Governance Section
IS SHARAD PAWAR PLAYING THE CASTE CARD?
CHINKS IN MODI’S GUJARAT ARMOR
VIEWS ON NEWS 48
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SEPTEMBER 22, 2015
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Indrani-Sheena Storm
WHERE DID THE REST OF INDIA GO?
Ajith Pillai, Bikram Vohra and Shantanu Guha Ray analyze how and why one sensational story shoved the nation into a black hole 12
SHASTRI RAMACHANDRAN: How media handles Sino-Indian tussles 36
RAMESH MENON: How the dish blew away the antenna 26
BHAVDEEP K ANG: Will the new Kisan channel succeed? 32
KRISH WARRIER: Is laughter the best bet in ads? 42
EDITOR’S NOTE
OUR COUNTER-STORY YOU WILL wonder why this issue of Views On News (VON) has devoted so much space to the Indrani Mukerjea-Sheena Bora story which has been hogging the headlines for the past two weeks. You wake up to that story, you eat to it and you go to sleep watching it. So why should VON, whose editorial policy has been one of holding up a mirror to the media in which it can see its own face, join and run with the rest of the pack? It may seem ironical, on the face of it, that while being critical of the trend towards sensationalism and single-focus journalism, VON is itself guilty of the same practices in devoting its cover and so many pages to the same story. For that reason, I would urge you to read the relevant stories carefully. What we are indulging in is not a me-too cacophony, but what I would describe as counter-coverage. We are, in this cover package, attempting—and I hope with a measure of success—to bring into perspective the dangers of what lies ahead when news coverage is seen as a three-ring circus with anchors playing ring masters along with an attendant crew of trapeze artists and contortionists and clowns and animal tamers. Ajith Pillai’s lead article sums up VON’s areas of concerns, the major one being that in the rush for TRPs and the mad competition between TV channels, their cameras just turned away from the rest of India to focus on this high society, Page 3 “murder mystery�, often throwing to the winds the basic concepts of good, informative and responsible journalism. How the story was covered, how it was shamelessly sensationalized
is analyzed not only by Pillai but also by veterans Bikram Vohra and Shantanu Guha Ray. In fact, Ray, got a first-hand peek into the newsrooms of various national channels to report on the frantic rush to “get there first� no matter what the consequences. As the cover headline aptly puts it: Where did the rest of India go? It appeared that in this frenetic rush of “exclusives�, “new revelations�, “incest theories�, “crossed lovers�, “illegitimate offspring�, etcetera, etcetera, the rest of India simply ceased to exist. So intensely was TV coverage focused on one story that other important stories simply went into the black hole. Suddenly, the North-East with its plethora of problems ceased to exist. Even the Hardik Patel reservations agitation with its political consequences for the upcoming Bihar elections and PM Modi’s nightmare in his own home turf of Gujarat appeared to pale in comparison. VON has taken an extra step in dealing with this issue. In addition to the cogent and insightful reporting and analyses by our senior writers, we have attempted to add some statistical depth to the story. Our unique 24x7 media monitoring team—TMM—gathered information on a real-time basis to capture the amount of space captured by this story on leading TV channels. The survey of six national channels throws up some fascinating statistics. Apart from our lead story, VON brings you a feast of other reports on governance, film reviews and special stories in this packed issue. I hope that our “counter-story� will catalyze editors and reporters to analyze themselves and their role in disseminating high-quality information so essential to the functioning of a free society.
ONLY THE STORIES THAT COUNT EVERY FORTNIGHT INDIA LEGAL WILL BRING YOU NEWS, ANALYSES AND OPINION FROM THE SHARPEST INVESTIGATIVE REPORTERS AND MOST INCISIVE LEGAL MINDS IN THE NATION ON MATTERS THAT MATTER TO YOU PATEL AGITATION:
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NDIA L EGAL I INDIA EGAL Nightmare for Modi
Startling revelations about what Muslim women think of Personal Law
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VOLUME. VIII
ISSUE. 24 Editor Rajshri Rai Managing Editor Ramesh Menon Deputy Managing Editor Shobha John Executive Editor Ajith Pillai Business Editor Shantanu Guha Ray
Political Editor Bhavdeep Kang Associate Editor Meha Mathur Deputy Editor Prabir Biswas Art Director Anthony Lawrence Deputy Art Editor Amitava Sen Graphic Designer Lalit Khitoliya Photographer Anil Shakya News Coordinator/Photo Researcher Kh Manglembi Devi Production Pawan Kumar
C O N T E N T S LEDE
Overkill
12
The Indrani Mukerjea case saw the media on an overdrive in the mad race for TRPs. The basic tenets of journalism were not followed, observes AJITH PILLAI
Bowled Over by Dish
Spotlight on Kisan Doordarshan has broken new ground with a new 24x7 channel for farmers, writes BHAVDEEP KANG
Vice-President (Ad-Sales) Vivek Mittal-09810265619 For advertising & subscription queries sales@viewsonnewsonline.com
Governance
FOCUS
Pawar’s Caste Card
32
BOOK EXCERPT
Wayward Press
16
Trial by the media is dangerous and unfair, writes BIKRAM VOHRA
Frenzy in the Newsroom As the Indrani case broke out it was a pressure cooker atmosphere here, reports SHANTANU GUHA RAY
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36
An extract from Journalism: Ethics and Responsibilities by SHASTRI RAMACHANDARAN
ADVERTISING
Tickling Tales When can humor be used for selling and when does it go overboard, asks KRISH WARRIER
Media as Judge
48
For a forward-looking Maratha leader, Pawar has sullied his image, writes ABHAY VAIDYA
26
With the DTH revolution sweeping India and the increasing emphasis on entertainment, RAMESH MENON examines what it means for Doordarshan
CFO Anand Raj Singh VP (HR & General Administration) Lokesh C Sharma Circulation Manager RS Tiwari
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The Media Monitor (TMM) conducts an exclusive survey among six TV channels on the Indrani case
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Indrani All the Way
42
R E G U L A R S
EDITORS’ PICK
Gujarat Distances Itself from Modi
52
Future historians may trace the political meltdown of Narendra Modi to the events this week in Ahmedabad and the rest of Gujarat, writes HARISH KHARE
Edit..................................................04 Grapevine........................................08 Quotes........................................10 Anchor Review...................................25 Media-Go-Round..............................35 As The World Turns...........................41 Web-Crawler.....................................45 Breaking News.................................46 Cover design: Amitava Sen
6 VIEWS ON NEWS September 22, 2015
VIEWS ON NEWS
September 22, 2015 7
Grapevine Organizational Expertise FIFTY PROFESSORS, students, administrative staff and doctors from Harvard visited Kumbh Mela in Allahabad in 2013 to analyze issues that emerge from any large-scale human gathering. The team geographically mapped and extensively
Chauhan As Shiva AFTER TAKING Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) by a storm literally, chairman Gajendra Chauhan, known for his role in the TV series Mahabharata, is now readying to play the role of Shiva in the prestigious Ram Lila that takes place at the Ram Lila grounds in Delhi every year. Along
with him will be ex-MP Deepshikha, known for her role of Sita in the TV series Ramayana. Other luminaries expected in this year’s program are Shakti Kapoor, Zarina Wahab, Puneet Issar (Duryodhan of Mahabharata), Amita Nangiya and Girija Shankar (Dhritrashtra of Mahabharata). It shall most certainly be a gala not to be missed.
Communication Gap A COMMITTEE of secretaries to the government of India met recently under the leadership of the cabinet secretary for a “brain-storming session to prioritize area of focused attention for communication strategies”. It seems that the people 8 VIEWS ON NEWS September 22, 2015
covered the event. According to The Kumbh Mela: Mapping the Ephemeral Megacity, a book that summarizes their findings, and details available on the official website of the South Asia Institute of Harvard University, Maha Kumbh 2013 was far better organized than the FIFA World Cup in Brazil! That should make the UP government happy.
Lift Kara De THE INCIDENT of the Bihar State Guest House lift, that got stuck with Amit Shah and his followers in it, refuses to go out of the news. Someone in the Bihar government said the lift was equipped to carry 340 kg and the repair bill would be forwarded to the BJP. A probe panel, headed by the principal secretary, has been set up to see if there was any sabotage. The panel has decided that all occupants would need to present themselves before it and record their weights. Time for bariatric surgery?
Of Air India and Skills
Late Realization IT SEEMS that after losing elections and falling out with the masses, politicians take stock and realize the “real truth”, just like Congress has suddenly realized the worth of ex-PM, PV Narasimha Rao. Jairam Ramesh recently described Rao as a master tactician, a “fox” who was “remarkably decisive”. Now he feels that it was a mistake to neglect
POLICE AT Rajpura Police Station in Maharashtra’s Chandrapur district faced a strange dilemma. An 85-yearold woman, Janabai Sakharkar, complained that her step-son had trained his parrot, Hariyal, to hurl the choicest of abuses at her to harass her in a property dispute. The accused and complainant were called to the police station but Hariyal would not “sing”. So it has been handed over to the Forest Department. It happens only in India!
Some Premonition DELHI’S POWER corridors are abuzz as to why Home Secretary LA Goyal was shifted out of “Home”. Well, setting aside the talk of his disagreement on the Naga accord, an etymologist (one who studies the meaning of names) is saying that names starting with “Go” combine with “Home” in an ironic way. So Anil Goswami and LC Goyal—both had to exit unceremoniously before completing their tenures. My advice to the next will be: “Do-well” (Val).
IS THERE a connect between the newly-formed Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship and Air India? Yes, but one needs to look deep. The first minister of the new ministry is ex-civil aviation minister, Rajiv Pratap Rudy, who was incharge of Air India. The first secretary, Sunil Arora, was CMD of the erstwhile Indian Airlines, and the present secretary is Rohit Nandan, whose term as Air India CMD got over on August 15. Is this a ministry of aviation skills? who matter in the government are not too happy with the ongoing image management of the government. Result—one of the key communication strategists, ex-I&B Secretary Bimal Julka— was dumped, despite his supreme efforts at rehabilitating himself in some government body to chase retirement blues.
What A Parrot!
No Concern For Floods Rao. Ramesh did not appear to have as much regard and respect for his fellow Andhraite during the UPA regime. Nice insight and interesting political timing! Congress is known to suffer from selective amnesia and the list of people that the party has forgotten is long, including Sardar Patel, Maulana Abdul Kalam, etc. Many neglected leaders like Morarji Desai and Biju Patnaik quit the Congress.
