Governance Section
VIEWS ON NEWS ANANDIBEN: TAKING THE LEGACY FORWARD 46
VIDARBHA: INDIA STOPS SHINING , WIDOWS WAIT FOR RELIEF 42
www.viewsonnewsonline.com
THE CRITICAL EYE
APRIL 7, 2015
`100
GONE WITH THE
WIND India Today’s southern editions bite the dust
12
Aroon Purie
Goodbye to Lucknow Boy 26
Media Trials: When social posts hamper justice 18
Advertising and films: White is right 36
EDITOR’S NOTE
THE WEAKEST SLAT IN EVERY ISSUE of Views On News (VON) we now carry
cency” and so on. Juxtaposed with that article is an obit
a page titled “Editors’ Pick”. Our team scans the net, the
on Vinod Mehta, one of the finest journalists of our times,
blogosphere, newspapers and magazines and settles on
who was also the founding editor of Outlook. This issue
a story, column or editorial which we believe represents
of the magazine should be a collector’s item because it
the best in what has appeared in the Indian media during
is a searing and soul-searching commentary on what is
the fortnight that was.
becoming of the Indian media.
The judgments we arrive at are strictly subjective. We
Writer Satish Padmanabhan’s commentary was titled,
don’t follow any set rules, parameters or criteria—only
“Chuck The News, Give Me Yack Yack”. I think this crafty
our instincts. And we normally arrive at a consensus. This
headline is enough reason to figure out why we chose this
is because I believe VON is now a self-confident maga-
as “Editors’ Pick”, (even though I would have made a
zine, read not only in the media world but also by impor-
slight modification and changed “Yack Yack” to “Yuk
tant decision-makers and policy movers and shakers in
Yuk”.) The thought-stirring piece, written with barely con-
every field since we added a new section on governance
trolled outrage, is a scathing indictment of how news
and the bureaucracy.
rooms have changed and how Gen Next journos, led by
I believe that the core idea of VON—coverage of
their editors, are increasingly yielding to the temptation of
trends, developments, and personalities in the media—
throwing ethics and news judgment to the winds in favor
jells adequately with the subject of governance. Admin-
of tasteless tamashas which fail the basic purpose of
istrative efficiency and reform, economic agendas and
journalism and newsgathering—to inform, to enlighten
their implementation, the performance of min-
and to serve as a bedrock of democracy. The late critic
istries, corruption are topics that should form
EJ Lieblings’s profound prognostication seems to be
a part of the media’s daily business. What we
coming true: “The press is the weakest slat in the bed
have done, in addition to reviewing how the
of democracy.”
media covers this subject, is to cover
Read Padmanabhan’s piece for yourself to get the full
developments directly and hold our own
flavor. But I am tempted to quote the last para which is a
mirror to governance as well as exclusive tid-
beauty: “The big plusses of TV—taking the viewer to
bits that trickle out. Readers have been appre-
Dimapur or Singrauli, of which they have only heard, to
ciative, which is a great source of solace to
bring the voice of the victims and uncover the face of the
me personally.
oppressor, to show the colour, smell and texture of news
Now back to this issue’s “Editors’ Pick”.
as it happens in a frenetic country like ours—has been
The item was what we call a “boxed column”
thrown out of prime time. These days 9 o’clock looks
within a larger cover story in the latest edition
more and more like the kind of stuff we’d talk about after
of Outlook featuring the controversial Times
the bulletin is over—at a pub.”
Now anchor Arnab Goswami. It’s a must read story because it explores, through examples and a hailstorm of quotes, how the Goswami phenomenon has impacted what most people once referred to as “news”, “fairplay”, “de-
VIEWS ON NEWS
April 7, 2015 3
VOLUME. VIII
ISSUE. 13
Editor-in-Chief Rajshri Rai Managing Editor Ramesh Menon Deputy Managing Editor Shobha John Senior Editor Vishwas Kumar Associate Editor Meha Mathur Deputy Editors Prabir Biswas Niti Singh Assistant Editor Somi Das Art Director Anthony Lawrence Senior Visualizer Amitava Sen Graphic Designer Lalit Khitoliya Photographer Anil Shakya News Coordinator/Photo Researcher Kh Manglembi Devi Production Pawan Kumar
C O N LEDE
Gone with the wind 12 India Today shuts down its southern editions, writes R RAMASUBRAMANIAN
Chief Editorial Advisor Inderjit Badhwar CFO Anand Raj Singh VP (HR & General Administration) Lokesh C Sharma Circulation Manager RS Tiwari For advertising & subscription queries sales@viewsonnewsonline.com
Published by Prof Baldev Raj Gupta on behalf of E N Communications Pvt Ltd and printed at Amar Ujala Publications Ltd., C-21&22, Sector-59, Noida. (UP)- 201 301 (India) All rights reserved. Reproduction or translation in any language in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. Requests for permission should be directed to E N Communications Pvt Ltd . Opinions of writers in the magazine are not necessarily endorsed by E N Communications Pvt Ltd . The Publisher assumes no responsibility for the return of unsolicited material or for material lost or damaged in transit. All correspondence should be addressed to E N Communications Pvt Ltd . OWNED BY E. N. COMMUNICATIONS PVT. LTD. NOIDA HEAD OFFICE: A -9, Sector-68, Gautam Buddh Nagar, NOIDA (U.P.) - 201309 Phone: +9 1-0120-2471400-432 ; Fax: + 91- 0120-2471411 e-mail: editor@viewsonnewsonline.com, website: www.viewsonnewsonline.com MUMBAI : Arshie Complex, B-3 & B4, Yari Road, Versova, Andheri, Mumbai-400058 RANCHI : House No. 130/C, Vidyalaya Marg, Ashoknagar, Ranchi-834002. LUCKNOW : First floor, 21/32, A, West View, Tilak Marg, Hazratganj, Lucknow-226001. PATNA : Sukh Vihar Apartment, West Boring Canal Road, New Punaichak, Opposite Lalita Hotel, Patna-800023. ALLAHABAD : Leader Press, 9-A, Edmonston Road, Civil Lines, Allahabad-211 001.
4 VIEWS ON NEWS April 7, 2015
NEW MEDIA
Hung by a post In their hurry to comment, social media users forget that the final arbitrator is the courts and their comments could harm the accused, writes AISHWARYA RAMESH
Social media misfit A septuagenarian vendor finds the spotlight of social media on him galling as it unleashes a host of domestic problems. He now pines for the life he once lived, writes ZEESHAN KHAN
18 20
T E N T S HUMAN INTEREST
Pilgrim’s Progress
30
Steeped in history, MP’s Museum of Newspapers is a treasure house of old newspapers, rare documents and encyclopedias, writes RAKESH DIXIT
ADVERTISING AND FILMS TRENDS
Make It Snappy!
22
Smartphones and other technology have made the life of the insta-gen faster and quicker. However, along with this, patience is diminishing, writes PALLAVI DEWAN
26
Vinod Mehta was an iconic editor with a refreshing appetite for risk and a liberal-thinking that shaped Outlook, the magazine which gave India Today a run for its money , writes SHANTANU GUHA RAY
EDITORS’ PICK
Chuck the news, gimme yack yack
29
Field reporting is passe, chat shows have come to rule the programming roost, writes SATISH PADMANABHAN
36
BIKRAM VOHRA writes that if the advertising world is to be believed, everyone wants to be fair. Governance
SPECIAL REPORT
Gone in a fluff
OBITUARY
Goodbye, Mr Chips
Pigment and Prejudice
42
While the deaths of cotton farmers have often made news, most of their families don’t get the compensation promised by the government on one pretext or the other, writes AJITH PILLAI
PROFILE
She walks tall in Modi’s shoes
46
Anandiben Patel had an unenviable task when she took over as CM of Gujarat from a colossus. But Patel has carved a niche for herself through her unassuming manner and her open administration, writes RK MISRA
R E G U L A R S Edit...............................................03 Media-go-round............................06 As the world turns.........................07 Quotes..........................................08 Vox Populi.....................................10 Expertspeak..................................11 Grapevine.....................................50 Cover design: Anthony Lawrence Cover Photo: Getty Images
VIEWS ON NEWS
April 7, 2015 5
M
EDIA-GO-ROUND
Web journo awarded FOR THE FIRST time, the prestigious Chameli Devi Jain award, for excellence in journalism has gone to a web journalist. Scroll.in’s Supriya Sharma has been adjudged the winner by the jury for her “well-crafted reportage” which focused not only on the “neglected and the marginalized but also on contemporary issues”. Sharma is the first online journalist to win the prize, which is named after freedom fighter Chameli Devi Jain. The award has been recognizing women journal-
Campaign against
B-town wants Nihalani to be sacked
fashion police THERE IS OFTEN tremendous pressure on women to dress well and look presentable to please others. Often, a woman is unfairly judged for her dressing sense. Stand-up comic and columnist Radhika Vaz has joined hands with online shopping portal FabAlley in a campaign, “#unfollow”, to ease this pressure off women. In a powerful video, Vaz goes all nude to bring home the frustration that women go through to conform to fashion trends. The video shows her delivering a stand-up act without any clothes on. She says: “So the reason I am always in a bad mood is I have to start my day with a question that I don’t have an answer for: what the f**k to wear…the pressure is f****ing exhausting. So you know what, f**k the pressure, expectation and the fashion police. I choose to be uncliched, to be unnormal and to be unboring. I choose to unfollow.”
6 VIEWS ON NEWS April 7, 2015
ists who have upheld standards of excellence for 35 years. Sharma has been consistently doing some solid reporting-based articles and series for the news and opinion website. She proved her reporting skills with the “window seat” election series in 2014. She undertook a rigorous journey of 2,500-km by train from Assam to Kashmir to cull out stories about the aspirations of the electorate and its expectation from the new government. The series won her many accolades.
TOP BOLLYWOOD ACTORS and directors met Minister of State for Information & Broadcasting, Rajyavardhan Rathore, in New Delhi and sought Pahlaj Nihalani’s ouster as the Censor Board chief. Mukesh Bhatt, president of Film &
TV Producers Guild of India, Anurag Kashyap, Ekta Kapoor, Karan Johar, Ritesh Sidhwani, Vidya Balan, Deepika Padukone, Ramesh Sippy, Shabana Azmi, Gulzar, Aamir Khan and Vishal Bharadwaj were among those who met the minister. The demand for Nihalani’s resignation comes in the wake of a series of unwanted cuts in some recently released films like Dum Laga ke Haisha and NH10. Nihalani had recently issued a list of words that should not be used in films. The film fraternity feels, he has created a hostile environment that is curbing artistic freedom.
Viral memes: #AdarshLiberal vs #AdarshBhakt THERE IS A raging online war between ideal liberals and ideal bhakts. The weapons the two camps are hurling at each other are two viral memes spelling out the characteristics of a liberal and a bhakt. So who is an #AdarshLiberal? The memes say, one who goes on expensive holidays, eats beef, supports naxals,etc. On the other hand, the qualities of an #AdarshBhakt are —he worships Modi
and Godse, eats beef secretly but opposes it in public, joins RSS instead of the Army, etc. Some prominent names joined in this fun slur. Attacking #AdarshLiberals author Chetan Bhagat tweeted: #AdarshLiberal speaks on behalf of marginalised, but doesn't actually believe in empowering them.”
