any pests. However, the burgeoning population and severe food shortages impelled the country to go for minerals-based farming in the late sixties.

This initially paid rich dividends in terms of higher productivity and pulled the country out of the morass of food insecurity. But the Green Revolution, due to unscientific and imbalanced use of chemical-based fertilizers, brought a very negative impact on India’s ecology. It came with degradation of soil health, gradual low yields, emergence of new pests and diseases, extinction of ecofriendly micro-organisms and percolation of toxic chemicals into our food chain, thus threatening the biosphere.

Empirical studies show that at the time of the Green Revolution, the country used to get 50 kg foodgrains by use of a kg of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium (NPK). Today, the yield is only 10 kg from the same nutrients. According to scientists, the ideal NKP ratio should be 4:2:1 but it has

HIGH DEMAND (Left) The current global trade in organic food is likely to touch $100 billion (Below) India needs to take proactive measures for shifting to organic farming

decreased to 7:3:1, and worse, in Punjab, the ratio is 39:9:1.

There is near unanimity among agro-scientists that chemical fertilizers have destroyed the original sources of soil fertility which are the microorganisms in the soil. The soil nourishes humans, animals, birds and millions of micro organisms.

The argument that India needs chemical farming to conquer hunger stands annihilated as it only enhanced production of rice and wheat.

The production of nutritious cereals like millets, ragi, mandwa, jhangora, amaranth, etc, which grow in rainfed areas and are at the same time drought-resistant, were neglected and labeled as coarse crops.

MARKETING PUSH The Estimates Committee in its report, while pressing for greater focus on organic farming, has cautioned against marketing of spurious products and its adverse bearing on India’s international trade. It recommended that apart from maintaining credibility of organic farm produce, creating demand for organic products needs to be addressed. Government, being the biggest spender of public money, can liberate organic farmers from the present predicament by enabling eligible consumers under the food security scheme to buy or-

ganic produce by getting food subsidy through direct benefit transfer.

This apart, hospitals, army cantonments, schools under Mid-Day Meal Scheme and the Railways can be persuaded to procure organic products to create market demand for the same. Further, markets in towns and cities need to be explored where fresh agro-organic products can be sold by farmers without any levy being imposed.

The committee has also urged the government to organize large-scale organic farming fairs annually to popularize and encourage these products.

While a complete shift to organic farming cannot happen overnight, a pro-active beginning has to be made. A major shift in our agricultural policy is what several experts have suggested. This shift would mean returning to our roots but it promises to pay dividends in the long run. — The author is an additional secretary in the Lok Sabha VIEWS ON NEWS

November 7, 2015 53

English is one of modern India’s 22 official languages, and is widely learned as the second language in most countries. Enjoy it and avoid falling into some common error traps. BY MAHESH TRIVEDI

REFLECTING MOODS All torn up Crying the blues Singing the blues Down in the dumps Down in the mouth Got the blue devils Have the blues Have the blahs In the doldrums

INSEPARABLE PAIRS Ways and means

Bubble and squeak

Meat and drink

Knights and garters

Wax and wane

Might and main

Wheel and axle

Boot and saddle

Fife and drum

Root and branch

Safe and sound

Fire and brimstone

Port and starboard

Bolt and chain

Sackcloth and ashes

Stars and stripes

In the dumper

WAYS OF GIVING ADVICE When offering advice or making a suggestion, familiarity with the different nuances and varieties of expressions helps: Have you thought of...

How about...

It might be a good idea...

Make sure...

If I were you...

Shouldn’t we...

I wonder if...

Suppose we...

You could always try...

You might as well...

You would do well to...

The best course seems to be...

You might consider...

It would be best for you...

SCARE AND SCARIFY The two have different meanings. “Scarify” is closer in meaning to “scar” than “scare”. “Scarify” is to scratch or break up the surface of, say, the skin of the individual or things. The women in certain tribes in Africa scarify their faces. ”Scarify” can also be used for “wounding with harsh criticism”. For example, a scarifying review. ”Scarify” can also mean to loosen and remove the top soil.

But “Scare” means to frighten someone. ”Scarify” is also pronounced differently—to rhyme with bar, car or tar with the stress on the first syllable.

54 VIEWS ON NEWS October 22, 2015

BAKER’S DOZEN God’s child ……………an idiot Nature’s garb

……………nudity ……………rum Sheriff’s hotel …………...prison Baker’s dozen……………Thirteen Gunner’s daughter ………a flogging Introducer’s fees……………a bribe Monkey’s business ……………mad business Montezuma’s revenge ……………diarrhoea King’s Charles’s head ……………an obsession Lady’s man ……………a man who delights women Little boy’s room …………… a lavatory of exclusive male use Nelson’s blood

AMERICANSPEAK Biscuit………………………gun Bitch………………………unpleasant girl Bodacious…………………..impressive Bling-bling………………….showy jewellery Bugged out…………………upset Happenin’…………………exciting Pig………………………..police officer Straight…………………….fine, okay Wazzup?………………….what’s up?

Yo………………………Hi

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