THE RELENTLESS footage being given by the national media, especially TV channels, to an Assamese and her relatives has made many people from Assam ponder why not much concern is being shown towards the devastating floods under which half of Assam is reeling. The state is yet to receive even last year’s flood relief fund from the center, though these gestures are usually prompt in case of states like J&K and Gujarat. Is the pradhan sevak hearing the voices from Assam? He did tweet happy Bihu in Assamese once! —Compiled by Roshni Seth Illustrations: UdayShankar
VIEWS ON NEWS
September 22, 2015 9
EVERY FORTNIGHT VIEWS ON NEWS WILL BRING YOU TELL-ALL NEWS, ANALYSES AND OPINION FROM THE SHARPEST INVESTIGATIVE REPORTERS AND MOST INCISIVE MINDS IN THE NATION
U O T E S
“It is such a dirty and horrific advertisement.... If such advertisements for condoms appear in the country’s TV channels and newspapers, then incidents of rape will increase.� ——Atul Kumar Anjan, CPI leader, condemning Sunny Leone’s condom ad at a public rally
Shekhar Gupta, editorial advisor, India Today
Dabholkar, Pansare, #Kalburgi. No interest primetime? No glamour, cash, love, sex, dhoka. In any case intellectuals not PLUs, socialites are.
Shivam Vij, journalist After ten years of lampooning Manmohan, and complaining about liberal hypocrisy forever, Modi Bhakts say you can't make fun of sitting PM.
It looks like this film portrays Modiji in a poor light and I think it is anti-government to do so. —Pahlaj Nihalani, CBFC chairperson, on why he refused to certify the documentary, Battle of Banaras, in The Telegraph
Mihir Sharma, journalist, Business Standard
Rename a road. But try not to convey a crass, heavy-handed hint to Indian Muslims while you do. If you're not Kalam, you're Aurangzeb, eh?
Views On News (VON) is India’s premier fortnightly magazine that covers the wide spectrum of modern communication loosely known as “the media�. Its racy, news and analysis oriented story-telling encompasses current global and Indian developments, trends, future projections encompassing policy and business drifts, the latest from inside the print and electronic newsrooms, the exciting developments in ever-expanding digital space, trending matters in the social media, advertising, entertainment and books. An ENC Publication If the media is leaving you behind, stay ahead of it by picking up yesterday’s Views On News!
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Governance Section
FTII
MUMBAI COAST ROAD:
VIEWS ON NEWS SCRIPT GOING AWRY By Abhay Vaidya
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ROAD TO DISASTER By Darryl D’Monte
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SEPTEMBER 07, 2015
`50
Nepal or Vietnam??
Fooling the World How Social Media Disinformation Is Going Viral 12 AGENCIES: A house for Mr UNI
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Uttering ‘OM’ can trigger a row these days. —PM Narendra Modi, while releasing the digital version of Tulsidas’ Ramcharitra Manas
Every panel on news channels wondering how dysfunctional this family is cos obviously all their families are from Suraj Barjatya films. (on Mukerjeas)
Gaurav Sawant, India Today
This is the first time that Pakistan has a wife of a political leader who is a working woman, who was a divorcee, who has been a single parent, who works in the media, and who has a voice and mind of her own. —Reham Khan, journalist and wife of politician Imran Khan, in Newsweek Pakistan 10 VIEWS ON NEWS September 22, 2015
ISIS beheads today. Aurangzeb beheaded then. Wondering if Delhi will 1 day have Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi road to prove its secular credentials.
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The trouble with religion is that it has too much politics. The trouble with politics is that it has too much religion.
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Lede Indrani Case Media Role
Murder Overkill
The Indrani Mukerjea case saw the media indulging in wanton sensationalism and kite-flying in the mad race for TRPs. Why were the basic tenets of journalism not followed? BY AJITH PILLAI
GRABBING THE SPOTLIGHT Indrani Mukerjea’s sensational arrest had all the makings of a TRP-generating potboiler
12 VIEWS ON NEWS September 22, 2015
Y
Getty Images
OU could call it a TRP and readership-driven news blackout. For days on end after Indrani Mukerjea’s sensational arrest on August 25 for the alleged murder of her sister, Sheena Bora (later revealed to be her daughter), the media has been on an overdrive. Undoubtedly, the drama that unfolded in Mumbai had a formidable Page 3 star cast. Indrani was the second wife of former Star TV CEO, Peter Mukerjea. Not only were the star couple part of the swish party circuit of Delhi and Mumbai but were in the news in 2007 when they launched the high-profile INX Media Network with Indrani as the CEO. The couple later exited INX after it ran up huge losses in 2009. The
glamorous Indrani, to use a popular description then, was as much a media tycoon as her celebrated husband. It needs no elaboration that a multi-layered murder mystery that involves the rich and famous holds tremendous public interest. But the coverage that was unleashed, raises a pertinent question—should one murder case have been given such undue focus that it virtually eclipsed —for days together—all other news? And was the media allowing itself to be consumed completely by one story? Was it inventing new angles, drawing its own conclusions and labeling Indrani as an evil murderer, a bad mother and using words like debauched without any proof? STORIES BYPASSED It was not as if news of the murder surfaced in a silly season where there was a dearth of stories. The violent Patel community agitation in Gujarat calling for reservation and its immediate ramification on Bihar waiting to go to the polls was an issue that needed to be urgently addressed at length by the media. There was also the longterm national impact on caste and Mandal politics that could well be the fallout of the Hardik Patel-led flare-up. And what about Modi’s muchtouted Gujarat model of a peaceful and orderly state? This was by any stretch a news development that needed top priority but it was bypassed for a murder mystery. On August 24, a day before Indrani’s arrest, the Sensex tanked 1,642 points as a ripple effect of the Chinese stock market crash. The impact on the Indian and world economy was perceptible even ten days after the fall. However, once the murder came to light, the state of the economy was edged out of the primary focus, at least in mainstream papers and news channels. So too was infiltration from across the border, rising onion prices and the ongoing One Rank One Pension agitation by the armed forces veterans.
Journalists of the old school would have found the media coverage of the Sheena Bora case flawed on various basic counts. The press was moving heaven and earth to keep the coverage going. In doing so, it resorted to reporting half-truths, untruths and speculation. It interviewed anyone who knew the Mukerjeas professionally and socially. In fact, once reporters began tapping into Indrani’s family in Assam, there was no end to the living and dead skeletons tumbling out from her cupboard—ex-husband and live-in companion who claimed he fathered Sheena and her brother Mikhail, Sheena’s acquaintances and classmates in school and college. All were tracked down by TV cameras. The fact that Sheena was in a relationship with Rahul, Peter’s son from an earlier marriage, added a new twist that had to be explored. Theories galore, some conveniently manufactured in the newsrooms by armchair detectives, were paraded
IN THE EYE OF A STORM (Above) Sheena Bora in happier times (Below) The Hardik Patel stir, on the controversial subject of reservations, was shifted to the back-burner
VIEWS ON NEWS
August 22, 2015 13
Lede Indrani Case Media Role
“Waiting for a story to unfold, for you to be sure of facts and fairness, is now passe….It is because our audiences, the paying "janata" as Bollywood calls them, are not complaining.”
she was molested by her step-father. There was even a suggestion in some channels and social media that Sheena was perhaps born of a forced incestuous encounter with her father/step-father. This was later refuted but it dragged Indrani’s 80year-old father into the sordid story.
—Shekhar Gupta
as news. Had journalists forgotten the basic ethics of their profession?
WHAT IS IMPORTANT ? (Below) The One Rank One Pension (OROP) agitation was relegated to the background due to the Indrani story
MILKING THE STORY Manika Raikwar Ahirwal, editor (Integration) with NDTV, has blogged about many in her channel who wondered why full capital was not being squeezed out of a sensational story. Manika was among those who were quick to point out to colleagues that though it was sensational, the case should not be the “only story we covered”. Though she claims her view prevailed, it surprised many. “In a newsroom full of television sets beaming every movement of the Mukerjeas and anyone remotely connected to them, many wired youngsters on the desk simply couldn’t fathom why, like many others, we didn't spend every second of every minute devoted to it,” she observed.
14 VIEWS ON NEWS September 22, 2015
A commissioning editor of another channel contacted by Views On News admitted there was no question of giving any other news priority when orders from the top were to leverage more and more from the Sheena murder saga. “It was a mad race for TRPs,” he said. Indeed, it was this mad race which pushed the media to explore every angle possible. Even the “Jab They Met” moment when Peter was first introduced to Indrani was recalled by the loquacious Suhel Seth for the benefit of TV viewers and in an “exclusive” column to The Telegraph, Calcutta. It was at the Library Bar of the President Hotel that Seth was ensconced with friends—including the late Murli Deora—on that fateful evening when ad guru Alyque Padamsee walked in with the glamorous Indrani. Peter was floored. Three months later, he announced his wedding to Indrani. This critical input and other insights into Indrani’s character (“She didn’t look like someone capable of killing her daughter.”) were offered by those who knew her. From Vir Sanghvi we learnt that the lady had talked about a troubled childhood and that
COMPLICATED AFFAIR With so many falsities and kite-flying, not only did the basic facts (Sheena’s body had yet to be identified and no motive was found for the murder in 2012) get obscured but whodunit conclusions were dished out every evening at prime time and in newspapers, adding to the confusion. The coverage soon reached a point where any intelligent reader/viewer would have simply given up. The story twisted and re-twisted by the media became too complicated to keep track of. Unable to keep the story moving forward, TV anchors resorted to dishing out banalities with as much authority as they could. However, there was a false ring to it. Sample this: “Someone must certainly be lying”; “There is a murdered body or the remains of it—we presume it is Sheena’s—if Indrani did not commit the crime, someone else must have”; and “The truth has to surface sometime. It will be our endeavor to hasten that process.” Then, there was the loaded question to Peter Mukerjea by Arnab Goswami on Times Now: “Do you believe your wife is the murderer?” The answer was an exclusive: “Certainly not, at this point I find it impossible to believe that. She certainly never indicated to me that she’s got some kind of a murderer’s instinct in her character.” So why was the media so obsessed by one story? The simplistic explanation being given is that it was only delivering what readers and viewers wanted. Senior journalist Shekhar Gupta summed it up in his column: “Waiting for a story to unfold, for you to be sure of facts and fairness, is now passe. But that isn't because journalism has now moved away from old-fashioned values by itself. It is because our audiences, the paying ‘janata’
as Bollywood calls them, are not complaining. Our hypocrisy is not just matched by our audiences’—it is, in fact, a response to it.” But can wanton sensationalism to attract eyeballs justify the blacking out of news or low priority being given to important news events? If newspapers and TV channels are seen as just another product like, say toothpaste, this level of reasoning is perhaps applicable. But media owners as well as editors also happen to don the mantle of responsible journalism when they find it convenient. But they were obviously wearing their marketing bi-focal once the Indrani virus took over. There was nothing level-headed or balanced about the news coverage for days together. This is not to say that the murder mystery should have been ignored. It couldn’t have been since there was bound to be interest in it given the people involved. But to bombard the readers and viewers with fuddled theories and half-baked allegations amounted to disseminating misinformation. When you have no story to tell, you should have the courage to stand up and quietly admit it. Fake news is, after all, not Breaking News. In fact, it is not news in any sense of the word.