A
S THE WORLD TURNS
BBC’s
Jeremy Clarkson
AFTER BEING SUSPENDED by the BBC, journalist and Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson has hinted that he might resign. Clarkson has been suspended by the BBC after he reportedly got into a fracas with a Top Gear producer, Oisin Tymon, at a Yorkshire hotel. In his column in The Sun, he said that he is a “dinosour” and the time has come to say goodbye to the “monsters”, hinting that he might resign. He allegedly “smacked” Tymon, 36, after being offered a “cold platter”. BBC’s internal inquiry on the issue is underway. All the parties involved in the Yorkshire incident
may resign
will be questioned by BBC’s Scotland director, Ken MacQuarrie. The Telegraph, in a report quoted sources from within the BBC as saying that Clarkson’s behaviour was a result of the support he enjoys from high connections, including Prime Minister David Cameron. However, Clarkson has received huge support from his fans and well-wishers. “Bring Back Clarkson” petition has got 800,000-plus online signatures. According to The Telegraph, BBC's decision to cancel Top Gear while it investigates Clarkson, resulted in a loss of four million viewers.
French journo’s ISIS boyfriend
Lebanese
A FRENCH REPORTER, Anna Erelle, is living under the constant threat of ISIS. Erella is being targeted by the Islamic terrorist group for “betraying” one of their commanders. The threats began after she recently published her book, In the Skin of a Jihadist, where she documents her experience and conversation with a senior ISIS commander, Abou-Bilel, as a undercover reporter. To understand why young Muslims, both men and women, are attracted to ISIS and travel to Syria to join their jihad, she created a fake profile on the Muslim online commu-
told to “shut up”
nity. Soon, she attracted the attention of Abou-Bilel. According to New York Post, he fell in love with her and invited her to join him in the caliphate in Syria. It was through her conversation with Bilel that she understood the life in ISIS camps and what lures young men and women to that life. She says: “They say they reject the West, that they are anti-capitalist, but they love luxury and designer labels, it’s all Nike trainers and RayBan sunglasses with their military clothes. It’s another way of luring in kids, of saying, ‘I was once poor like you but look at me now’.”
New takedown guidelines from Facebook WITH INCREASING NUMBER of requests for taking down online content, Facebook has issued a new set of guidelines on what can be removed and what cannot be. The new community standards now include a separate section on "dangerous organisations" and give more details about what types of nudity Facebook allows to be posted. Speaking to the BBC, Monika Bicket, Facebook's global head of content policy, said the revamping was intended to address confusion about why some takedown requests were rejected.
A LEBANESE ANCHOR, Rima Karaki, has earned world-wide support for standing up against the sexist remarks of a London-based Islamist, Hani Al-Seba'i. In a video that has gone viral, the Al Jaheed anchor is seen interviewing Seba’i on reports of Christians joining Islamic groups such as ISIS in the Middle East. Instead of answering her question directly, the guest goes onto explain the historical aspect of the issue. When Karaki tries to interrupt and ask him to focus on the issue, Seba’l says: “Shut up so I can talk...It's beneath me to be interviewed by you. You are a woman.” To this Karaki retorted: “There is mutual respect, or this conversation is over.” VIEWS ON NEWS
April 7, 2015 7
Q
U O T E S
Kejriwal was nothing but a small single city leader. He was getting far more coverage than he deserved as compared to other more established opposition party leaders. So why spend time even ignoring someone? —Narendra Modi's reaction after Arvind Kejriwal announced his candidature for the Lok Sabha polls from Varanasi, in "The Modi Effect: Inside Narendra Modi’s Campaign to Transform India”
Anupam Kher, actor Rahul Gandhi's snooping (if at all) may ultimately help him. He may get to know who he is:)
Gaurav Sawant, editor, Strategic Affairs,Headlines Today Instead of maulvis if some obscure Muthalik type had banned women playing football in Bengal, the outrage industry would be in overdrive.
Omar Abdullah, former J&K CM
People who commit such crimes are not humans. Our sentiments are with the victim, who is like our mother. The culprits are a disgrace to society.
So either Alam has turned a new leaf & done a deal with Mufti Syed or he will go back to organising trouble in the valley. Time will tell.
Tushar A Gandhi, author, columnist Beef ban in Maharashtra & Haryana is a message to Dalits, Christian, Parsis, Jews & Muslims, in BJP's India they are 3rd class citizens.
—West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on gangrape of a nun in the state
Harish Salve, Supreme Court lawyer
Your god is dark like Ravi Shankar Prasad (BJP leader), but your matrimonial ads insist on white-skinned brides… The women of the south are dark but they are as beautiful as their bodies...We don't see it here. They know dance. — JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav in parliament, during a debate on the insurance bill
8 VIEWS ON NEWS April 7, 2015
In the world of spy satellites, wire tap and the like, wonder whether visit by a cop with a questionnaire should cause concern or amusement.
Sanjay Jha, Congress spokesperson Attacks on churches in Pakistan. Attacks on churches in India.Under Congress,we aspired for China's growth. Under Modi, we imitate Pakistan.
I can leave tennis for my daughter, any day. — Tennis star Leander Paes on what he feels about his daughter Aiyana, in HT City
Gandhi was objectively a British agent who did great harm to India…. He furthered the British policy of divide and rule. — Press Council chairman Justice Markandey Katju in his personal blog post
In Arnab’s theatre, journalists like me have a prescribed role. We are called upon to endorse Arnab’s opinion.
After interacting with Rahul Gandhi, I am confident that Rahul Gandhi has the necessary qualities to lead the party...We have no option but to go along with him. The Congress has no other pan-Indian leader. — Former Chhattisgarh chief minister Ajit Jogi in an interview to scroll.in
—Columnist Hartosh Singh Bal, in Outlook
People compare me to Virat Kohli which is not right because he bats higher up the order. —Pakistan batsman Umar Akmal currently playing in World Cup 2015, in Indiatoday.in
A mosque is not a religious place. It is just a building and it can be demolished any time... I got this information from people of Saudi Arabia. —BJP leader Subramanian Swamy in Guwahati, in The Indian Express
VIEWS ON NEWS
April 7, 2015 9
V
OX POPULI
Cricket MANIA
It is the World Cup season and news channels are devoting a lot of airtime to cricket. VON asks a cross-section of people if there is an overdose of cricket coverage? There is definitely an overdose of cricket coverage. After the match against Pakistan, TV reporters were seen talking to children who were neighbors of Virat Kohli and Shikhar Dhawan; after Gayle’s 200, there was an interview with the man who made Gayle’s bat. All of this adds no value to the sport. At the same time, many important stories receive considerably less resources and therefore less coverage, a case in point being the leftist agitations following Pansare's death in Mumbai.
This is a country of cricket obsessed people waiting to consume any piece of information that is directly or indirectly related to the sport. There are so many other significant issues to be talked about. I’m not anti-cricket and usually enjoy a match. But there has to be a limit.
There is an overdose of cricket news on TV channels. Keeping in mind the popularity of the sport, the channels want to ensure that they don't disappoint cricket fans by not covering enough! — Akriti, Hindu College student
— Anurag Gupta, copywriter, Isobar India
I am a football fan but I watch that on sports channels. News channels don’t have much on football, it’s only cricket there. But that’s justified given India’s craziness. If news channels don’t show cricket, how will they keep their viewers happy? — Arunabh Mathur, Amity School student
— Ranjan Crasta, scriptwriter and producer
I don’t think there is an overdose of cricket news. One must not forget the popularity that the game enjoys. Cricket is religion and cricketers are stars here. Being the most popular sport in the country, it deserves media attention, especially at a time when the Indian team is playing its biggest event, i.e. the World Cup, and we also happen to be the defending champions. — Avinash Sharma, media professional 10 VIEWS ON NEWS April 7, 2015
No, there isn’t. It is like asking whether there is an overdose of religion or politics in our society. There can't be enough of cricket as there are always more takers available, like Americans can't have enough of basketball or Europeans of football. — Ashwini Bhatnagar, editor-in-chief, www.writeconnectindia.com
Expertspeak Gaurav Kalra
“THERE’S BEEN A VISIBLE INCREASE IN COVERAGE OF OTHER SPORTS” VON speaks to GAURAV KALRA, senior editor at ESPN Cricinfo, to understand the quality of sports coverage in India and whether the media focuses too much on cricket at the cost of other sports What do you feel about the quality of sport coverage in India? Just like political, foreign affairs or business coverages, some of it is excellent, some average and some poor. What may not be be acceptable to me might be fine with another segment of viewers or readers. Each publication/website/TV station has its own method and its own audience to appeal to. I work at ESPN Cricinfo, the world's largest single sports digital platform, and take great pride in the high standards that are followed here. Often, cricket is branded as the sports that's killing other games. Is that a valid accusation? No. Over the last few years, there has been a visible increase in coverage of other sports. You can notice this across platforms. India is producing many world-class athletes and sportmen, across tennis, badminton, shooting and other Olympic disciplines. This trend is being reflected strongly in media. Some of India's most popular sportspersons now are not cricketers.
How much of a role does media coverage play in increasing the popularity of a sport? Media coverage plays an important role. It is in some ways a chicken and egg situation. Stories of success find greater traction and in recent times, there have been many more of those to report in India. For instance, even in the middle of a cricket World Cup, Saina Nehwal's final at the All-England badminton championships was hugely followed. The media has played only a small role in elevating her to iconic status; she has accomplished it mostly by her own feats. Sometimes cricket coverage in India can border on the ridiculous. Just a few days back, an English news channel was doing a show on how their reporter is enjoying bungee-jumping in Australia. Don’t you think such reports are a colossal waste of airtime and resources of a channel? You many consider this to be ridiculous but please remember the audience is not a monolith. They are interested in various kinds of coverage. Australia and New Zealand are countries that attract curiosity and I see nothing wrong with a reporter showing more than just the usual run-of-the-mill stories to his viewers. I believe there is space for light material of this kind on a channel. Who are your favorite sports journalists? Me! (Just kidding). My favorite cricket writer was the late Peter Roebuck. Forgive me for the bias but I have always admired ESPN Cricinfo’s editor Sambit Bal, even before I started working with him for what he has achieved with the website. I have great regard for Pradeep Magazine of Hindustan Times. VIEWS ON NEWS
April 7, 2015 11
Lede India Today language editions
GONE WITH
THE WIND India Today’s southern editions bite the dust
12 VIEWS ON NEWS April 7, 2015
F
BY R RAMASUBRAMANIAN EBRUARY 13, 2015, will be marked forever in the memory of all those who were associated with the Tamil, Telugu and the Malayalam issues of the flagship India Today magazine. The entire team, comprising the editorial, production, administration and the IT departments, met at a mass farewell following the decision to close down the three language editions, 25 years after they had been launched. The news spread fast, and over a dozen former employees voluntarily came to the office, to discuss the chequered journey of the three editions, that had been peppered by hot zeal and enthusiasm at one time. “Old-timers came in to show their emotional attachment with the organization,” a security guard at the 9,000 sq ft office building observed. The routine photo-opportunities on the last day helped to lighten the mood. “You are all sacked and still you are busy taking pictures?” remarked PG Sekaran, one of Chennai’s leading television anchors, dryly.
SUDDEN DECISION On February 9, the Group CEO, Ashish Bagga, along with a team of HR officials arrived in Chennai, and iafterc a closed-door meeting with the staff, announced the closure of the three editions. He said the magazines had been incurring losses for 20 years and the company could not bear them any longer. “The last edition, that will hit the stands on February 15, will announce the closure. The staff will be compensated adequately,” he said. Later, editor-in-chief and proprietor Aroon Purie, in an internal e-mail, informed the staff about the decision. Purie said that by April 30, the southern office of the Group would function from a smaller space of 6,500 sq ft, in the same premises. The smaller office would have a small editorial bureau and a marketing and sales team.
The signals had been there since September 2013, when after an editorial meeting in Chennai, attended by the magazine’s top brass, it was announced that the three regional editions were bleeding. The plan, to convert the Malayalam and the Telugu editions into monthlies, was shelved by Purie till the general elections in May 2014. However, again in September 2014, after a Delhi-level editorial meeting, it was announced that efforts were on to convert the Telugu and the Malayalam magazines into monthlies. On both the occasions, it was said that there was no need to convert the Tamil magazine into a monthly. Therefore, the news of the closure of the Tamil issue, on February 9, came as an unexpected jolt.
ON THE
ADVENTUROUS JOURNEY It had been a long and exciting journey. The first issue of the Tamil magazine was published on September 1989. A year later, the Malayalam and the Telugu issues were launched. “Those were the good old days. We were fully and emotionally involved with the magazines. After two dummy issues, we launched the first issue which featured the feud between Nusli Wadia and Dhirubhai Ambani on the cover. There were set rules for each story, whether it was concerning VP Singh,
Proprietor Aroon Purie, in an internal email, informed the staff about the closure. Earlier, the approval for Delhi was a must for even a small news note. VIEWS ON NEWS
April 7, 2015 13
Lede India Today language editions
“A few companies that wanted to advertise in the Tamil edition were chased out after enormous pressure was exerted on them to advertise in the English edition as well. It was a calculated, well-designed and purposeful carnage. —An India Today insider.
OLD ASSOCIATION (From left) Aazhi Senthilnathan, a former associate editor and S Nana, a senior designer, of the Tamil edition
Rajiv Gandhi or Amitabh Bachchan. This uniformity created a rhythm in the production quality and in the layouts,” says S Nana, a senior designer, who designed both the first issue in 1989, as well as the last issue on February 2015. In keeping with the trend in Delhi, the fortnightly magazines were made weeklies in the late nineties. The initial days were full of struggle. “The selection of Tamil fonts was difficult. The layouts were imperfect. But both the content and the printing were rich. The biggest challenge was the transformation. A six-page story from New Delhi would be squeezed into four pages for the Tamil edition. We lost in layouts and in the translations, but the situation improved over time,” adds Nana. As is usual with weeklies, sometimes both the production and the editorial had to race against time because on Thursdays and Fridays, 40 pages had to be completed with inadequate staff strength. The period from 1989 to 2000 was exciting. The debacle of Rajiv Gandhi, the Gulf War, the collapse of the Soviet Union, the unleashing of the economic reforms, the Jain Commission report leaks, the fall
14 VIEWS ON NEWS April 7, 2015
of the IK Gujral government and the ascendency of the BJP were great feasts for the readers. “Raj Chengappa’s war reporting and Shekhar Gupta’s coverage of the collapse of the Soviet Union gave a feeling to the reader in Tamil Nadu that he too was a part of these historic world events,” says Nana. In Tamil Nadu’s politics too, these were interesting times. The assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, J Jayalalithaa’s downfall and arrest, Rajnikanth chasing great heights in cinema, the split in the DMK—all provided great fodder for the magazine. The Tamil Nadu edition was the pioneer in structuring cover stories, using data for analysis, diagrams, boxes, factoids, photo essays, and so on. Other Tamil magazines later started following the same format. There were teething problems. “Covering local issues was a problem. The first two editors—S Malan and Vaasanthi—were from a literature background and were not hardcore journalists. Though this had its advantages, the disadvantages were many since it was a political news magazine. It was not localized properly—and I would blame Delhi
A senior executive says Purie’s son, who is controlling Thompson Press in Chennai, wants to sell the property. “Thompson Press is functioning from 18 acres of land. It is worth nearly Rs 160 crore,” he says.
for this. The problem worsened in the later stages as the magazine failed miserably to evolve a robust culture in generating local stories at par with national standards,” says Aazhi Senthilnathan, a former associate editor of India Today’s Tamil edition. “The magazine had a pan-India character. The news stories in those days were full of depth and 360 degrees’ perception. The concept of specialists writing columns in Tamil journalism was introduced by India Today,” adds Senthilnathan. DELHI-CENTRIC APPROACH India Today injected professionalism in news journalism but the lack of localization created a peculiar situation for the Tamil issue wherein it was looked upon as an alien in the eyes of its readers. For every story, including small news notes, approval from Delhi was a must. Some old-timers say that there was an attempt in 2002 to change the situation after Anand Natarajan took over as executive editor. He concentrated on local stories and tried to introduce some new sections. Unfortunately, the lack of support from
Delhi and Natarajan’s inherent weaknesses as a journalist destroyed the attempts. Most observers agree that the Delhi-centric approach was the cause of the collapse. The result was that the Tamil issue, that was selling 2.75 lakh copies at one time came down to 24,000. Another factor for the downslide was the lack of interest shown by the marketing, advertising, sales and distribution departments. Says an insider on the condition of anonymity: “If anyone from Chennai, for example, a big textile brand, wanted to advertise in India Today Tamil, the office would get a call from New Delhi and be given sermons about the space in the magazine. The tone and tenor would be such that the advertiser dropped the plan altogether. This destroyed the advertising market for the regional editions.” He adds: “A few companies that wanted to advertise in the Tamil edition were chased out after enormous pressure was exerted on them to advertise in the English edition as well. It was a calculated, well-designed and purposeful carnage.” Senthilnathan agrees: “They didn’t have a regional space-selling program. Except Aroon Purie, no one in the organization had any interest.” He says this is a classic example of the saying that “the fish rots from the head.” Senthilnathan further says that he had an inkling of the magazine’s jeopardized future
MARKING THE CUT (Below) Group CEO Ashish Bagga
VIEWS ON NEWS
April 7, 2015 15
Lede India Today language editions
Anil Shakya
NEWSMAKERS (Left) Actor Rajnikanths’s legendary rise and (right) AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa’s chequered political career provided enough fodder to the regional editions of India Today
when the Chennai office was being moved to a rented space in March 2012. “While shifting, they wanted to get rid of their earlier copies, spanning 23 years. I was flabbergasted. They were finally given away to a library. The old copies of India Today, all the data and the record they carried, which spoke volumes about India’s politics and other subjects, would have earned Rs 50 crore from Google or Microsoft. Alas, they decided to donate it to a library.” Senthilnathan says that India Today’s refusal to go for technological upgradation was also a problem. The Tamil, Telugu and the Malayalam editions did not even have websites. It’s a pity that at a time when the media segment is moving towards digitalization, India Today which had 25 years of market leadership, decided to dispense with it for its local editions. REAL ESTATE DRAW Insiders at the Delhi office say that the next generation is not interested in the business. “Aroon Purie had a passion for regional language editions. These three were his pet projects. Unfortunately neither his daughters nor his son have any love for the regional editions. Purie is getting old and he cannot resist the pressure from his family members from taking the
16 VIEWS ON NEWS April 7, 2015
inevitable decision,” says a senior executive of the company who did not want to be named. The situation got worse after the Birla Group took 26 percent of shares in the company. “The pressure of Birlas is one of the reasons but not the only one. The Purie siblings have started losing interest in the regional market,” the
source adds. Another senior executive says that Purie’s son, Ankur Purie, who is controlling Thompson Press at Maraimalai Nagar near Chennai, is not interested as he wants to sell the property. “Thompson Press is functioning from 18 acres of land. It is worth nearly Rs 160 crore. They are not taking any new orders. The argument that it has to be maintained for printing the southern editions of India Today is not cutting any ice with Purie’s son; he says that the English edition has a print order of just 40,000 copies for the entire South Indian region; he does not need to keep such a big property for that pittance,” he says. Real estate, it seems, has taken precedence over journalism. Today, there is a huge vacuum for quality Tamil magazines. Despite all its shortcomings, India Today can fill the gap. “Yes, even if they restart after six months or after a year, they will capture the market, because there is no competitor, who can match their quality,” says Nana. Probably this was the reason why old-timers visited the Chennai office on the last day; there is a longing for good regional journalism. (The author was a principal correspondent with India Today’s Tamil edition.)
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New media Unwanted verdicts
Hung by a post T
In their hurry to comment, social media users forget that the final arbitrator is the courts and their comments could harm the accused BY AISHWARYA RAMESH
HE emergence of new media has thrown up a host of problems, one of which is trial by media. Due procedure of law dictates that a criminal be tried in a court of law and appropriate punishment be awarded. However, increasingly, popular media has taken the trial into its own hands, passing judgments and pronouncing people guilty, mostly without evidence or proof. In most cases, media’s implication of guilt may have an adverse effect on the outcome of the case, which is why comments on public forums should be made judiciously. In order to avoid trials by media, the Press Council of India (PCI) has laid down guidelines for reporting cases. PCI warns journalists not to give excessive publicity to victims, witnesses, suspects and the accused as it amounts to invasion of privacy. It is commonly understood that the identification of witnesses
18 VIEWS ON NEWS April 7, 2015
Insta Fame
Instances of trial by social media: On November 19, 2012, two girls, Shaheen
Dadha and Renu Srinivasan were arrested by the Palghar police in Thane. Shaheen had posted her views on Bal Thackeray’s death, stating that “people like [Bal] Thackeray are born and die daily and one should not observe a bandh for that. We should remember Bhagat Singh and Sukhdev, two martyrs of India’s independence struggle”. People’s Union of Civil Liberties leader Jaya Vindhyala was arrested at her residence in Secunder-
abad for posting objectionable content on a social networking site. She was arrested under Section 66 of the Information Technology Act which is non-bailable. Sanjay Chowdhary, a resident of Dayalbagh, an Agra suburb, was arrested on February 5, 2013, for putting “communal and inflammatory” comments on Facebook about Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, ex-telecom minister Kapil Sibal and Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav. A senior officer said he was arrested to prevent
may endanger their lives and force them to turn hostile. However, media trials still happen brazenly, with social media giving people a platform to voice their opinion. Also, the hashtag trend ensures that people keep commenting on issues that interest them. DEEP REPERCUSSIONS “People get influenced by comments circulating on social media forums. So ultimately, if the court’s verdict is not the same as theirs, there might be protests,” says Roshni Karthikeyan, social media editor, The New Indian Express. This also has deep repercussions on the victim. “He (the accused) will have no clue as to what his situation will be. He will have mixed feelings about the court’s judgment versus people’s judgment and be scared to step out of the prison if and when released,” she adds. Whether it is voicing opinions about the beef ban in some states, or the Nirbhaya rape-accused Mukesh Singh’s comments on BBC’s banned documentary India’s Daughter or India losing a match against Pakistan, social media users are taking full advantage of the availability (and anonymity) of the platform to voice their opinion. A single tweet, a wall post or an image has the potential to go viral. The issue keeps trending till the news becomes stale, or till the next piece of news hits the internet.
communal flare-up. Kanwal Bharti, a poet, was arrested for questioning the arrest of civil servant Durga Shakti Nagpal on social media. Durga Nagpal was suspended for demolition of a wall which was a part of the mosque. Cartoonist Aseem Trivedi was arrested by the Mumbai police in September 2012 for putting up banners mocking the constitution. He has also been charged with posting seditious and obscene content on his website, which has been blocked.