ECLIPSED (Above) On August 24, a day before Indrani’s arrest, the Sensex tanked 1,642 points, but was edged out of primary focus
VIEWS ON NEWS
September 22, 2015 15
Lede Indrani Case Media’s role
Playing Judge and Jury Even as the Indrani Mukerjea murder case is being probed, a dangerous trial by the media is on. And those wanting their two minutes of fame are seen shamelessly casting aspirations on her BY BIKRAM VOHRA Heinrich Heine wrote:“Where they burn books, they will also ultimately burn people.”
C
LOSE on the heels of that truism is another: if we lose touch with due process and do not assume innocence till guilt is proven, we are doomed to injustice. And so on this canvas, let’s take the horror of the “Mukerjea murder” case
16 VIEWS ON NEWS September 22, 2015
and the death of a young girl called Sheena Bora. Let the killers be brought to court and punished with full severity. I am all for that. The young girl deserves justice in full measure. But till the evidence is in, there has to be some sanctity accorded to the constitutional right of every Indian to be protected by the law from vigilantism and self-propulsion of the public. The lack of procedure and ethics that marks the investigative process is breathtaking.
While former friends and colleagues are rushing like lemmings off the cliff of basic decency and breaking confidences on multiple TV channels in what is a travesty of Indian upper class society (using the word “class” loosely) and the dubious adhesive that binds it, they can be pardoned for sheer bad manners and rancid narcissism. Clearly, the fact that they are only interested in projecting themselves and the subject—be it cabbages, kings or carnage—is purely incidental in this desperate need to be seen on the screen.
T
he same cannot be said for professionals. They do not have the luxury of concealing their spite. I watch with slack-jawed “admiration” as a psychiatrist cheerfully comes on a TV talk show and shares memories of the accused, Indrani Mukerjea. She then proceeds to tell the world that Indrani wanted a false medical certificate but does not explain why she maintained her silence on a possible fraud or is breaking patient-doctor confidentiality without the slightest tremor in her conscience. On other channels we have a senior policeman, a senior lawyer…all of them offering opin-
ions without a thread of evidence to back them. A witness springs up after three years of silence in Raigad. Was he also not a witness three years ago when the grisly act went down? What prompted him to suddenly make a clean breast of things? In the interim, the brother of the murdered girl, Mikhail, announces that he was also drugged in a hotel room by Mumsy and managed to escape. He then concluded in a burst of incandescent brilliance that since Mum had tried to kill him once, she would not do it again so why bother telling the cops that his drink was spiked. Cool. The same brother sits between two police officials on an Indigo flight and they allow him to be interviewed by a TV channel. Either he is in custody, in which case, he should be disallowed from speaking to the media or he is a free man, in which case, he should not be bookended by two cops on a public flight. And did it not strike Indigo that interviewing someone in a murder trial on a flight is an imposition on other passengers who may exercise their right
ADVANTAGE INDRANI? (Bottom) The hype created by TV chanels is not only unwarranted but needless and can be used by the defense counsel during court trial
VIEWS ON NEWS
September 22, 2015 17
Lede Indrani Case Media’s role
“debates” have concentrated on this murder. For the lawyer who finally takes Indrani as his client, all this is super stuff and forms a concrete basis for declaring a mistrial on grounds of extreme prejudice and the fact that she will not get a fair trial because the press has already indicted her. What can be more laughable than a suitcase found in Peter’s garage that has been lying there to accommodate Mikhail’s body when he is finally murdered. The other suitcase was allegedly used for the sister. Five days after the arrest, the incriminating suitcase is still in the garage!
A
HUMOR IN DIFFERENT HUES
t present, there is no forensic evidence to link Indrani to the murder. So, for all intents and purposes, she is innocent despite her accusers now crawling out of the woodwork. Legally, all the statements and character references are in the public domain and they can be used as admissible proof of that prejudice. The psychiatrist, the celebrities who are shooting off
(Clockwise from above) The Fevicol, Greenply and Mentos ads
MEDIA TRIAL? (Above from left) Indrani Mukerjea at the Bandra metropolitan magistrate’s court in Mumbai; Peter Mukerjea, former CEO of Star India and Indrani’s husband, at the Khar police station in Mumbai
to say, hello, this is not part of the deal. As Alice would say, it gets curiouser and curiouser. Though she might not add that the common factor in all this is the magic of media, something she did not have at her disposal when she went down the rabbit hole.
L
et’s examine how the media has so thwarted the investigation and piedpipered even the investigation representatives into its visual trap. Come on TV and say your piece and if it messes things up, the devil take the hind leg. The leader of the pack, Arnab Goswami, labels Indrani an evil woman. He stresses this trait several times. Based on what? Her arrest? The fact
The media has so thwarted the probe and pied-pipered even the investigation representatives into its visual trap. Come on TV and say your piece and if it messes things up, the devil take the hind leg.
18 VIEWS ON NEWS September 22, 2015
Arnab Goswami labels Indrani an evil woman. Based on what? His clones on other channels follow him. Since there is no use of the escape hatch tag “alleged”, they are open to charges of libel. their mouths, the supercop, the lawyer and the editor of a website who purports to recall her conversation with Indrani, can all be summoned as material witnesses in the case. This is not a chat show. All these people have to explain why they were silent on any aspect of the life of Indrani Mukerjea for up to a decade and that makes them accessories before the fact. Any smart lawyer will easily eat them for breakfast. Where the oddities in the conduct of the dramatis personae is almost laughable, the issue here is singular. Can media’s lure derail cases or change their tack? The element of pre-emption is so dangerous that our individual bias and prejudice dictates what we say.
FODDER FOR MEDIA (Below left to right) Sanjeev Khanna, Indrani's ex-husband; Shyamvar Rai, Indrani’s driver
that she is a suspect? His clones on other channels follow him with gusto. Since there is no use of the escape hatch tag “alleged”, they are technically open to charges of libel. Even Peter Mukerjea, a TV man himself, is not immune to the blandishments of the small screen. He gives an interview to Goswami a day after his wife is arrested, not for jaywalking but for murder. Who in his right mind would elect to get browbeaten by this TV anchor, knowing he would go for the jugular? If you have watched these shows once, would you see them as your saviors in times of trouble? Yet, Mukerjea himself a media moghul, happily opens his doors but refuses to be video-taped. Because he isn’t good-looking. Say what? Incessantly, for the past several days, all Indian news channels and their pigeons-in-the-hole VIEWS ON NEWS
September 22, 2015 19
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Lede Indrani Case
Media’s role
Media Role
secure, mentally unstable and not responsible for her actions, including committing murder. Immediately, the charge can be pleaded down from Murder One to manslaughter by way of temporary insanity. He may not win it, but the plea bargaining now has basis. You don’t need to be a lawyer. Any reasonably smart person could debunk the deceit, absurdities and inconsistencies in the stories of the individuals involved and run with it.
FEEDING THE PRESS (Right) Indrani's son Mikhail Bora (Below right) Vir Sanghvi’s comments were distasteful as he breached a confidence
T
How do the channels know that Indrani is not co-operating? That the former husband confessed he was sleeping in the car while the girl was murdered?
Take for example well-known writer Vir Sanghvi’s statement made on television that Indrani Mukerjea confided in him that she was raped by her stepfather and suffers from the shock waves even to this day. To many folks, Vir’s comments may be seen as gratuitous and distasteful because he breaches a confidence. But wittingly or otherwise, Vir has provided the foundation for a defense that is vigorous and valid. A good lawyer, once he is factored in the Sanghvi statement and brought a platoon of psychiatrists into the fray, including the TV lady, will show Indrani is a victim of PTSD, in-
20 VIEWS ON NEWS September 22, 2015
hen, some other good friend will appear with another sob story about the agonies she suffered and the goblins that ran around inside her mind. This muddying of the waters is further made opaque by the ridiculous ease with which updates are given to the public like feeding biscuits to dogs. Bit by tasty bit. How do the channels know that Indrani is not co-operating? That the former husband confessed he was sleeping in the car while the girl was murdered? The police have found the car. That Peter went to the police officer’s mess to meet some senior officer? We even know Indrani and her former husband are squabbling. This flow of legal lava will continue over the days and the nation will be force-fed with interpretations from gushing reporters. Who tells the media all these details almost in real time? We are told they are on their way to Raigad or Mumbai or Delhi or whatever. By the time this case goes to trial, the evidence will be so knotted, the link between the murder and the murderers made tenuous by time and the scene so contaminated for forensics that Indrani Mukerjea will stand a fair chance of dodging a legal bullet currently going straight towards her. And there, Watson, lies the rub. Should media be allowed to second guess the law? Your call, because public opinion has been formed even before the curtain rises on the legal aspect. After all, if the killer gets away, be it on the head of the Fourth Estate.
Inside the Newsroom Views on News visited TV channels to get a feel of the frenzy that engulfed them as the Indrani story broke BY SHANTANU GUHA RAY
“C
UT to visuals, I do not care,” screamed the executive producer on duty, his voice booming across the glass-paneled newsroom of one of India’s top channels. A rival channel had just reported that Indrani Mukerjea, wife of former Star TV and NewsX group of channels head, Peter Mukerjea, had been arrested on charges of murdering her sister. The race must start. “But can we confirm first; that’s a rival channel,” asked a producer. “Just do it,” thundered the executive producer. By then, all channels had the same news as Breaking. The poor librarian hid in the toilet; he was called— for the first time in his life by the channel CEO, asking for Indrani’s images. “Better be quick,” he barked. The librarian messed up the first lot, offering images of a model. He nearly lost his job. An intern salvaged the channel’s pride by offering some from Indrani’s Facebook page, else they had to be copied from rival channels. Hold it, there still is no story. It is 40 minutes into breaking news. No piece to camera, no phone-ins from the home of the Mukerjeas. Is this the death of the reporter then? Perhaps yes. SHEER MADNESS The channels by then had gone into an overdrive. The market leader had a distinct advantage as it was based in Mumbai; the rest had to rush reporters there. The same madness, for the first time, gripped channels in Kolkata and Assam too. They were now part of national pride.