CHECK FACTS In the race to make comments, facts and evidence are given short shrift. The reality is that a social media user has the same access to facts and figures that a journalist has. What differentiates the two is that the social media user may not do extensive research before putting across data. “People are too quick to judge on social media,” says Rohan Jagan, a journalist with the Sakaal media group. “Take the case of the Dimapur mob lynching the rapist. Many people on my FB timeline agreed that this is how a rapist must be punished. No one bothered to let the law take its natural course,” he says. “Similar was the case with the BBC documentary. Many of those who expressed anger against its ban, might not have even seen it,” he says. Debdatta Sengupta, a journalism student at Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communications, Pune, would like to tread cautiously. “There have been instances where people in power have targeted social media users for expressing their viewpoints, so I make it a point to be cautious,” she says. On the other hand, Shamir Reuben, her batchmate, says: “Truth is bitter, but it needs to be heard.” But the point is, who decides the truth? VIEWS ON NEWS
April 7, 2015 19
New Media society and change
Social media misfit A septuagenarian vendor finds the spotlight of social media on him galling as it unleashes a host of domestic problems. He now pines for the life he once lived BY ZEESHAN KHAN
S
QUEAK! SQUEAK!” This is the familiar sound that grabs people’s attention as they hurry between Gate No 7 and 8 of Rajiv Chowk Metro Station, bang in the middle of New Delhi. Amidst the hustle and bustle, 77-year-old PV Saar occupies a bench, opposite the Van Heusen showroom, along with colorful handbags, floating ducks, incense sticks and a brown travelling bag. He periodically raises his puppets, and makes them squeak. Saar, a retired bank manager, spent all his savings on his son’s study. Unfortunately, the son is no more. His pension went into the marriage of his three children. He is now reduced to selling on the pavement. He usually wears a shirt tucked in his highwaist trousers, has a pair of thick glasses and a walking stick. He stays in Bahadurgarh, Haryana, and travels 150 km every day. He lives with his wife, who is suffering from asthma, while one of his married daughters stays in Delhi. He leaves for work at 3 pm every day, taking a shared taxi from his house till Peeragadhi, from where he takes the metro to come to Rajiv Chowk.
UNEXPECTED MEDIA GAZE For the past few months, he is being visited by “fans”. “Uncleji aapka video dekha tha Facebook pe. Bohot khushi hue aapse mil ke. (Uncle, I saw your 20 VIEWS ON NEWS April 7, 2015
video on Facebook. I am glad to meet you),” people tell him. Saar’s popularity began with a Facebook post by the Rashtriya Shiv Sena on June 4, 2014. “Salute and Respect”, read the caption below his photograph. It soon started trending and within weeks, his image was “liked” by over 1.5 lakh people. On June 20, 2014, a YouTube video of Saar’s interview by an aspiring actor went viral. Within a week, Rs 1,51,600 had been collected and donated to him. Once he came under the media glare, reporters and documentary filmmakers started digging deeper into his life. However, what came along with the sudden, unsolicited attention, were a series of domestic issues. Saar’s relatives were unaware that he was a puppet-seller; he preferred it that way. With the sudden hype, he became a victim of social ridicule. Since street vendors are among the lowest strata of society, finding one’s relative or neighbor in the same boat unleashes unease. The limelight that Saar never asked for was costing him his peace of mind. FORCED TO LEAVE HOME As Saar’s personal space shrank, troubles at home reached a new low and forced him to leave Rohtak and move in with his brother in Bahadurgarh. “Video banana, photo kheechna who bhi bina bataye, chalo who bhi theek hai. Par jab log mujhe bina jaane mere bare mein ulta-sulta likhte hain toh bohot afsos hota hai. Mujhe ek din kisi ne bataya ke kisi ne Facebook wale photo pe comment kiya, ‘This is new age begging’. Ek newspaper ne kuch likha mujh par aur headline di, ‘Apno ka saath choda, khilauno se nata joda’. Taqleef hoti hai par abb kya karein? (It hurts when people without knowing me say anything they wish. Someone told me that somebody commented on Facebook that ‘This is new age begging’. A newspaper article headline read: ‘Abandoned by dear ones, made friends with toys’. It hurts, but what can be done?),” he asks helplessly. Incidentally, a donation of $25,000, collected
Zeeshan Khan
Since street vendors are among the lowest strata of society, finding one’s relative in the same boat unleashes a lot of unrest. Saar realized that the limelight he had never asked for was costing him heavily. from a woman in the US, went missing. Saar was later informed about it by the father of the woman. He has now decided to keep mum and requests people not to write about him, though he appreciates the help. “Abhi kuch din pehle do ladkiyan aayin aur mujhse kaha ke hum aapki madat karna chahte hain. Maine kaha bilkul keejiye. Unhone na jaane kya kiya, ek ghante mein sab bik gaya. Bohot pyaari bachhiyan thi. Bhagwaan unein khoob tarakki de. (A few days back, two girls came and volunteered to help me. I asked them to do it if they wanted. They sold out everything I had in an hour. I pray that they succeed in their lives).” He yearns for a life of anonymity. “One day, they’ll find something else to talk about, and it’ll all be forgotten. I just wish that my family lives in peace,” he says.
BRAVEHEART (Above) PV Saar with his toys at his bench in Connaught Place, Delhi; (facing page) the Facebook image that went viral and triggered a campaign
VIEWS ON NEWS
April 7, 2015 21
Trends Technology overdrive
I Make it
snappy!
STAYED without my phone for a week! I should be rewarded!” exclaimed Arunima Gaikwad, a 25-year-old photographer from Pune, waiting to get her smartphone back from the Samsung service centre, and making no attempt to veil her disgust at the delay. The rapid advances in new technology have made the new generation accustomed to getting anything they want in a jiffy. Why wait for a movie’s DVD to come out if you can watch it on Netflix? Why stand in long queues to book tickets when it can be done on your smartphone? Why think when you can Google? The present generation has seen both sides of the coin; it has evolved from a Sony Walkman to an Apple
That’s what the insta-generation would like to tell everyone. After all, smartphones and other technology have made their life faster and quicker. Along with this, patience is diminishing and deep thought missing BY PALLAVI DEWAN 22 VIEWS ON NEWS April 7, 2015
iPod, from a simple T9 keypad phone to multitasking smartphones like OnePlus and iPhones, from animation games like Mario to Assassin’s Creed, from dial-up to 4G speed internet. Gone are the days when a video would take an hour to buffer, or a movie would take four hours to download. The waiting time has been steadily decreasing with advancements in technology. “I recently upgraded my internet pack from 15mbps to 20mbps for the same price. It’s great to download a movie in 10 minutes,” says Anish Sharma, a 27-year-old-software engineer from Pune. Consumers now deem it their right to derive instant appeasement. It is imperative to stay connected, at all times. Everything should be readily available in this age of instant coffees, instant photographs, instant recharge, instant chocolate, instant payments, instant banking, insta-glow, instant loans, instant information, instant online dating; the list is endless. “Sending snaps of a meal I’m eating, a new place I’ve visited, a party I’ve gone to or the sport I am playing, on my Snapchat or Instagram is the ‘done’ thing. Technology and applications like
these have brought people closer and this is all the result of fast-speed internet,” says Nohar Kumar Chona, a 21-year-old political science student from Delhi University.
WANT A DATE? IT professional Amit Sharma, who regularly uses the dating app Tinder
HANDY ORGANIZER With mobile applications (apps) readily available for almost every minute function, life has become quick and convenient. Aunum Mehta, a 24-yearold professional from Mumbai, uses her iPhone to organize her life on the go. “I check my phone every five minutes. From booking movie tickets to paying my electricity bill and shopping for the most basic utilities as well as cosmetics, from websites like Flipkart and Big Basket, the phone comes handy for everything,” she says. She feels handicapped without her phone and can barely sur-
It becomes “breaking news” if Facebook statuses aren’t updating, or WhatsApp servers are down. Is it the end of the world if you don’t post what you’re eating? VIEWS ON NEWS
April 7, 2015 23
Trends Technology overdrive
vivea day without it. “On my phone, I have apps like Paytm (for bill payments), HDFC Bank for online transactions, Bookmyshow, Cleartrip and Zomato to help me make my bookings, sans the hassle of physically doing the same work,” she adds. For the insta-gen, another spin-off has been that it has become extremely accessible and hasslefree to meet new people and stay in touch with them. Users flock to dating sites for this purpose. Amit Sharma, a 24-year-old IT professional from New Delhi, who regularly uses the dating app Tinder says: “Tinder has its perks. It helps find In a conversation with a people who are closestudent, physicist and author by, which makes it Stephen Hawking said the easy to hook up. Talking to people on the “aggressive nature” of people phone or Skype makes will “destroy us all”. communication easINSTANT CONNECTIVITY
The lure of helpful apps makes users addicted to smartphones
24 VIEWS ON NEWS April 7, 2015
ier.” Human relationships have become convenience-based and the very spirit of sharing warm and close ties is missing. THE CONS There is, however, a dark side to this desire for fast gratification. Inadvertently, the insta-gen is paying a huge price without even realizing it— and this is impatience. According to The Independent, in a conversation with a student, Adaeze Uyanwah from California, physicist and author Stephen Hawking, said that the “aggressive nature” of the people around will “destroy us all”. In fact, patience and tolerance are no longer part of the new generation’s vocabulary. It becomes “breaking news” if Facebook statuses aren’t updating or WhatsApp and Instagram servers are down for an hour. Is it the end of the world if your friends do not know what you’re eating for lunch?
Waiting for a few extra seconds for a video to buffer or a page to load feels like an eternity. “My patience starts to run out after 15-20 seconds, even if I’m not doing anything important,” says Harsh Kataria, a 21-year-old engineering student from Gurgaon. E-COMMERCE WINDFALL E-commerce firms like Amazon, Myntra and Flipkart are capitalizing on this impatience of their target audiences, by introducing features like next-day delivery and same-day delivery. Flipkart has introduced the Flipkart First Subscription for Rs 500 a year where customers get privileges like premium access, free next-day delivery and discounted same-day delivery. A leading UK-based clothing label, ASOS, has introduced a premium membership for £9.95 a year, where the customers can avail similar privileges. An increasing number of shoppers do not mind paying extra cash to receive their products faster as they don’t want to wait at all. “There is a lot of competition in the market and with companies like Snapdeal and Flipkart offering next day deliveries, it makes sense to get the product faster at an additional cost rather than ordering it from a website that will take longer in delivering,” adds Nohar. This impatience is also visible in how quickly members of the insta-generation want their careers to escalate. Switching jobs has become a rising trend among the working youth. Hard-work and perseverance is the least of the qualities that the youth possess. Robina, a 29-year-old fashion merchandiser in Delhi, who has switched three jobs in the last five years, says: “I don’t want to wait until my hair turns white to get where I want to be. Life is short and the pace is fast so we have to gear up, move ahead and switch jobs faster. I do all this so that I am ahead of all and even ahead of myself.” But this instant appeasement is taking a toll
on the attention span of the average individual. With multi-tasking with multiple tabs on laptops and smartphones, it has become tough to devote undivided attention to any one thing at a time. The need for constant stimulation also hampers the time that can be given to retrospection and deep critical thinking. Wi-Fi connections are becoming faster while human connections are becoming feeble; phones are becoming smarter, whereas people are becoming callous; virtual lives on Facebook and Instagram are becoming more active than reality. It is time for the insta-gen to get out of the web of technology before they are left reeling under it. It is time to start filtering your words and thoughts before you filter your photographs and start living your life rather than scrolling through it.
SMITTEN BY SPEED (Clockwise from top left) Nohar Kumar Chona likes the concept of next-day deliveries; Harsh Kataria admits his patience runs out fast; Robina likes the fast pace; and Anish Sharma downloads movies fast with the help of his app
VIEWS ON NEWS
April 7, 2015 25
Obituary Vinod Mehta
GOODBYE, MR CHIPS
The boy from Lucknow was an iconic editor with a refreshing appetite for risk and a liberal thinking that shaped Outlook, the magazine which gave India Today a run for its money BY SHANTANU GUHA RAY
O
n a balmy afternoon, staffers at Outlook crowded their newsroom to mourn the death of founder-editor, Vinod Mehta, India’s answer to Benjamin C Bradlee, the iconic editor of Washington Post. In hushed tones, the journalists, led by the magazine’s current editor, Krishna Prasad, remembered Mehta and how his charismatic personality, good looks —he was once called Goldie, brother of filmstar Dev Anand—zest for journalism and for life dominated and shaped Outlook as India’s trend-setter magazine.
26 VIEWS ON NEWS April 7, 2015
Two years after it was launched in October 1995 by Mehta with cash from Mumbai builder Rajan Raheja—synonymous at cocktail parties with Bollywood-style white suites—a Faculty of Management Studies study showed how Outlook (it was Mehta, stupid) forced the much-stronger and cash-rich India Today to change its fortnightly format to weekly. ENDURING IMPACT Mehta, who had earlier edited Debonair, The Sunday Observer, Indian Post, Independent and Pioneer, made his biggest and lasting impact with Outlook because unlike the other publications he edited, it had a pan-Indian readership. He had with him Tarun Tejpal—one of India’s finest editors who was called “the Che Guevara of Indian journalism” by Aroon Purie, editor-inchief and owner of India Today. He also had Deepak Shourie, the brother of editor-turnedpolitician Arun Shourie, who was among the best bets for advertising and publishing. Mehta also had a group of editors, reporters and camera persons, who made up his band of brothers in shaping the weekly with compelling news features based on aggressive reporting and engaging back-of-the-book features. Readers often wondered where to start, back or front. Almost like Samir Jain, the legendary publisher of The Times of India, Mehta loved “the first impact”. He remembered how Jain stole the thunder from the Ambanis—then Dhirubhai was alive and kicking—by turning The Economic Times pink from white and calling it The Pink Edge even before the Ambanis could turn their Business and Political Observer into the same color. The inaugural issue of Outlook, printed in October 1995, had India’s first political poll on Kashmir where 70 percent said there was no solution within the Indian constitution. The magazine also had on its cover a cracker of a political exclusive by Sagarika Ghose: excerpts from Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao’s novel, The Insider.
“He was not very earthy, but he realized India’s sympathies were with its poor. Vinod was a presence, a force. He was not a doubter, not a skeptic like some of the other editors.” – Tarun Tejpal, Mehta’s protege BOLD MOVE In Indian journalism, it was almost like a checkmate chessboard move. Almost two decades after India Today had made a resounding impact with its first edition in December 1-15, 1975, the floodgates of classy journalism had once again opened. Indians stopped talking about Mehta’s days in newspapers, they waited every Sunday for Outlook. Such was the impact of the magazine that hawkers of Outlook and India Today often clashed across India. Mehta brought “breaking news” into magazine journalism. Outlook got cricket’s biggest scoop, the match-fixing by Indian and international cricketers. The magazine also managed a blockbuster on how a clique within the PMO led by AB Vajpayee’s foster son-in-law, Ranjan BhatVIEWS ON NEWS
April 7, 2015 27
Obituary Vinod Mehta
tacharya, and the PM’s top advisor, Brajesh Mishra, was operating with corporate India. The news feature had government agencies swooping down on the offices of the Raheja Builders. Rajan Raheja was routinely called for questioning, and made to wait for long hours. Eventually, Mehta resolved the issue by calling up Delhi's biggest troubleshooter who, in turn, called Mishra, and the raids stopped. Outlook also ran scoops on the racket of TRPs, the Indian navy’s war room leak, and the sensational Radia tapes (that the Open also had). Mehta did not want to miss anything. Such was his push for breaking news that a big story of Amitabh Bachchan’s Mehta and his band entry into television with KBC was pushed into the Glitterati Page. of editors shaped When the reporter walked into his Outlook with room to complain, Mehta chased compelling news him out of the room. He was holdfeatures based on ing a cricket bat, signed by some aggressive reporting hot-shot cricketers and gifted by and engaging backjournalist Aniruddha Bahal. of-the-book features. Arguably the most celebrated THE INSIDE STORY
(From left) The covers of two autobiogrphies that Mehta wrote
28 VIEWS ON NEWS April 7, 2015
editor of his era, Mehta also dressed in style, wearing bright, papaya-yellow and red shirts with classy footwear. He styled his hair to match that of Gregory Peck and bought glasses exactly like those worn by the Hollywood star. Except, craggy-faced Mehta never buttoned his collars. Brutally honest Mehta, who often chased reporters out of the next-door coffee shop into the newsroom, considered journalism more than a profession—he called it a public good, vital to India’s democracy. Mehta, who had set a standard for honest, objective and meticulous reporting, was—expectedly—crestfallen when he saw journalists peddling up as power-brokers as evident in the Radia tapes. LIBERAL THINKING Tejpal, Mehta’s best protégé, called him the last of the “liberal editors with great integrity”. “He was not very earthy, but he realized India’s sympathies were with its poor. Vinod was a presence, a force. He was not a doubter, not a skeptic like some of the other editors. He encouraged exciting copy, though sometimes he had the tendency to get swayed by a bit of shallow gossip (typical of Mumbai),” he said. Mehta gave journalism a six-letter word —Impact—in Delhi, a city synonymous with the fourletter word: F***k. In the long run, it helped Mehta, and his notoriously short attention span. But it never bothered him. At work, Mehta rarely dug into the details of a news feature himself, leaving that to the people he had hired. The newsroom he once filled with a lethal combo of intellect and viscera and loads of fun, continues to flourish with a 5,00,000-plus circulation.
Editors’ Pick Satish Padmanabhan
Chuck The News,
GIMME YACK YACK
VON brings in each issue, the best written commentary on any subject. The following write-up, published in Outlook, has been picked up by our team of editors and reproduced for our readers as the best in the fortnight.
Field reporting is passe, chat shows have come to rule the programming roost
F
IVE years ago, when I was in it, the newspit would be like a war room gone berserk before the 9 o’clock news. Heated fights over headlines, frayed nerves at a big guest who has ditched, the anchor having a minor cardiac arrest over the lead story not making it in time. There would be a scramble from reporters to push their VTs (video tape) in. How can you cut my story to a minute-and-a-half, it’s the breaking news, the political reporter would scream. Who cares, the big human interest story right now is the molestation, the Mumbai bureau chief would yell. If it was this week, the star anchor would be in Kashmir, trying to get separatist leader Masarat Aslam’s interview, another reporter the new CM’s bites, a third in Delhi the home minister’s reaction; there’d be a full crew in Dimapur reporting on the lynching, an OB van would have been dispatched from Guwahati or Calcutta; there’d be live reports on land bill protest stories from Madhya Pradesh, rain at the wrong time ruining crops in Punjab, packages on nothing moving in Telangana, a five-minute London-link booked to go live with Leslee Udwin. There’d be at least 15 stories stacked up in the rundown. There would be a tight knot in everyone’s stomach as the familiar sting music of news at nine plays out. The VT editor who sends in the lead story in the last second, as the headline pack is rolling, would be cheered in the edit bay, the reporter who gets the HM at the nick of time would be hero. And as the bulletin got into the last segment, usually sports and entertainment, there’d be a palpable release of collective breath, from the ticker-writer
to the editor-in-chief. Newsrooms at nine these days, I suspect, must be tranquil as Lamayuru in November. Political reporters, who used to be rehearsing their lines in front of OB vans, anxiously awaiting anchors to cut to them, must be at the Press Club. The vans themselves must be rusting quietly in front of 7, RCR, or the Mantralaya, the whirr gone out of them. The investigative team must have been wound up. News editors and producers must be world beaters at Candy Crush. Most of the cameras the channels own must be in the studios focused on the panel of a dozen or more guests sitting on the long table. The rest must be wired to the houses of spokespersons of BJP, Congress, AAP, PDF, RLD, AIADMK, SAD, JD(U) and CPI(M) (if they have one). It’s easy, doesn’t need imagination and is cheap. No respectable prime time bulletin today—all the English and Hindi channels, and from Star Anando to Sun TV—can have less than 10 windows in one frame. The guest coordinators, who used to be sweet-talking public school students in my time, must be top honchos now. The graphic team must be lording over the newsroom like gladiators. The studio floor managers must be divas and dons. The big plusses of TV—taking the viewer to Dimapur or Singrauli, of which they have only heard, to bring the voice of the victims and uncover the face of the oppressor, to show the color, smell and texture of news as it happens in a frenetic country like ours—has been thrown out of prime time. These days 9 o’clock looks more like the kind of stuff we’d talk about after the bulletin is over—at a pub. (Satish Padmanabhan has done time in news TV.) VIEWS ON NEWS
April 7, 2015 29
Human Interest
MP’s Museum of Journalism
PILGRIM’S PROGRESS Steeped in history, it is a treasure house of old newspapers, rare documents and encyclopedias. Started by former journalist Vijay Dutt Shridhar, it is his tribute to a noble profession BY RAKESH DIXIT
I
MAGINE a museum of 50 lakh printed pages including newspapers, 40,936 books, 734 manuscripts, 3,456 letters by eminent editors and littérateurs, 1,934 other rare documents and 809 gazetteers and encyclopedias. This vast collection is displayed in the Madhavrao Sapre Museum of Newspapers and Research Institute in Bhopal and was founded by journalist-historian Vijay Dutt Shridhar in 1984. The outcome of Dutt’s endeavor was his magnum opus – Encyclopaedia of Journalism in India in Two Volumes (1780-1947). This was on the lines of another book, A History of the World in 100 Objects written by British Museum director Neil MacGregor in 2010. This hugely popular book is a compilation of a 100-part radio series written and presented by him on BBC Radio-4, where objects of ancient art, industry, technology and arms displayed in the museum are highlighted. The Sapre Museum too is quite popular and its reference material
The Madhavrao Sapre Museum of Newspapers and Research Institute in Bhopal VIEWS ON NEWS
April 7, 2015 31
Human Interest
MP’s Museum of Journalism
for publications dating from 1681 to 1920 and from 1921 to present times. The third section is for clippings. Attention has been paid to preserve the yellowing pages. Photocopying is not allowed.