The same visuals, same commentary—mostly halfbaked—same cops and accused continued to be on the screen for long hours. By then, Sheena had turned from sister to daughter, a brother had emerged, a former husband had confessed to the crime and the live-in partner was discovered with his face covered. Everything must be on air, everything, argued TV producers across India. This is Indian news channels’ acid test, the reporters were reminded. “We are living inside a pressure cooker,” confided one. Crude judgments followed, extrapolated from what was essentially raw footage, everyone had an opinion about good mothers and bad mothers and why men should not fall for female fatale. It was Neeta’s Natter on tube. Siddhartha Das, Indrani’s former live-in partner, also emerged after a news portal said he had escaped to Bangladesh. He was actually in a fish market in Kolkata —someone tweeted: “Ki farak painda, Kolkata ya Bangladesh.” Following Siddhartha was his landlord. He also seemed to want his two minutes of fame. Worse, the landlord was identified as Siddhartha and remained on air for over six hours before the error was detected at 21.00 hours. But the executive producer was least bothered. Don’t worry about it, there is a tinge of Sid in him yaar, he argued. Anything connecting to Indrani would do. After all, this was a TRP game, news could take a backseat. VIEWS ON NEWS
September 22, 2015 21
Lede Media Monitoring TMM Survey
No of Special Programs on Indrani Case (between Aug 26 and Aug 30, 2015)
40
37
35 30 25 15 10
10
5
0 0 Times India Now Today
20 18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0
HOW MUCH COVERAGE DID THE INDRANI STORY HOG ON TV CHANNELS BETWEEN AUGUST 26 TO AUGUST 30, 2015 IN A TOTAL OF 60 HOURS?
This is based on a survey done by The Media Monitor (TMM) among six channels—Times Now, India Today, ABP, AAJ Tak, India TV and Zee News By VON Team 22 VIEWS ON NEWS
September
T
20
20
4
ABP
3 AAJ TAK
INDIA TV
ZEE NEWS
No of Debates on Indrani Case 18
(between Aug 26 and Aug 30, 2015)
3 0 Times India Now Today
ABP
4
AAJ TAK
4 0 INDIA TV
ZEE NEWS
Percentage of News on Indrani (out of total) (between Aug 26 and Aug 30, 2015) 35.10%
46.60%
25%
35%
31.60% 20%
Was There No Other News?
Times Now India Today ABP Aaj Tak India TV Zee News
HE Indrani Mukerjea case has riveted the nation for the past one week, with every day throwing up new theories and counter-theories, lies and half-truths and new characters crawling out of the woodwork. While the case has all the spice—murder, sex, lies, celebrities—to interest any viewer, the fact is that the story of the crumbling lives of Peter Mukerjea, former Star TV India CEO, and his high-profile wife, Indrani, a former HR consultant, carried on for too long at the cost of other important national news. This story was about Indrani being arrested by the Mumbai police for the alleged murder of Sheena Bora, her daughter, whom she claimed was her sister. Other participants in this grisly story were Indrani’s former live-in partner, Siddhartha Das, who claimed that he was Sheena and her brother Mikhail’s father; Sanjeev Khanna, Indrani’s first husband from whom she had a daughter, Vidhie; Peter’s son, Rahul; and Indrani’s former driver who is believed to have helped in disposing off Sheena’s body in Raigad. While this was, no doubt, a gripping and horrific story, did it warrant maximum coverage on the part of news channels, each of which claimed to have breaking news? Being national news channels, did they not think it important to cover issues erupting in other parts of the country, be it Bihar politics, Hardik Patel angst, floods in Assam or the Telengana crisis? A survey conducted by TMM among six national news channels—Times Now, India Today, ABP, AAJ Tak, India TV and Zee News—showed how much time each gave to the Indrani case in terms of the number of special programs, number of debates and percentage of total news between August 26 and August 30, 2015, from 10am to 10pm, making it a total of 60 hours. Coming to the number of special programs, Zee News led the pack with 37, folVIEWS ON NEWS September
23
Lede Media Monitoring
Anchor Review
TMM Survey
Indrani Case
lowed by Aaj Tak with 20 and Times Now with 10. In the number of debates devoted to the Indrani case, Times Now led with 18, followed by Aaj Tak and Zee News, both with four. Times Now debates were mainly focused on Newshour, hosted by Arnab Goswami. On the other hand, Aaj Tak and Zee News conducted their prime time debate shows, Halla Bol and Taal Thok K, respectively, with Anjana Om Kashyap and Rohit Sardana, under the following titles: Aaj Tak—One murder how many mysteries Aaj Tak—Truth will be revealed out? Zee News—Tehkikaat In terms of the percentage of news devoted to the Indrani case out of their total news during this time (August 2630), Times Now again led with 46.6 percent, followed by Zee News with 35.1 percent and then, India Today with 35 percent. Ironically, though India Today had no special programs or debates on the Indrani case, it devoted 35 percent news coverage to this case. This probably means that it was just focusing on the actual news rather than indulging in speculations and contentious and needless debates. Sadly, in the pursuit of the Indrani case, national news channels dropped many other important news stories. These included: Another Nirbhaya case in Assam, where a 13-year-old was brutally raped in a bus. This was highlighted in a regional newspaper, Sikkim Express, on August 27, 2015. Three officials suspended over a 10day-old baby’s death allegedly after being bitten by rats in Andhra Pradesh on August 27, 2015. Pakistani terrorist Mohammad Naved produced in court. Reservation issue of Patels in Gujarat. Blast in Manipur killing eight. 24 VIEWS ON NEWS
September
What’s A National News Channel?
L
ET us now turn our attention to what is the meaning of a national news channel. Are these supposed to be channels which cover news from the length and breadth of the country? Are they channels which, therefore, give equal importance to all regions of India? Contrary to the popular notion, most national news channels are seen as northern centric, and as expected, the NorthEast is a blind spot for them with little attention being paid to this vital region. Most don’t lay much importance on the intelligence of the audience and this is especially true for Hindi news channels. Many telecast shows based on TV serials where they titillate viewers and give gossip about
and see which regions they gave importance to. Out of a total of 154 news segments, India Today had 79 on the Northern Region, followed by 33 on Western and 30 on Southern Region. Out of a total of 203 news segments from Aaj Tak, 135 were on the Northern Region, followed by Eastern (47) and Western (21). Times Now had 89 for Northern Region, 36 for Western and 27 for Eastern Region, out of a total of 178 news segments. India TV had 121 news segments on the Northern Region out of a total of 203, followed by Western and Eastern Regions at
No of News Segments on Different Regions (between Aug 17 and Aug 28, 2015) 300
9 15 9
250 200 150 100
2 7 17
1
136
30 89
50
36
0
27 TIMES NOW
135
79
51
21 33 11 INDIA TODAY
4 8 9
54
47 AAJ TAK
ABP
the actors of serials. Many have Tarot card readers and astrologers telling people about their future and babas who claim to rid them of all their difficulties. The focus is on sensationalism, irrespective of the merit of the issue. A survey done by TMM between August 17 and 28, 2015, shows that most channels concentrated on the Northern Region of India in terms of their total news segments. This includes debates, special programs and general bulletin. Let’s take each individual news channel
3 5 6 48 22 9 NDTV
121
Northeast Central South North West East
39 22 INDIA TV
39 and 22, respectively. ABP News had Northern Region (136), Eastern (54) and Western (51), out of a total of 274 news segments. NDTV News had 48 for North India, 22 for West India and nine for East India out of a total of 93 news segments. It is obvious, therefore, that these national news channels, most in NCR, have a limited vision and are missing out on big news elsewhere.
HOOTING & SCREECHING OVER INDRANI Anchors of most channels devoted an inordinate amount of time to this case with differing decibel levels of excitement BY BHAVDEEP KANG
I
INDRANI Mukerjea’s salacious saga of lust and violence titillated TV anchors as well as audiences this fortnight. The coverage was handled with differing decibel levels of excitement, with Times Now hoot and screech above the rest. Erstwhile buddies of the power couple, Peter and Indrani, blossomed on TV screens to muddy the already murky waters. Arnab Goswami slammed the Mumbai police and its commissioner for failing to answer “The Burning Question”—establishing a motive. Little flames emanated from the bottom of the screen and the words “The Burning Question” leapt out at viewers, just in case they missed the point. His guests varied from five to an astonishing nine at one go, comprising academics, lawyers, former cops, Page 3 divas, film industry have-beens and a random collection of “those who knew Peter”. His questioning of Mukerjea— a coup for Times Now—was surprisingly gentle. Peter, a far cry from the suave, mustachioed high-flyer with the engaging grin, stuck to his story: He hadn’t known. India Today’s Rahul Kanwal quivered like a sensitive beagle in his semi-formals as he informed viewers of the “high drama” attending the saga. “Where is Siddartha Das?” he demanded and when that worthy surfaced a couple of days later, questioned him with an endearingly soft touch. Pacing up and down, flapping his arms, he actually managed to elicit more information from “dada” than the
very correct Rahul Shivshankar of NewsX, who played hardball with “Mr Das”. He also scored with his interview of NewsX’s former chief Vir Sanghvi, who revealed Indrani’s confidences about sexual abuse in her childhood. His colleague, Gaurav Sawant, was even more excited with Vir’s interview, sinking into a semi-crouch as he shared the astounding revelations with viewers. As for Rajdeep Sardesai, he brought the same intensity to the case as he does to matters of national security or cricket. Rajat Sharma blinked his way furiously through slightly off-the-mark coverage, devoting virtually an entire episode to the theory that Siddartha Das was, in fact, dead. “Even his family does not know where he has been for 10 years,” he stated gravely. Das’ brother, he added, was in great “tension” as he hadn’t been able to contact him for a decade. Das, he hinted, had been done away with because he knew where all the bodies were buried (metaphorically speaking). That was on August 31. The next day, Das surfaced, with interviews to other channels. Rajat had by then moved on to Bihar and a less shiny tie. Taking time off from Indrani, anchors devoted some time to other issues: cricket, OROP, the trade union strike, Bihar elections and Rani Mukherjee’s pregnancy. The winner of the week was Aaj Tak’s So Sorry, featuring Narendra Modi and Nitish Kumar-as-Amitabh Bachchan, spurning his offer of money—until he sees the size of the cheque. VIEWS ON NEWS
September 22, 2015 25
Small Screen Study on Digitization
How the Dish Blew Away the Antenna
ADVANTAGE INDRANI? (Top) The hype created by TV chanels was not only unwarranted but details exposed could offer her an advantage once she faces trial in court
Photos: Anil Shakya
With the DTH revolution sweeping India and the increasing emphasis on entertainment, what does it mean for Doordarshan which is losing viewers? BY RAMESH MENON
R
EMEMBER the days when we used to see antennas of all shapes and sizes jutting out of balconies and rooftop terraces? How many do you see today? Technology has brought in directto-home (DTH) telecast, driving out terrestrial broadcasting. This is not just in urban India, but more so in rural India. Increasingly, new TV households are moving straight to DTH. The only exception is Andhra Pradesh, where cable still dominates. These dramatic changes have happened in the last few years, when digitization has changed the way the poor access television today.
26 VIEWS ON NEWS September 22, 2015
A study done in Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Gujarat and Odisha by The Media Foundation and supported by the Ford Foundation between June 2012 and July 2014, shows that a majority of households prefer to pay for DTH rather than take the free dish given by Doordarshan as they want the freedom to choose the content of their choice. The Study is titled When the Dish Knocked Down the Antenna: Impact of TV Digitization on Low Income Viewers and Public Broadcasting. Interestingly, in 1962, there were just 41 households with TV sets. But by 2013, this exploded to 167 million, showing the immense potential in this market. Of these, 76 percent had
color TVs. In 1993, 12 million rural households had TV, which climbed in 2013 to 89.6 million. In contrast, in 1993, 28 million urban households had television and this climbed in 2013 to 77.7 million. This shows that rural India had overtaken urban India in TV ownership. ATTRACTIVE CONTENT Interestingly, it is content that is driving the choice of technology. If viewers are migrating from the terrestrial broadcasting system (antennas) to DTH, it is mainly because of content as it offers them a wide variety of choices—serials, films, children’s shows, sports, devotional programs, news and current affairs—that are more attractively produced. They also want the freedom to choose what to view at any point of time. DD Direct may be free, but viewers do not care as they want better programs. The study showed that between 2006 and
2013, DTH connectivity had grown in rural areas from 6 percent to 29 percent, while terrestrial connectivity in these areas had declined from 64 percent to 27 percent. From 2006-07, there were 36,27,000 homes that had DTH connections. In 2012-13, it had increased to 2,61,75,000 homes! However, Prasar Bharati continues to allocate a substantial part of its budget to maintain its terrestrial network of 1,400 transmitters. Many of its senior executives feel that Prasar Bharati has a role to play in terms of education and sensitizing the population about real issues like health and empowerment. This is in spite of the fact that today, the growth of television access in rural India is riding on the digital revolution. They strongly feel that it must not get swayed by the fact that private channels have stolen a march by moving to DTH as they are focusing on catching eyeballs by whipping up entertainment content.
RURAL LEAP (Above) In 2013, there were 89.6 million households with TV in rural India, much more than the 77.7 million urban households
VIEWS ON NEWS
September 22, 2015 27
Small Screen Study on Digitization
We have great talent in DD, but we need to give them the opportunity to do creative work and not put them through bureaucratic tangles. —SY Quraishi, former D-G, Doordarshan
Path-breaking programs like encouraging pregnant women to consume iron tablets changed the health scenario. —PK Srivastava, head of programming, DD Kendra, Raipur
New TV households are increasingly bypassing the public service broadcaster, preferring private channels through cable and DTH. The DTH market has grown, especially because players are offering concessional introductory services with the purchase of TV sets. So, while Airtel has collaborated with Sony, Tata Sky is given with Samsung and Videocon is piggybacking on its own low-cost TV sets, making its DTH services popular among low-income groups. The study found many interesting nuggets of behavior. Villagers told researchers that they liked the fact that DTH was not free, as during school examinations, they would just not recharge it as they did not want their children to be distracted. Another surprise was the increasing popularity of Discovery, Animal Planet and National Geographic, which followed popular entertainment channels from the Star and Zee stables. 28 VIEWS ON NEWS September 22, 2015
The biggest earning comes from agriculture programs and not entertainment. There is an audience for development programs. —Rupa Mehta, assistant director, Programs, DD Girnar
POVERTY BARRIER As far as barriers to television watching are considered, the study found that poverty was one of the reasons why many could not afford even a TV set. Other reasons included frequent power failures and scheduling of programs at wrong times when they would be busy working in the fields. Other findings were that content on DTH platforms was often not ideal for family viewing as it was titillating and embarrassing to sit with children and watch. Many respondents complained that the remote was monopolized by their children and so, they had no choice but to watch what the kids wanted. The study found that digitization had made watching TV less affordable for the urban poor. When the cable operator was around, the poor said they often could bargain and plead with him for discounts or for delayed payment. With DTH,
The Punjabi music programs of the kendra are highly popular, though not Punjabi serials. —Dr Om Gouri Dutt Sharma, deputy Director-General of DD Kendra, Jalandar there is nothing like delayed credit payments. Though DTH brought in more choices as far as channels go, low income viewers said they had substantial, unmet information needs that could have improved their lives. For example, many wanted programs on employment opportunities, youngsters wanted those on communication skills and development of skills that would help them find work and so on. There was also a demand in rural areas for health programs as consciousness about being healthy increased. LOCAL CONTENT However, there were technological barriers to information programming. One of the key findings of the study showed that local content was preferred, but it was not available on the technology platform that viewers were now opting for. For example, Doordarshan did not have the local lan-
Some DD programs effectively combine entertainment and education. —Sona Sharma, Advocacy and Communication, Population Foundation of India
It would be worthwhile to reach out to the 7 million households in India in remote places that have no access to television. —Arti Jaiman, station director, Gurgaon ki Awaz
guage or localized programming on these platforms as it was available only as terrestrial signals. Ironically, even the DTH platform of Doordarshan does not carry programming from its narrowcasting kendras or in local languages like Kutchi in Gujarat or Halbi in Chhattisgarh. Unfortunately, people often miss out on Doordarshan’s programs due to the shift to cable or DTH. For example, the staff in Chhattisgarh often came up with wonderful stories and programs from the deep interiors, including Naxalite-infested areas. But these are hardly seen as most viewers in the state have cable or DTH. The study showed how India’s public broadcaster has been caught in a mesh where content and demand are mismatched. DD executives told VON that there was pressure to raise funds. This was the principle reason why it was creating entertainment content, ignoring key areas like VIEWS ON NEWS
September 22, 2015 29
Small Screen Study on Digitization
development, health, agriculture and regional news. Ostensibly, this was the original raison d’être of the public broadcaster in the first place. The survey found that viewers got their entertainment needs from DTH telecasts and expected DD to meet their other needs like having programs on agriculture, health, education and the like. ROOTING FOR ENTERTAINMENT When Doordarshan did a month-long content mapping of programming in 2012, it found that there was a clear mismatch between the content segments provided and the content for which there was a demand. It found that on all four 24-hour DD channels, entertainment ruled the roost. On DD National, it was 51.25 percent, even though Olympics was on when the research was con-
There is no substitute for good writers and they should be roped in by DD to script programs. They would be willing to work for DD. — Mrinal Pande, senior journalist 30 VIEWS ON NEWS September 22, 2015
Viewers also want information, not just entertainment. They want programs on health, agriculture, employment and careers too. —Sevanti Ninan, The Hoot
ducted. The content mapping of DD National was performed from August 1 to August 31, 2012, and 18 hours of programming daily was monitored. Dr Om Gouri Dutt Sharma, deputy directorgeneral of Doordarshan Kendra, Jalandar, told VON: “We run Punjabi music as it is very popular. Feedback has shown that. However, Punjabi serials are not so popular.” The situation differs from state to state. In Gujarat, Rupa Mehta, assistant director, Programs, DD Girnar, said that their biggest earning came from agriculture programs and not entertainment. Development programs, she said, could catch attention if they were well produced and DD Girnar was a good example of that. Sona Sharma, additional director, Advocacy and Communication, Population Foundation of India, said: “The drama series on DD National, Main Kuch Bhi Kar Sakti Hoon, was an excellent example of how entertainment and education could be effectively combined. It was about a Mumbai doctor who went back to her village to work. It dealt with serious topics like women’s empowerment, family planning, child marriage and sex selection in an entertaining and interesting way. It elicited six lakh calls from viewers during its 52 episodes.” CONTENT IS KING SY Quraishi, former D-G of Doordarshan, said: “What matters ultimately is content. Jasoos Vijay was a popular interactive detective serial that had subtly weaved in the message of HIV-AIDS. It was later funded by NACO. We have great talent in DD, but we need to give them the opportunity to do creative work and not put them through bureaucratic tangles.” Senior journalist Mrinal Pande says that there is no substitute for good writers and they should be roped in by Doordarshan to script programs. “Good content creators would be willing to work with the public broadcaster,” she stressed. PK Srivastava, head of programming,
Share of entertainment in DD National programs
Share of program categories in DD National 60%
60.00% 51.05%
50.00% 40.00%
39.84%
37.88%
40%
30.00%
30% 21.46%
20.00%
20% 12%
10.00% 0.00%
50%
Entertainment Science Information Health Education Agriculture
51.25%
Andhra
Odisha
Gujarat
Chhattisgarh National
10% 0.%
0.58%
3.02% 1.88% 3.22% 4.43%
Doordarshan Kendra, Raipur, told VON that some path-breaking programs were done like encouraging pregnant women to consume iron tablets, which ultimately changed the health scenario. Then, there were a series of programs dealing with how widows were being regularly killed on some pretext or other. “This may not have brought in revenue, but see the change such programs brought in Chhattisgarh,” he said. DEARTH OF INFORMATION PROGRAMS Incidentally, as the antenna disappears with digitization, farm programs are no more seen as it is available only on terrestrial transmission. Researchers found that there was an unmet need among rural viewers for such programs. Farm programming was found to constitute less than eight percent of the total programming on DD National, DD Odiya and on Doordarshan’s Telugu and Gujarati regional satellite channels. Media watcher Sevanti Ninan who runs The Hoot, a website that critically analyses the media, said: “Viewers also want information other than entertainment. Viewers want programs on health, agriculture, horticulture, animal husbandry, employment news, career guidance and how to develop communication skills.” Arti Jaiman, station director, Gurgaon ki Awaz Community Radio, pointed out that there were nearly seven million households in India that had
no access to television or news. They were in remote places but if the government could give them free dishes, it would be worth it, she said. A separate study of DD Direct viewers conducted by DD’s audience research cell showed that 36 percent wanted entertainment, 20 percent wanted information, another 20 percent, wanted news and current affairs and 17.5 percent, programs on education. The most watched channel was Zee Smile, followed by Aastha, Sanskar and Star Utsav. Obviously, there is a lot that DD has to achieve despite the fact that India today has over 800 TV channels. With a public broadcaster that has nearly 33,000 employees, there is a lot of answering it has to do.
HARD DEAL (Above) Urban households feel that with DTH, the scope for bargain with the cable operator and delayed credit payment is gone
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Small Screen DD Kisan
Doordarshan has broken new ground with a 24x7 channel for farmers. And it is nowhere near the staid Krishi Darshan as it is interspersed with entertainment, dramas, reality shows and movies BY BHAVDEEP KANG 32 VIEWS ON NEWS
L
AL Muni Devi is a landless daily wage labourer and mother of nine. In 2011, she attended a two-hour workshop on mushroom culture in her village near Patna. Inspired, she took a loan of Rs 600 to start mushroom cultivation in 2011. Today, she earns ` 60-70,000 a month through fungiculture and owns two acres of land. And she’s trained 30 other women in her village in mushroom culture. This was one of the several success stories Doordarshan’s three-month-old DD Kisan channel came across while researching content for its program, Baat Rajyon Ki.