LOVE’S LABOUR (Above) Journalisthistorian Vijay Dutt Shridhar shows one of the oldest copies of Ramcharitmanas written in 1725; Old files and books, dating back to the 1600s, neatly stacked in bookshelves
has been used by 855 research scholars from India and abroad. Starting with pre-1947 publications like Gandhi’s Harijan and Bal Gangadar’s Tilak’s Kesri, the museum traces India’s freedom struggle. Besides original copies of Hindi, Urdu, Gujarati and Marathi newspapers, it also houses international publications such as Nature, Punch and Illustrated London News. The museum is divided into three sections—two
32 VIEWS ON NEWS April 7, 2015
GLORIOUS TIMES Shridhar says visiting the museum can be thrilling as one is standing face-to-face with history. “For instance, when you get to see the newspaper of July 21, 1969, with the lead headline, “Man Lands on Moon”, you are transported to that era,” he says. The 66-year-old Padma Shri historian is a walking-talking encyclopedia of journalism in India. Which newspaper started when, which provocative write-up landed which editor in jail in British India, what headlines were given for momentous events in history such as the dawn of Independence or Gandhi’s assassination—all these are on Shridhar’s fingertips. For someone who was born in an obscure village in Narsinghpur district in a farmer’s family, his erudition is remarkable. He is passionate about inculcating the same sense of history among young journalists. However, he admits he is disappointed with the maddening pursuit of profit in contemporary media. “Unless journalists, young and old, imbibe a sense of history by browsing through the great works of the past generation of editors such as Madhavrao Sapre, Makhan Lal Chaturvedi and so on, they are bound to end up as mere pen pushers,” says Shridhar, who has authored four books on the history of journalism. Two eminent editors are Shridhar’s role model —Madhavrao Sapre, a pioneer of Hindi journalism, after whom he named the museum, and Makhan Lal Chaturvedi, a poet-journalist of the pre-Independence era who edited the newspaper Karmvir, whose title the museum adopted. Karmvir, incidentally, is still in publication. RICH LEGACY To carry on the legacy of stalwart editors, the mu-
seum organizes workshops and study tours for young journalists. It has also instituted half-a-dozen awards for journalists in the name of eminent editors. “Engaging journalists lends vibrancy to the museum. We make them aware of the rich legacy they have inherited,” the director says. To that end, the museum has been focusing on environment issues in recent years. This is to make the young generation familiar with the Indian tradition of revering flora and fauna. Likewise, study camps are organized on traditional water conservation methods in different places. Inculcating a scientific temperament through propagation of traditional scientific practices is yet another area where the museum is working. “All old science is not bunkum. The young generation must be able to distinguish Indian scientific tradition from mythological mumbo-jumbo,” cautions Shridhar. As for the Sangh Parivar’s attempts at reviving Vedic Age “miracles”, he is dismissive. However, he declined to comment on allegations of saffronization of the curriculum in Makhan Lal Chaturvedi University of Journalism, whose vice-chancellor BK Kuthalia is a self-avowed RSS swayamsewak. Shridhar was associated with the university from 2005 to 2010 as director, research project, journalism of Indian languages after Independence. During this time, he published and edited 75 research works. However, he dissociated himself from the university when it began to hog the headlines for financial irregularities and bungling in appointments. “Now that I am retired, I prefer to devote my time to writing books, away from controversies,” he clarifies. PRINT HOLDS SWAY When asked about whether new age media would swallow print journalism, Shridhar says: “This debate is largely metro-centric. In middle and
small towns in India, print media still holds sway as the most credible means To carry on the of dissemination of information and legacy of will continue to do so in the future.” stalwart editors, Also, he is not pessimistic about the the museum future of what he calls “down-to-earth” holds workshops journalism. “We have P Sainath as a and study tours shining example of down-to-earth for journalists. journalism. A number of journalists look up to him for inspiration even It has also though the fulcrum of mainstream instituted a journalism appears to have shifted few awards. from serious to frivolous in post-liberalized India,” he said. Like Sainath, Sridhar too started doing rural journalism when he worked for Desh Bandhu, a leftof-the-center newspaper reputed for this type of journalism. Barely two years into journalism, Shridhar began to be noticed when in 1976, he mobilized journalists in MP under the banner of Madhya Pradesh Anchalik Patrakar Sangh. When Shridhar moved to MP’s leading newspaper, Nav Bharat, in 1978, he widened its regional network, deepened its rural identity and circulation increased to such an extent that it became No 1 in the state. While he was news editor in Nav Bharat in
HISTORY OF NEWS Old papers found in the Sapre Museum
VIEWS ON NEWS
April 7, 2015 33
Human Interest
MP’s Museum of Journalism
PRESERVING HISTORY Museum director Dr Mangla Anuja explaining a display to then vice-president Bhairon Singh Shekhawat and then MP Governor Dr Balram Jakhar
1982, Shridhar got a project from the MP Hindi Granth Academy to write the history of journalism in Madhya Pradesh. “While researching for the book, I realized that there was no systematic classification of the material that I required. I visited individual collectors, but the newspapers in their collections had started deteriorating. This sparked the idea of preserving newspapers. I met Pandit Rameshwar Guru, a veteran journalist, Hindi poet and Mathematics teacher. He had an extensive collection of journals, newspapers and periodicals going back to two generations. He agreed to donate them on two conditions—one, the material would be saved systematically and two, the museum which would house them would not be handed over to the government or any university,”
“Unless journalists, young and old, imbibe a sense of history by browsing through the great works of the past generation of editors, they are bound to end up as mere pen pushers.” — Vijay Dutt Shridhar, journalist-historian 34 VIEWS ON NEWS April 7, 2015
Shridhar recalls. GROWING INHERITANCE He then looked for a place to house this collection. The Bhopal Municipal Corporation allowed him to put it in its library. Funds started coming in through institutions, individuals and the state government. With missionary zeal, Shridhar embarked upon enriching this inheritance. Within a year, he had collected enough material to think of a separate museum. Thus, on June 19, 1984, the Madhavrao Sapre Museum came into being and started growing. Former President of India Dr Shankar Dayal Sharma, after visiting the museum on November 2, 1995, remarked: “Bhopal can take pride in having a museum like this.” Former editor of Navneet (well-known magazine), Narayan Dutt, and eminent litterateur Kamaleshwar described the museum “as a pilgrim center for journalism”. When Congress leader Minaxi Natrajan came to the museum for research on the 1857 Sepoy Mutiny, she was awestruck by the rich collection. In 1989, when research scholar Dr Mangla Anuja came to the museum, she was so fascinated by it that she decided to stay on. She became its director and is today, the administrative head. After the museum shifted to its own building, its maintenance cost shot up. “So far, funding from the state and central governments has taken care of the museum’s needs. We also receive donations. But the rising cost of preserving the decaying materials is worrying,” Shridhar admits. The museum has newspapers and journals dating from the 1600s. The staff has preserved the material by chemical treatment, pest control, lamination and transferring old papers onto microfilm. “So far, we have transferred material up to the 19th century. But now we are looking at digitizing the content so that people have the option of going through the DVDs and the newspapers can be preserved better,” he says. Even a museum has to move with the times.
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Advertising and Films Racism
A
NEWSPAPER’S promotional campaign in the Gulf depicts three white people excitedly purchasing an annual subscription. It is conveniently forgotten that 90 percent of its readership is Asian. The need to see western visuals as upmarket trumps every other consideration and makes a traffic accident out of the much touted “presentation” by advertising professionals, who never seem to tire of establishing their credentials. Suddenly, targeting the right market segments becomes passe and the research gurgles down the drain. Who needs it, seeing that the owner, the management, the staff and the end-user are all sunning themselves in aspirational bliss, their pig-
PIGMENT
36 VIEWS ON NEWS April 7, 2015
AND
If the advertising world is to be believed, everyone wants to be fair. No wonder there are bland and expressionless Soviet rump state facsimiles in ads and films. How absurd and pathetic is that? BY BIKRAM VOHRA
TINSELTOWN’S WHITE FETISH Blondes make a cool backdrop in a song from the Bollywood film, Main Tera Hero
PREJUDICE VIEWS ON NEWS
April 7, 2015 37
Advertising and Films Racism
“When we put the white model in Indian clothes, it is a cultural exchange. It shows India’s economic self-confidence. It also caters to the general feeling that ‘fair’ and ‘beautiful’ go together.” — Bandana Tewari, fashion features editor, Vogue’s Indian edition
INTERNATIONAL APPEAL (Above) Salman Khan performs with foreign artistes during the release of the song, Main Toh Superman, Salman Ka Fan; (facing page) Even Gulf companies such as Etihad Airways are using white women such as actress Nicole Kidman for their ads
mented egos suitably massaged. It would be ludicrously comical if it wasn’t so tragic. There we are on a set of an Indian film and there are Soviet rump state facsimiles all around, as if they had been Xeroxed on a machine, identical to the point of blandness and expressionless to the point of vapidity. But they are Caucasian and that is enough for the party scene. I have been to several parties in India but have never seen assembly lined white women hanging about in such large numbers. And I am speaking to this famous producer and he says, that is what the people want, they like to see white women and so, we give them what they want. To quote: “Everyone wants to be fair.” WHITE FIXATION Not so long ago in the murky history of the IPL, some colored girls were disinvited from jumping up and down on the boundary stage because the spectators (who ostensibly had come to watch cricket) felt cheated. After all, if we wish to see a woman leap about the place, let her at least be white.
38 VIEWS ON NEWS April 7, 2015
But where this packaging reaches its giddiest limit is in advertising Indian products to Indian buyers through the prejudicial prism of ethnic whitewashing. You would think all babies are white in India. You would also be led to believe that electronics and top-of-the-line transportation would somewhat be given an extra octane if there was a blonde and blue-eyed babe flung into the mix. Several ad campaigns and even movie-makers have mothballed their collective consciences and climbed the bandwagon. It is easy to convince yourself that you are in a commercial business and have to sell. Ergo, you have to sell what sells whether you like the concept or not. Such unutterably self-deluding drivel is difficult to beat. I can only quote the fashion features editor of Vogue’s Indian edition, Bandana Tewari. Having coined a slippery level phrase “going glocal”, (combining the words “global” and “local” to describe the new urban Indian consumer), she proceeds to justify the white syndrome. “When we put the white model in Indian clothes, it is a cultural ex-
change. It shows India’s economic self-confidence,” Tewari said. “Of course, it also caters to the general feeling that ‘fair’ and ‘beautiful’ go together. For a rickshaw-puller who earns $2 a day, seeing a fairskinned woman is an escape, a fantasy.” Are there actually people who speak like this and believe such tripe and market it? Clearly there are, with takers tacked on. Just reading it makes one cringe. Talk about blatantly going against the constitution of the country, converting a vice into a virtue and presuming to speak for the “rickshaw-wallah’s fantasies” while tying all this up with a horrendously twisted string of logic—could anyone come up with a more absurd explanation for denying who you are? WRONG PREMISE What is the psychology that makes manufacturers of luxury goods believe the nexus? It is a rickety balance on three flimsy premises: The youth of India see anything western as aspirational and superior and this includes skin color.