E-CONNECT WITH MANDIS At the same time, using modern technology to access markets appears to be a priority. The channel
Week 32
64.7
70
Week 33
DD Northeast
DD Madhya Pradesh
DD Rajasthan
DD Oriya
DD Lucknow
DD Bihar
DD Urdu
DD Punjabi
DD Sports
DD Bharati
DD Yadagiri
DD Bangla
DD Chandana
DD Sahyadri
DD Podhigai
DD Malyalam
0 DD News
21 14.5 17 8.3 15.5 10.2 11.4 6.5 7.1 6.3 5.1 4.6 4.9 4.3 4.1 3.1 4 1.3 3.6 2.1 1.9 1.2 0.8
11.7
10
DD Kisan
20
17.7
30
27.8 23.9 27.2
33 35.6 31 29.4
40
40.6
45
32.8
50
46.6
60
13.4
SCEPTICAL REACTION The channel’s launch was met with scepticism, with even Prasar Bharati insiders anticipating that it would be an expanded version of DD’s longestrunning and arguably most boring show, Krishi Darshan. Perhaps with that in mind, channel executives included entertainment segments, notably the mythological drama, Draupadi. There’s an up-coming reality TV show and movies from time to time. Given the big institutional push the channel has received, it’s natural to wonder whether it represents the stated policy objectives of a technology enamoured government or the traditional farming approaches of the RSS. Channel head and DD ADG Ranjan Mukherjee sees no contradiction: “Food security and farmer prosperity is the lietmotif... a second Green Revolution, based on environmental sustainability and improved productivity and the technology to get us there.” The very fact that this is a 24x7 channel for farmers means there is a leaning towards organic or low external input farming systems, which are information—rather than capital-driven. The focus on animal husbandry as integral to agriculture and indigenous, low-cost technology options seems to support that contention. As does Mukherjee’s assertion that the channel’s approach is Gandhian: “The farmer is not just a producer and a consumer. He’s also a craftsmen and an artisan. We’re aiming at the Gandhian village, a selfsufficient farming community.”
All DD Channels Performance, GVL (Gross Viewership in Lakhs)
DD Girnar
Sowing New Seeds
DD Kisan, touted as the world’s only 24x7 farmer-focused channel, was launched on the first anniversary of NDA II (although it was 1st mooted during NDA I). It was clearly intended to showcase the government’s commitment to farmers and pulled 21 million viewers in its 33rd week.
Source: Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC)
promotes the National Agriculture Market, which intends to liberate the farmer from the APMC (Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee) by allowing him to e-connect with mandis countrywide. Mandi prices from the Agmarknet and NCDEX scroll across the bottom of the screen are occasionally interrupted by weather information from Indian Meteorological Department (IMD). A tie-up with the 62 central agricultural universities, Kisan Call Centres, Krishi Vigyan Kendras and institutions like IMD, Indian Council of Agricultural Research, National Dairy Development Board and Indian Agricultural Research Institute obviously helps access information
FARMERS’ FRIEND (Above) A screen grab of DD Kisan (Facing page) Prime Minister Narendra Modi, I&B Minister of State Col Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore and others at the inauguration of the channel
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EDIA-GO-ROUND
Small Screen DD Kisan
Big B’s account hacked BIG B AMITABH Bachchan’s Twitter account was reportedly hacked on August 31. The actor alleged that the hacker planted adult sites in the “following” section of his Twitter account. Bachchan tweeted: “WHOA!... My Twitter handle hacked! Sex sites planted “following”! Whoever did
Sathiyam TV challenges I & B ministry The Kisan channel is intended to showcase the government’s commitment to farmers. It pulled 21 million viewers in its 33rd week. It has a tie-up with nearly 62 central agricultural universities. NEW REVOLUTION This channel is dedicated to farmers and their welfare
and technology. The channel plans to set up studios at these institutes to broadcast on-site reports in real time. The big question is whether the `45-crore budget allocation for the channel is justified in terms of viewership. Prima facie, 21 million viewers may seem an impressive figure for a threemonth-old niche channel, but it is impossible to judge, because it is the only one in its genre. It cannot, for instance, bear comparison with Discovery or National Geographic, which are far more general in their programming and command vast viewership. This was a fact pointed out by the International Chamber of Media and Entertainment Industry while giving it a special award last month: “This is the only channel of its kind in the whole world, dedicated to the farmers and their welfare...serving more than 65 percent of the Indian population.” RECOGNIZING INNOVATION As for on-the-ground feedback, 624 kisan moni-
34 VIEWS ON NEWS
Bharat Krishak Samaj president Ajay Jakher sees the channel’s potential but feels it would benefit from a healthy dose of professionalism. “Farming has nothing to do with ideologies, so they need to stay away from that. A tender system for inviting programs will never work; they’ll have to bring in professionals. And it’s the farmers and experts who need to tell DD Kisan what kind of content is needed, not the other way round,” he said. Currently, most of the programming—70 to 75 percent—is in-house. The model followed is that of self-financed commissioned programs, although it intends to invite sponsored programs in the near future. Upping its game will be important from the advertising revenue viewpoint, particularly if the channel prefers not to give primacy to multi-national corporations which sell seeds, fertilizer, pesticides, farm machinery and irrigation equipment to Indian farmers. A marketing strategy which involves targeting indigenous corporations with sizeable CSR (corporate social responsibility) funds, PSUs and domestic farm input manufacturers is being put in place. Should the channel prove to be self-sustaining, other Lal Muni Devis might share their stories with the world.
A TAMIL NEWS channel approached the Delhi High Court and challenged an order passed by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, alleging that two of its broadcasts had shown Prime Minister Narendra Modi in poor light. The ministry had issued a show cause notice to Sathiyam TV and on May 12, had passed an order stating the news channel had violated provisions of the Program Code prescribed under the Cable Television Network (Cable) Act, 1995, and the Cable Television Networks (Regulations) Rules. According to Mint, the counsel for Sathiyam TV argued that the two programs were based on daily news reports which had no political leaning. The petition by the news
channel calls the order “arbitrary” and states that it had failed to examine the theme and contexts in which the remarks were made. The court has issued notice to the government on the matter and has sought a reply from it.
Ramayana series fall prey to threats EMINENT MALAYALAM CRITIC MM Basheer was forced to discontinue his column on Ramayana in Kerala’s Mathrubhumi daily due to repeated abusive calls. Former professor of Malyalam at the University of Calicut, the
septuagenarian Basheer was writing a sixpart series on Valmiki Ramayana in August but had to discontinue because of a sustained hate campaign and telephonic threats. The unknown callers hounded him for writing on Lord Ram being a Muslim. According to a report in The Indian Express, the abusive calls started pouring in after Basheer’s first column titled “Sri Rama’s Anger” was published on August 3. He ended the series after the fifth article as he couldn’t take it anymore. Though no outfit took responsibility, a right-wing group called Hanuman Sena put up provocative posters near the daily’s head office in Kozhikode.
this, try someone else, buddy, I don’t need this!” Bachchan has 16 million followers on Twitter, and is very active on social media. After the Twitter hack, Bachchan approached the Juhu police station to complain about receiving dirty SMSes for over a year.
India has over 350 million internet users INDIA HAS ADDED 52 million internet users in the first six months of this year, taking the total user base to 352 million as on June 30, 2015, Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) said, according to The Hindu. Interestingly, 213 million users accessed the worldwide web through mobile devices, ie around 60 percent of the total users. The number of internet users has grown by over 26 percent from 278 million in October 2014. The number of mobile internet users has also grown by about 40 per cent from 159 million users in October last year. IAMAI added that the consolidated numbers affirm that internet in India has now become inclusive, which augurs well for the industry and society.
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September 22, 2015 35
Book Excerpt Journalism: Ethics and Responsibilities
Sawant, but at those in publications and channels in the business of news and views. Similarly, when the government or terrorists seek to bend the media to serve their respective interests, they, too, mean the “news media”.
Indian Media: Just Another Wall In baiting and pillorying China and thwarting cooperation with India, the media seems to be more a player than a fair, objective and dispassionate observer and recorder of events and developments BY SHASTRI RAMACHANDARAN 36 VIEWS ON NEWS September 22, 2015
T
HE deficiencies of the Indian media, including indifference to informed and indepth coverage—combined with ignorance—of foreign affairs, especially the neighbourhood is a matter of concern. This needs to be addressed for Indian media to prevail in the region as a free, fair, credible and responsible entity that people, states and civil society can look up to for a resolution of the issues of poverty, backwardness and various internal and cross-border conflicts. Media here means journalism or public service journalism (although journalism is shrinking as media expands) because any scrutiny of the media from the viewpoint of public service, democratic values and the interests of the majority—as opposed to corporates, market drivers, advertisers and business/commercial operators—assumes that media is journalism and vice versa. When people say that “Media has failed” or “Media is exaggerating”, they are not referring to the content of entertainment, sports or religious channels; they mean media as journalism and journalists, not the IPL icons, the new-age gurus or film stars. In short, when media is blamed, the accusing fingers are pointed not at Ramdev or Rakhi
Flawed coverage and failure to be fair The media may be a mirror, but in mirroring realities and transmitting news, views, images, emotions, perceptions, interpretations, opinions and comments, it is more than witness and purveyor. People depend on the media for information about the world, and this makes the media a dominant source for shared attitudes, ideologies, strategies, lifestyles, prejudices and beliefs. It is an intermediary. Its role and relationship with its “consumers” should be seen in the context of what media does to us, our world, our lives and our rights as much as that of our neighbours. Indian media’s coverage of the neighbourhood is seriously flawed. Media’s failure to aid, enable and advance peace and promote cross-national understanding between peoples—all too evident in the everyday content of newspapers, television
channels and websites—is worrying. More than any other neighbour, China brings out the worst in the Indian media. The reporting and coverage of China raises disturbing questions such as: Does our reporting of events in these countries promote peace or tensions? Why is there this distance between India and its neighbours? Why is the Indian media indifferent to reporting in depth? I take the case of China to make my point because India is obsessed with it, and not in a good way. China, the world’s most populous nation and fastest-growing economy, is a rising power. Only the US economy is larger than China’s. India’s relationship with China is marked by irritants, as are relationships with many other countries. Yet, the Indian media is openly hostile to China to a point where it has lost all objectivity.
The media was disappointed that far from a confrontation or increased signs of hostility what was visible was a smiling Khurshid “gloating” over how well his visit had gone....
Player on China and India-China relations Media’s coverage of the India-China stand-off in Ladakh in April-May 2013, the visit of (then) Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid in early May 2013 and Premier Li Keqiang choosing India
INTERPRETATION GONE WRONG
MEA
(Left) The way the Indian media reported on then external affairs minister Salman Khurshid’s meeting with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang in Beijing showed its inherent bias
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September 22, 2015 37
Book Excerpt Journalism: Ethics and Responsibilities
Photo Division
LOSING INTEREST (Above) Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s meeting with Premier Wen Jiabao during his China visit in 2008, didn’t interest mediapersons as the boundary dispute didn’t figure in it
for his first foreign visit after taking office in the decadal power shift illustrate how the media acquitted itself. The External Publicity Division of the Ministry of External Affairs had scheduled Khurshid’s press conference on a Saturday afternoon. The choice of Saturday (being a weekend) was unusual but not rare. It may well be that the Foreign Minister wanted to meet the press soon after his return given the “crisis” manufactured by the media based on the standoff. The coverage of Khurshid’s Beijing visit as much as his press conference was extraordinary for reporting what was not said and what did not happen: That Khurshid did not ask them why they had violated the Line of Actual Control; that the Chinese did not regret (not even “express regret”) or apologise; and, so on. At least one media house and its print and television representatives were not interested in what the Minister did or talked while in China and what responses he elicited from the Chinese. Khurshid showed this section that two can play at the game by adding for good measure that he liked China, liked a lot of what he saw there and would like to live in Beijing, though not as External Affairs Minister. The prejudiced media rose to the bait and the paper’s report next day portrayed him as a person (least actuated by “national interest” as defined by this newspaper’s reporters) who was talking of how he would like to live in Beijing when China had just pulled back
38 VIEWS ON NEWS September 22, 2015
from a “dangerous game of brinkmanship”. What such a section of the media led by the “leader” was seeking to drive home was that China is an enemy; it ought to have been shown its place; beaten back if necessary; or, at least subjected to a flexing of our military muscle; that neither the minister nor the ministry was up to the job of defending “national interest”; that the MEA cannot be trusted to do its job because it was covering up for the Chinese, glossing over their military transgressions and actually being obstructive of the Indian defence forces and standing in the way of what the Ministry of Defense would like to do. Much of the media was convinced that: China was in “offensive” mode; deliberately “aggressive”; bent on provoking a conflict given the military moves just weeks before Premier Li Keqiang’s visit; the Government of India should “show them”, give a befitting response; call off the foreign minister’s visit and force Premier Li to cancel his trip. The media was screaming for conflict and repeatedly described the standoff as the “worst such confrontation since 1962”. Understandably, this media was disappointed that far from a confrontation or increased signs of hostility, what was visible was a smiling Khurshid “gloating” over how well his visit had gone and that the Government of India had not scaled down expectations from the visit of Premier Li as expected by the media. All this was grist to the anti-China industry that thrives in India, especially as manifest in the media. Obsession with boundary issue Five years earlier, during the momentous summit meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Premier Wen Jiabao, most mediapersons accompanying Singh lost interest in the mission the moment they learned that the boundary issue was not “on the agenda”. Far from looking at what was important about the visit, why it was important for the two leaders and their delegations to meet, what were the issues
they dealt with and how it would affect bilateral relations and reporting on these, most of those assigned to cover the summit kept repeating that the border issue did not figure in the talks. The prime minister’s centerpiece on this visit was his address at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences where he spoke of Asia’s two rising powers and the promise of growth premised on peace and cooperation. One media outfit had sent two representatives, yet neither were present when the PM delivered this address. During the Ladakh stand-off, there was no dearth of online comments dripping with visceral hatred of China, the Chinese and anyone in India who did not hate the China as much as these “nationalist” netizens. What triggered the stand-off is no longer a secret. More pertinent here is: Why did the media, now, as on past occasions, ratchet up tensions with China? Why is the media pushing for conflict, if not a military confrontation? What interests motivate, if not dictate, such media involvement? Is the media’s aggressiveness a cover for its ignorance, indifference and inability to provide fair, accurate, informed and credible coverage? Media shuts out book on Nehru’s stubbornness leading to 1962 War? One other instance, which would still make news, happened in December 2010 when AG Noorani’s book India-China Boundary Problem: 1846-1947 History and Diplomacy was released by Vice-President Hamid Ansari. There appeared only brief, innocuous reports of the function. The conspicuous omission of any reference to the contents of the book has given rise to suspicions, which persist to this day. The book was being released during the week of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao’s visit to India. Barring one report in The Sunday Times of India,
the book—which asserts on the basis of research and archival evidence that Nehru’s stubbornness led to India’s 1962 war with China—has been denied due coverage and has hardly been debated. Noorani, an expert on legal and constitutional issues, known for his study of the boundary issue, records that Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru “shut the door to negotiations on the (IndiaChina) boundary on July 1, 1954”. Nehru’s refusal to negotiate and the 1960 rebuff to Chou En-lai when he was visiting and
SEEDS OF DISTRUST? (Top) Did Nehru’s rebuff to Chou En-lai during his India visit lead to the 1962 war (above)?
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September 22, 2015 39
S THE WORLD TURNS
Book Excerpt Journalism: Ethics and Responsibilities
seems to be more a player than a fair, objective and dispassionate observer and recorder of events and developments.
BORDER WORRIES (Above) residents of Demchok village in Ladakh standing along the LoC during a face-off with China
JOURNALISM: ETHICS AND RESPONSIBILITIES Edited by Seema Mustafa Har-Anand Books `595, 168 pages
appeared ready to settle the issue—may well have sowed the seeds of the 1962 India-China war. The important and explicit directive, from Nehru, in a 17-para memorandum, cited by Noorani in his book, says: “Both as flowing from our policy and as a consequence of our Agreement with China, this frontier should be considered a firm and definite one which is not open to discussion with anybody. There may be very minor points of discussion. Even these should not be raised by us.” There’s a sense of déjà vu when one reads about “…an irresponsible opposition, an uninformed press and a restive Parliament, all fed on bad history …,” especially in the context of China, India-China relations and the boundary issue. India and China joining hands to pursue a conflict-free path to mutually beneficial economic development would mean growth with equity for over 2.5 billion people on the planet. The two Asian powers could be the game-changers for recasting the world’s politico-economic order and reforming international and financial institutions. What stands in the way of India and China realising their full potential and forging ahead is poverty. In baiting and pillorying China and thwarting India-China cooperation, Indian media
40 VIEWS ON NEWS September 22, 2015
Neighbors as walls, not friends or allies Clearly, China, unless it is bad news, is unfashionable for Indian media. It is hardly surprising then that there is not a single country in the region, which India can count upon as friend or ally, or where it enjoys the people’s goodwill; not even in Bangladesh, which owes its birth to India and Indira Gandhi. Such a thought only brings to mind yet another glaring omission by Indian media: that it has never enlightened its audience on why India arouses such negative feelings among every one of its neighbours. It does not inform and educate the Indian public about our neighbours and India’s relations with them. It has little or no influence on public policy in India or its neighbourhood. It is not interested in enabling and strengthening cross-border understanding for pursuit of common interests. Indian media, like the visa and other restrictive regimes of India and its neighbours, is just another wall that keeps people of the region distanced from other. Thereby, Indian media serves the objective of these states to deter people-to-people relations and understanding. —Adapted from Shastri Ramachandran’s essay in the book Journalism: Ethics & Responsibilities, edited by Seema Mustafa and published by Har-Anand Books for the Prem Bhatia Memorial Trust. The author is a senior journalist and a foreign affairs writer
Two US journalists shot dead on air TWO TV REPORTERS of WDBJ7 were shot dead by a former colleague during a live broadcast in Virginia. The gunman recorded the killings and posted the video on social media after fleeing the scene. The murders were carried out deliberately so they could be played out live on TV. Reporter Alison Parker and cameraman Adam Ward were broadcasting a
live interview with an official when both were shot in the head. The official was also injured. The accused, Vester Lee Flanagan II, was a former TV reporter at WDBJ7, with the on air name, Bryce Williams. He died several hours later after shooting himself. The Virginia shootings have again raised the need for tougher gun laws in the US.
Alison Parker
Adam Ward
LinkedIn revamps its messenger LINKEDIN ANNOUNCED RECENTLY that it was revamping its messaging features to make them easier for users to keep the conversation going. The networking site for professionals, in its official blog, said its messaging feature will allow for shorter and more casual conversations. The company also said it had rebuilt the feature for a cleaner and more streamlined look and an improved chat
style interface for faster back-and-forth messaging. LinkedIn’s new revamp is to compete with similar social networking sites like Facebook’s Messenger, Twitter and Snapchat. LinkedIn’s 380 million members can send messages to each other through its InMail service, but this new feature lets them add emoji (emoticons) and GIFs (Graphic Interchange Format) to messages.
Filmmaker
gets new logo
Wes Craven dies
GOOGLE REVEALED A new logo, the most significant change since 1999. The new logo is in sans-serif typeface, resembling the logo of Google’s new parent company, Alphabet. A doodle shows the old logo being wiped off and a hand scribbling the six letters in the four colors. Google is also changing the tiny “g” logo that you see on browser tabs. It’s now going to be an uppercase "G" that's striped in all four of Google's colors. The search giant, in its official blog, said that the change was needed because people were now reaching Google on mobile devices rather than just desktop computers.
AMERICAN HORROR FILM director Wes Craven, creator of Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream series, succumbed to brain cancer. He was 76. Craven wrote and directed the famous A Nightmare on Elm Street in 1984. His iconic character, Freddy Krueger, horrified viewers for years. He died at his Los Angeles home, as reported by the The Hollywood Reporter. He is survived by his wife, producer and former Disney Studios vice president Iya Labunka and three children.
Egypt sentences three journos to jail THREE AL JAZEERA journalists were sentenced to three years in jail for broadcasting material harmful to Egypt and spreading false news, a verdict which has been condemned as an attack on the freedom of the press by various rights group and media organizations. The verdict was issued against Mohamed Fahmy, a naturalized Canadian who has given up his Egyptian citizenship; Baher Mohamed, an Egyptian; and Australian Peter Greste, who was deported in February after spending 400 days in prison. The three are accused of aiding the banned Muslim Brotherhood group, an allegation they have denied.
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September 22, 2015 41
Advertising Humor
What are the pros and cons of using humor as a tool in selling? When does it work and when does it go overboard and become counterproductive? BY KRISH WARRIER
T
HE author of Scientific Advertising, Claude Hopkins, said: “Don’t treat your subject lightly. Don’t lessen respect for yourself or your article by any attempt at frivolity. People do not patronize a clown. There are two things about which men should not joke. One is business, one is home. An eccentric picture may do you serious damage. One may gain attention by wearing a fool’s cap. But he would ruin his selling prospects.” The other advocate of the above-mentioned school, ad guru John Caples, said: “Avoid humor. You can entertain a million people and not sell to one of them. There is not a single humorous line in two of the most influential books in the world, namely, The Bible and the Sears Roebuck catalog.” Is this good advice to follow? Do funny ads run the risk of confusing or offending your customers and prospects? Is it prudent to stick to the straight and narrow? Is tickling the funny bone a strict no-no? Well, having been in the
42 VIEWS ON NEWS September 22, 2015
Tickling the Funny Bone to Sell
GENERATING HUMOR The print ad for Omax Wide Angle Lenses
business for over 25 years, I can safely say, it isn’t necessarily so. As Morty Schiller recognized as mail order copywriter extraordinaire in the US says: “People don’t buy from sourpusses.” So, what works and what doesn’t? There are three theories that work in humor. The incongruity theory happens when you go against the grain of expectation: an outcome other than the expected one happens. The Fevicol ads have utilized this effectively. The fisherman ad, the cyclist ad, et al, are part of the Indian advertising lore. The dimag ki batti jala de Mentos commercial is another case in point. The student backtracking and getting the better of the lecturer ups the “funny quotient”. As somebody pointed out: experiencing different sets of incongruent thoughts and emotions is funny. The second, superiority theory, borders on schadenfreude: it happens when people laugh at other people’s misfortune, stupidity or mistakes. But it’s highly recommended to be prudent while using this theory. Because there’s a danger you may end up being mean. The Sprite “parking” commercial comes immediately to mind. The relief theory occurs when a situation creates tension which is then broken by an unexpected happening or humorous comment. The Greenply commercial where a cute child goes back in time— remembering his past life, with the payoff line: Greenply, janam janam ka rishta, or words to that effect, belongs to this category. Then, there is an Indian Airlines commercial—a great case of understated humor which also tugs at your heartstrings. In this commercial, a young girl “teaches” a suave gentleman to use the various facilities on his airline chair. The denouement of the ad—he’s a pilot, makes for a great television commercial. HUMOR IN PRINT “Humor is more easily doable in the electronic media,” feels Ramchandran NV, strategist at Paramin Marketing and Advertising. “There is time”. But what about the print media?