White people photograph better and enhance the product. Identifying with white people is still a major Indian sport. When a Commonwealth student team visited India some years ago, there were two Brits of West Indian origin. While the rest were invited to Indian homes in singles and groups, these two were “cordially” feted in coffee shops. The youth of India absorb what they are fed. If you keep giving a lion peanuts, he will become a monkey. So, if there are enclaves of young men and women in urban India who believe in this myth and spend their lives like bizarre versions of Lady
I am speaking to this famous producer and he says, that is what the people want, they like to see white women and so, we give them what they want. To quote: “Everyone wants to be fair.”
VIEWS ON NEWS
April 7, 2015 39
Advertising and Films Racism
In Gurgaon, Delhi’s El Dorado, stores in malls place Indian clothes on ivory mannequins by the dozens. They have blue eyes and blonde hair. Ebony equivalents are non-existent.
OUT, DAMNED SPOT (Below) Bollywood star Hazel Keech at the launch of Galderma's skin lightening cream BI-LUMA; (Facing page) Actor Sidharth Malhotra with white models at the Taiwan Excellence 2014 Campaign, in Mumbai
Macbeth wiping out the damn spots of melanin and seeking sanctuary in a future existence enhanced by a lightening of skin tones, then, their sad and sorry priorities are nourished by a visual diet that underscores this perception. So, it becomes a Catch 22. Advertisers believe the young with disposable incomes accept that white is a bit more right. The young respond to the hype by shoring up their belief that if the white like it, then, it has to be good. So, the contract is made and the core factor that there must be a high identity factor between product and person is shattered into shards of glass. So much for that ad-
40 VIEWS ON NEWS April 7, 2015
vertising mantra. It is always vaguely odd to read classifieds in a newspaper where western expats selling secondhand furniture, second-hand cars and second-hand clothes seem to have an edge over others. It is inherent in our nature to gravitate to these garage or jumble sales because we feel (ah, the insidious power of auto-suggestion) we will get a better deal, that somehow they will have more taste, classier stuff and a more discerning eye. CRASS SCRAMBLE That not a shred of evidence exists to back these premises only makes it more cruel. Many years ago when “phoren” goods were not easily available, western embassies used to have sales in Delhi and scores of Indian memsahibs would throng the lawns, picking up used lipsticks, used underwear, used shoes, open creams and lotions and actually scramble for the stuff. I have watched this, having gone with a friend in the hope of picking up some second-hand books and not staring into half swirls of vanishing cream and grubby handbags. That crass exercise may have had its day, but the attitude has not gone away. On the contrary, the “Bandanas” of India guiltlessly continue the crusade. And there are many of them, freezing their unease by suggesting they are giving their products an international look and feel by associating them with non-Indians. Yes, sure, Indian ads abound with Japanese, African, Latino, Bangladeshi faces… have you seen any? The self-deception by the retail market and the constant assault on individual self-respect have created a complex. They have won and thousands of men and women do believe that white is the way to go. The indoctrination is complete. Even intelligent, successful Indians are fully paid subscribers to this cause. Film stars and celebrities sell skin fair gunk without any qualms. They allow their skin tones to be photo-shopped. Camera lighting is positioned to soften their color’s intensity. Even dance sequences are shot so that there is one very dark per-
son who acts as a foil to accentuate the “fairness” of the hero or heroine. LUDICROUS ADS In Gurgaon, Delhi’s retail El Dorado, fashion stores in malls place Indian clothes on white or ivory mannequins by the dozens. They have blue eyes and blonde hair. Ebony equivalents are non-existent. A faintly ridiculous ad of an Indian film star being spiked by titanium arrows that look like hatchets, which is currently on Gulf TV for an Indian-owned company, has a blonde girl making an appearance for no particular reason. A new mobile phone ad has a Caucasian cast though the phone is aimed at Indians. An emerald-eyed Nordic model flaunts herself in an ad for sunglasses in an Indian backdrop. A motorcycle company goes to Russia to shoot its pitch. Some three years back, a footwear brand used only white women for its wares…white legs look better. Here is a quote from Abhishek Verma, a student, who says it all: “Just try to observe an average Indian when they see a foreigner. First would be the constant staring at their skin tone. (Oh my gord! Kitna gora hai wo!) Second would be the thought of clicking a photo with him/her. (Premium and exotic class of humanity, they are.) Third would be trying to help then with the history of the place, if they are visiting a tourist spot, and running around them, as if the foreigners were their masters.” Ad gurus who are probably under orders from the client to give “the film some class, yaar, put in two foreign girls” will not acknowledge that their defense has the texture of peanut brittle…pathetic and fragile. LOW SELF-ESTEEM? The question to ask is basic; are we ashamed of ourselves and is our vat of self-esteem running low? The shrillness of the righteous indignation we would display in our response belies our rather sad mental state. Hiding behind the tattered skirts of that refuge of reaching out to the world or “being global” is so much claptrap. You are not being global, you are
The youth absorb what they are fed. If you keep giving a lion peanuts, he will become a monkey. Young men and women are nourished by a visual diet that underscores the white perception. conceding space to Caesar, period, without Caesar even having asked for it. Why do we beat up African students? Because, colorwise, we feel superior to them. Victims of severe stereotyping, we believe they are more dangerous. Take a hundred Indians and ask them who they would prefer to cross on a dark and stormy night in a lonely car park—a white person or a black person —and the answer will be a no-brainer. So it goes on, socially accepted by you and I. The cloned Indian editions of world-famous magazines fill their pages with white facsimiles. Commercial films have party scenes where the guests are largely white. Indian writers, by and large, spin books out of the semi-rural quaintness of Indian traditions to intrigue a western audience. Damn it all, white even rhymes with right. The indoctrination is complete. VIEWS ON NEWS
April 7, 2015 41
Governance
Special Report Rural economy / Vidarbha suicides
FLUFF
Gone in a
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While the deaths of cotton farmers have often made news, an RTI shows that most of their families don’t get the compensation promised by the government on one pretext or the other BY AJITH PILLAI 42 VIEWS ON NEWS April 7, 2015
HEN you are in the hustle and bustle of Nagpur, the tragedy of the Vidarbha region that it presides over does not hit you. The booming real estate business, the IT hub and the orange trade is what Nagpurians prefer to talk about. Their city is Maharashtra’s second capital and the 13th largest urban agglomeration in India, ahead of Kochi, Coimbatore and Ghaziabad. On the political map too, this city, which is at the geographical center of India, has an important place. It is the seat of the winter session of the Maharashtra as-
sembly, the headquarters of the RSS and has an important place in the Dalit Buddhist movement. But drive out of Nagpur into rural Vidarbha and the stories that you are told are grim and foreboding. For well over a decade, the growing number of farmer suicides (activists cite an average of 1,000 a year since 2000) stand in sharp contrast to the “shining Nagpur” stories you hear. NO COMPENSATION In Vidarbha’s suicide zone—it virtually includes all the 11 districts in the region—there are many twists to the debt-ridden farmer taking his life. The most shocking is the compensation promised to his family by the state. A query put to the government under the RTI Act by Mumbai-based activist Jitendra Ghadge recently revealed that of the 5,698 “registered” suicides in Vidarbha and Marathwada regions since 2011, as many as 2,731 victims were found ineligible for compensation. Reason: they did not leave behind documentation to prove that they had taken a bank loan to cultivate a particular piece of land or because of lacunae in the police records pertaining to their suicides. The number of accounted suicides does not re-
flect the actual number since many are categorized as death caused by disease, alcoholism or malnutrition. But the fact that almost 50 percent of the registered suicides were found ineligible for compensation tells another story about the government not having put in place a system that takes into account loans taken from moneylenders who do not provide documentation. And to think that all this red tape is for the release of a mere `1 lakh to a victim’s family—`30,000 in cash and `70,000 by cheque. The authorities, activists say, use every rule in the book to deny compensation rather than facilitate it. Ghadge’s RTI query, publicized in a national daily, has had one positive outcome. On February 17, 2015, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) took suo moto cognizance of the media report and issued a notice to Maharashtra chief secretary asking for a report on the matter
Genetically modified seeds cost twice as much as the traditionally cultivated ones, forcing farmers to take larger loans. This has significantly increased input costs. SEEDS OF SORROW (Facing page) A Vidarbha farmer tends to his cotton crop; (left) a farmer’s suicide note; (right) the last resort of a farmer, to bail out his family
VIEWS ON NEWS
April 7, 2015 43
Governance
Special Report Rural economy / Vidarbha suicides
“In the Indian situation, the causes (of farmer suicides) are multi-factorial, cumulative, repetitive and progressive, leading an individual to a state of helplessness... and hopelessness.” —Indian Journal of Psychiatry GROWERS’ PLIGHT (Left) A push to BT Cotton, much to the anguish of farmers; (right) a child at a cotton processing unit
within two weeks. The NHRC, in its notice, has observed that the media report, if true, raises “a serious issue of violation of human rights of the families of farmers who committed suicides in Maharashtra”. WHAT A JOKE The red tape in relief packages for farmers is nothing new. A few years ago when journalist P Sainath toured Vidarbha, he reported about how compensation for families of suicide victims had become a cruel joke. In one village, he was told that farmers in distress could not even take their own lives in peace. They had to first study the 40 clauses in the form that their families would have to fill up before any compensation is paid. Were they eligible? Did they have the right papers for their spouses to prove their hus-
44 VIEWS ON NEWS April 7, 2015
bands are farmers...? A BPL card, land in the deceased person’s name and several other proofs are required before a compensation claim is okayed. Legally speaking, a person who does not own land is not a farmer. But many rural farmers cultivate on land belonging to other members of their family or take it on lease from landowners. There is no contract signed in such informal arrangements. Neither are there any records. VICIOUS CIRCLE According to a report on farmer suicides in the Indian Journal of Psychiatry, the incidence of farmers taking their own lives in Vidarbha has “hit epidemic proportions”. The study notes that these suicides “should not be viewed as only a mental health problem, which is a common notion.” The various factors cited in the report include: chronic indebtedness and inability to pay interest accumulated over the years; rising costs of agricultural inputs and falling prices of agricultural produce; economic decline leading to complications and family disputes, depression, alcoholism and the hope that compensation following suicide will help
ANY SUCCOR TO FARMERS? Legally speaking, a person who does not own land is not a farmer! But many cultivate on land belonging to others or even family members
family to repay debt. Thus, “in the Indian situation, the causes are multi-factorial, cumulative, repetitive and progressive, leading an individual to a state of helplessness, worthlessness and hopelessness, obviously influenced by his social strengths and weaknesses along with his mental health status.� Cotton has traditionally been the cash crop of Vidarbha. Eight of the 11 districts in the region are primarily cotton growing. A section of agriculture experts and activists link the distress among farmers in the last two decades to the introduction of BT Cotton in the region. Their reasoning is that the genetically modified seeds cost twice as much as the traditionally cultivated ones, forcing farmers to take larger loans. This has not only increased input costs but forced the farmers to sell their products cheap during harvest time to the very same money lenders who came to them to recover interest or repayment of previous loans. Other experts say there are several other socio-economic factors that are more responsible. While BT Cotton is a contentious issue, the question of paying compensation to families of
farmers who have committed suicide poses several questions, including providing a framework that will make it easy for claims to be processed. District-level committees which evaluate claims must take up individual cases and see if a family deserves compensation. A flexible set of rules is required, which makes allowance for those who take loans from money lenders. Activists speak of political interference in the payment of compensation. This also happened when the farm loan waiver scheme was announced by the UPA government in its first term. Many farmers were kept out of the loop, while undeserving ones were given the benefit of the scheme. The implementation of such schemes as well as compensations must be transparent and subject to scrutiny to prevent misuse. One hopes that NHRC’s intervention will ensure that the families of the 2,731 farmers who committed suicide since 2011 get their just dues. That done, the government must urgently address the larger problems faced by the farming community nationwide. Remember, we need our farmers for our food security, so let us give priority to their concerns. VIEWS ON NEWS
April 7, 2015 45
Governance Profile
Gujarat CM Anandiben Patel
She walks tall in Modi’s shoes
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She had an unenviable task when she took over as CM of Gujarat from a colossus. But Anandiben Patel has carved a niche for herself through her unassuming manner and her open administration BY RK MISRA
ALKING in outsized shoes taxes the art of balance between pathetic fallacy and potent performance on the one hand and heightened aspirations and ballooning expectations on the other. This unenvious job is the lot of Anandiben Patel, who succeeded the imagery wizard, Narendra Modi, as chief minister of Gujarat and the first woman at that. Stepping into Modi’s shoes is the best of a bad bargain, the legacy of a choked tight governance notwithstanding. A man who had never held any post of public governance, not even of a village sarpanch, Modi governed Gujarat for 12 years, seven months and 14 days to become its longest serving chief minister. He was the government, he was the party and there was space for none else. Loved and loathed in fair measure, he nevertheless enjoyed considerable popularity as was evident from his party’s landslide victories in successive polls and
complete decimation of the opposition—both within his party and outside. It was in this backdrop that Anandiben assumed office. A LOYALIST That she would succeed Modi was never in doubt. She had been a staunch Modi supporter through the tumult of Gujarat politics that saw Keshubhai Patel take charge at the head of the first BJP government in Gujarat in 1995. Before the year was over, his government was in dire straits, with veteran party leader Shankersinh Vaghela rebelling and walking away with a large chunk of party legislators. It fell on Atal Bihari Vajpayee to effect a reconciliation, only to face a vocal midnight protest of a sellout by the likes of the present CM. The peace brokered then cost Keshubhai Patel his job, but also led to the banishment of the party general secretary, Narendra Modi, from Gujarat. Vaghela quit the party to become CM with Congress support, but was vanquished as the state went to polls in 1998 and a victorious Keshubhai returned as CM, only to be replaced by Modi in 2001.All through, Anandiben remained loyal to Modi. Born into a farmer’s family at Kharod village in Vijapur taluka, Mehsana district, on November 21, 1941, Anandiben did her BSc from Visnagar in 1963 to take up her first job with Mahila Vikas Gruh. She got married on May 26, 1962. In 1965, she moved to Ahmedabad with her husband and did her MSc. Later, she followed it up with a BEd. She started teaching maths and science at Mohinaba Kanya Vidyalaya in Ahmedabad, capping her career as principal. After 31 years on the job, she took voluntary retirement. Nathji, an attendant at a petrol pump neighboring the school,
where she grew, has happy memories. “Initially, she would walk down to school, but later, would come on a red scooter. The teacher that she is and her humble beginnings will contribute to making her a good chief minister,” he says. Mafatlal, her estranged husband, who retired as a professor of psychology at an Ahmedabad college, also says that she was a shard-working teacher. Her entry into politics was quite by accident. Two girls from her school fell into the Narmada. She singlehandedly saved both from drowning. It was this act of singular courage which caught the eye of some senior BJP leaders, who invited her to join the party. By 1987, she was president of the Gujarat Mahila Morcha and by 1994, she was striding into the hallowed portals of the Rajya Sabha from Gujarat. Four years later, in 1998, she quit the RS to contest her first assembly election from Mandal in Ahmedabad. She won and became the education minister in the Keshubhai Patel government. She was twice elected from Patan and, in the 2012 elections, from Ghatlodiya in Ahmedabad. Since then, there has been no looking back for her. She continued as education minister in the
REWARDS OF LOYALTY Chief Minister Anandiben Patel receiving mentor Modi and bête noire Amit Shah in Gandhinagar in September 2014
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Governance Profile
Gujarat CM Anandiben Patel
IN THE BIG LEAGUE (Left to right) Anandiben meeting a Chinese delegation in Gandhinagar; with actor and Gujarat Tourism’s brand ambassador Amitabh Bachchan; inaugurating a kite festival in Ahmedabad
Modi government in 2001 and headed two key portfolios, revenue and roads and buildings in the third. Going from strength to strength, she held four important portfolios—roads and buildings, revenue, urban development and urban housing, besides disaster management—in the last government. COURAGEOUS WOMAN Taking over from Modi requires indomitable courage as he had hogged the political landscape of Gujarat, striding like a colossus, reducing both the party and the government to a pantheon of pygmies. The sheer magnitude of scale, whether of events, publicity or political leverage, was designed to create a dazzling persona. It was an act impossible to outdo. Comparisons were bound to creep in. Anandiben has chosen to cut the clutter, introducing an element of simplicity in her style—a marked difference from that of her predecessor. The Chief Minister’s Office is the first reflection of this change. There is a marked openness. During Modi’s tenure, not only were road dividers between Gandhinagar and Ahmedabad airport marked by doublefencing, even the service lanes on both sides had
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man-high fencing, with focus lamps lighting up the two extremes. Anandiben travels with a quarter of Modi’s entourage. An understated dignity marks her bearing. Her expressionless face masks all traces of emotion. The only exception was when her name was announced as CM; then, tears trickled down her face. This is not to state that there has been any departure in terms of policy from Modi’s time. There are two reasons for this. One, Modi still maintains a very strong hold and say in matters of his home state and two, she is in agreement with most of the policies pursued during his time. Nevertheless, these are subtle. Modi’s slogan of Vibrant Gujarat is slowly being replaced with “Gatisheel Gujarat” (dynamic Gujarat). TOUGH STAND It is well-known in Gujarat that two of Modi’s closest confidante’s, Anandiben Patel and Amit Shah, have no love lost for each other. Shah was a claimant for the chief minister’s job until he was moved out by Modi to take charge of other responsibilities. With Shah now the second-most important
Anandiben has cut the clutter, introducing an element of simplicity in her style. The Chief Minister’s Office has marked openness, quite different from the claustrophobic legacy.
man in the BJP after Modi, he has no reason to complain. But for all his sway over the national party, he has not been able to get the better of the present chief minister in Gujarat. This was evident when, despite pitching strongly for important portfolios for the tainted Purshottam Solanki who was inducted as minister of state recently, Anandiben refused to oblige and he had to remain content with animal husbandry. Ditto for Vijay Rupani, who was recently elected to the assembly through a by-election after Speaker Vajubhai Vala went as Karnataka governor. Shah wanted the home portfolio for Rupani, but she gave him transport. ADMIRABLE GUTS Anandiben has a mind of her own. Modi had staked a lot on the issue of compulsory voting in local self-government elections. The bill passed by the assembly then was returned by the governor, Dr Kamala Beniwal, with her objections but a piqued Modi again had it passed by the assembly and sent it back. After the governor was changed, the present incumbent, OP Kohli passed the bill. The Patel government, through enforcing the 50 per cent reser-
vation for women in these elections, has chosen to hold back the compulsory voting part. The present government is taking a closer look at the solar policy after it was hit by a scam, wherein bureaucrats, working in tandem with political interests, were involved in a land scam in promoting the Charanka solar power project in Banaskantha district, North Gujarat. Those in the know of the impending project were instrumental in cornering large tracts of saline land from farmers at chea prices and then selling it to the government at high prices for the solar project. There have been times when Anandiben has had to give in. Sources say that she was keen to have Dr SK Nanda, the senior-most bureaucrat, as the chief secretary, but a last-minute intervention from Delhi saw the comparatively junior DJ Pandian, who headed Gujarat State Petroleum Corpo-ration (GSPC) for nine years during Modi’s rule, pip him to the post. The GSPC allegedly hides many skeletons of the previous regime in its cupboard. A noticeable change from the previous government is the stress on backbone projects like women’s empowerment and child welfare. “While Modi was more into taking up path-breaking projects that would make national and international headlines, Anandiben understands the basics of child and women empowerment and sanitation needs better. She is a teacher and a mother in the end,” says a veteran political analyst. He has a point. For Modi, Gujarat was a staircase to Delhi. Anandiben has no such aspirations, so the state can expect to be a gainer. And the prime minister too can now fulfil the causes he espoused as CM but couldn’t. VIEWS ON NEWS
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Governance
All That Matters Grapevine
Rahul On A Medical eople in India are going round the bend trying to figure out where Rahul Gandhi has suddenly disappeared. It is reliably learnt that he has taken off to the cooler and less polluted climes of Europe for medical treatment. Poor little rich boy! Can’t even get his health fixed without people raising the issue in parliament—such is the price
P
Break
one pays for being a famous heir. His sabbatical has spawned multiple theories: he left due to a fight with his mother; it is meant for a stage-managed re-entry later; he has eloped; he wants to retire, and so on. Even The New York Times carried a column, “Presumed Heir of Indian Party Requests Leave of Absence”.
Himachal CM’s dance moves few days ago, Himachal chief minister Virbhadra Singh found a unique way of making fun of his rivals. He literally swayed his hips inside the Assembly in a dance-like movement to the tune of slogans being raised
against him. Quick to take him on, the leader of the opposition, PK Dhumal, said that the chief minister, fresh from his daughter’s wedding to the grandson of ex-Punjab chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh, was wellversed with dancing.
A What will be
banned next?
Renuka Choudhury’s Cloning
he most trending word these days is “ban”. In the past, we have seen a ban on movies, beef, dresses, and words. Now the Hindu Mahasabha has demanded a ban on farewell parties in schools and colleges. Their logic is simple: “At farewell parties, girls and boys dance to the tune of vulgar songs. College and school managements must ban them.” We now wonder where the axe will fall next.
T
ecently, there was outrage in the media about exminister Renuka Choudhury delaying an Air India flight while shopping at the glitzy T3 terminal at Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi. The civil avia-
R
tion minister is getting the matter investigated. In her defense, Choudhury has been saying: “I am not Dolly the sheep who has been cloned. How come I was in Chicago while I was in parliament? I have not shopped, period.”
Katju’s Twitter Mania ustice Markandey Katju likes to stir a hornet’s nest at frequent intervals. He recently wrote in his blog that Mahatma Gandhi was a British agent and Subhash Chandra Bose a Japanese agent! His statements were soon followed by rebuttals on social media, like: “My
J
neighbor is an LIC agent and you are the agent of Agra Mental Asylum”; “Sir dumb-all issue global tender”; “Whose agent are you my lord Honolulu?”; “Katju is a Nigerian agent (Boko Haram)”; “Thank God you were a judge and not our NSA”; and “Sir aapko kisne CJI banya tha?” —Compiled by Roshni Illustrations: UdayShankar
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