Again the principles are the same. Using incongruity, schadenfreude, and relief theories. The print ad for Omax Wide Angle Lenses is one such advertisement. Says Balkishan Goenka of a Mumbai-based creative boutique, Maxim Advertising: “In print, tongue-in-cheek is very effective.” As an example, he recalls an advert for The Times of India, Chennai (top right). The response of The Hindu (right) was equally noteworthy: Touche! (The best way to retaliate to a dig is with a dig). The idea is not to be a comedian (People don’t buy from clowns—Claude Hopkins) but often a light humorous touch adds an element of humanity that engages and involves the reader and actually gives you more credibility. Now, if you consider direct marketers, they have shied away from humor—or at least from outright slapstick. (Then again, who are you more likely to buy from: a smiling shopkeeper or a glum-faced one? It’s anybody’s guess that you are more likely to buy from a smiling guy). DIFFICULT TO BE FUNNY David Meerman Scott, author of The New Rules of Marketing and PR, says: “Most marketing and communications programs from business-to-business software and technology companies are dreadfully dry and painfully boring. I mean if some of these companies tried to smile at themselves, their screens would crack. But guess what? Your buyers, no
WAR OF WORDS (Top) The tongue-in-cheek effect is effectively used in the print ad for The Times of India, Chennai (Above) The Hindu responded to the ad in equal measure
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September 22, 2015 43
Advertising
Web Crawler What Went Viral
Humor
Back to Hogwarts POTTERHEADS ALL over the world cheered in celebration when JK Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series, tweeted about James Sirius Potter, son of Harry Potter, making his way to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry on the Hogwarts Express on September 1. Soon after her tweet, “Back to Hogwarts” started trending
on Twitter, with Potter fans speculating about sequels and further information about the next generation of wizards. On September 2, Rowling took it a step further when she tweeted that James S Potter had been sorted into Gryffindor, much to the disappointment of Teddy Lupin (Hufflepuff), Head Boy of Hogwarts. Messages congratulating and wishing luck to Harry Potter’s eldest offspring flooded social media immediately after Rowling’s tweets.
HUMOR IN DIFFERENT HUES (Clockwise from above) The Fevicol, Greenply and Mentos ads
“The latest wave of factor-analysis reveals that humor can now sell.... But I must warn you that very, very few writers can write funny commercials which are funny. Unless you are one of the few, don’t try.” — David Ogilvy, ad guru
matter what sort of organization you work for, are people—real people with a sense of fun—not nameless, faceless, corporate drones. Sometimes a bit of the unusual and funny can work wonders.” What does the guru of advertising, David Ogilvy, have to say in this regard? “Claude Hopkins’ book Scientific Advertising changed the course of my life.” And he never forgot Hopkins’ sermon: “Ad writers forget they are salesmen and try to be performers. Instead of sales, they seek applause.” But writing about “How to make TV commercials that sell,” Ogilvy said: “Conventional wisdom has always held that people buy products because they believe them to be nutritious, or labor-saving, or good value for money—not because the manufacturer tells jokes on television.... I think this was true in Hopkins’ day, and I have reason to believe that it remained true until recently, but the latest wave of factor-analysis reveals that humor can now sell.... But I must warn you that very, very few writers can write funny commercials which are funny. Un-
44 VIEWS ON NEWS September 22, 2015
What’s the truth?
less you are one of the few, don’t try.” Here’s what Bill Bernbach, the man behind the creative revolution said: “Advertising is fundamentally persuasion and persuasion happens to be not a science, but an art.” He felt: “It is insight into human nature that is the key to the communicator’s skill. For whereas the writer is concerned with what he puts into his writings, the communicator is concerned with what the reader gets out of it. He therefore becomes a student of how people read or listen.” In other words, one is talking of a paradigm shift. Humor is merely one of the tools to do this. So what’s the bottomline? Use humor if—and only if: (a) it makes a point and supports your proposition; (b) it is friendly, and not slapstick; (c) it attracts and not distracts; (d) above all, remember: you are here to sell. Now, dovetail all this with: What is humor, asked one clown of another. The other died laughing!
A VIDEO of an Israeli soldier manhandling a young Palestinian boy has garnered more than 2.5 million views and been shared across all social media platforms. The video was first shared by Ramallah City Official Page (Ramallah is a city in Palestine) on Facebook. The video, which shows an IDF soldier placing an 11-year old in a chokehold at gunpoint, has led to serious criticism of Israel in international media. Israel, on the other hand, claims that the soldier was patient with the child who had been pelting stones at him to provoke him.
Horrifying visuals IMAGES OF A drowned Syrian toddler found on the shore of a Turkish town have raised alarm across international media as the complete horror of human tragedy struck the world. The condition of Syrian refugees fleeing war and the brutalities of the IS have gained renewed attention. There was an outpouring of anguish and anger on the social media at the apathy of European governments.
Flipping out A BACK-FLIP at the edge of a cliff takes some serious daring and Parkour enthusiast, Toby Segar, did just that. The 21-year-old who hails from Godalming, Surrey, performed the somersault on the edge of “Trolltunga” or “Troll’s Tongue” cliff in southern Norway. The flat rock on which Segar performed the stunt stretches out over a 700 meter drop on the edge of Ringedalsvatnet Lake. In a report by the Daily Mail, UK, the parkour artist who has been training for almost a decade says: “Everyone is scared of heights, it just takes time to learn how to deal with that fear rationally.” The stunt made headlines across international media. VIEWS ON NEWS
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Separatist leader Shabir Shah to meet Pak NSA at 4.00 on Sunday; will leave for Delhi at 10 tomorrow.
Probe into CNG fitness scam declared legally invalid by the Ministry of Home Affairs. Train mishap in Anantpur, Andhra Pradesh leaves six dead, twenty injured; Nanded Express collides with granite lorry. Patel community demands reservation under OBC quota; rally to be held at GMDC grounds in Ahmedabad ; Gujarat government dismisses demands for reservation. Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal meets Narendra Modi; talks include anti-corruption and Swachh Bharat campaign. Nitish Kumar launches scathing attack on Modi, Nitish says PM’s special package announcement a false promise, nothing new in the center’s package.
46 VIEWS ON NEWS September 22, 2015
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11th edition Mann ki Baat. Prime Minister Narendra Modi says till now 17.74 crore accounts opened in bank, only development will solve our woes.
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Badminton player Saina Nehwal becomes world number one. MEA says terrorism only agenda for NSA level talks; India against Pakistan NSA Sartaj Aziz meeting Hurriyat representatives.
Here are some of the major news items aired on television channels, recorded by our unique 24x7 dedicated media monitoring unit that scrutinizes more than 130 TV channels in different Indian languages and looks at who breaks the news first.
Sangh-BJP three day meet begins today in Delhi; Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat also present.
VIEWS ON NEWS September 22, 2015 47
Governance Focus
Sharad Pawar
PLAYING THE CASTE CARD Maratha leader Sharad Pawar sullied his image of being forward-looking by stoking caste politics when folk historian Balwant Purandare was awarded Maharashtra’s highest award for his work on Shivaji BY ABHAY VAIDYA
T
HERE was a time when Sharad Pawar was the darling of Maharashtra. Everything was right about him and he could do no wrong. He was not just a visionary but also a man of action with excellent administrative skills as the chief minister of Maharashtra. No wonder he not only served a record three terms as CM but also holds the record of being the youngest one in Maharashtra at the age of 38. Much water has flown down the Krishna since then. The 74-year-old Pawar, whose dreams of becoming prime minister have been all but shattered, cut a sorry figure in Maharashtra recently when he played caste politics. The issue was about conferring the state’s highest award—Maharashtra Bhushan—on 93-year-old folk historian Balwant “Babasaheb” Purandare for his stupendous work in singing paeans to the great warrior-king, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. Over a span of some 75 years, the Pune-based Purandare has authored the immensely popular Raja Shivchhatrapati—a two-volume, 900-page biography of
48 VIEWS ON NEWS September 22, 2015
Shivaji (first published in the late 1950s), produced a magnificent play (Jaanta Raja, the Enlightened King) which has been presented on stage almost 900 times and delivered innumerable lectures on Shivaji within and outside India. All of this has been widely appreciated by the people of Maharashtra right from the time of the state’s first CM and Pawar’s political mentor, YB Chavan. The Maharashtra Bhushan honor for Purandare, therefore, was not just fitting but long over-due. HISTORY DISTORTED However, the first cry of protest against the award ceremony came on August 19 from Pawar’s blueeyed boy, Thane MLA Jitendra Awhad. According to Awhad, Babasaheb, in his biography of Shivaji, had presented a distorted account of history “with a Brahmanical prism” and unsubstantiated references to Shivaji, his father Shahaji, mother Jijabai and others. Awhad was also critical of the depiction of the Brahmin teacher, Dadoji Konddev, as Shivaji’s teacher and mentor. The MLA’s stand that
Pawar’s support to the anti-Purandare agitation emerged clearly as a strategy to consolidate the fragmented Maratha-OBC vote-bank in the state and revive the fortunes of a dissipated NCP.
Maharashtra’s highest award should not be given to Purandare as he was not a historian was endorsed by Pawar. Apart from the NCP, the other prominent organization that opposed the award to Purandare was the Sambhaji Brigade which hit the headlines in 2004 as it vandalized the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute (BORI) in Pune to protest against American scholar James Laine’s book on Shivaji, Shivaji: Hindu King in Islamic India. Soon, a number of prominent politicians, writers and social activists took opposing views on the issue, polarizing Maharashtra on Maratha versus Brahmin caste lines. While the Congress and
POLITICS OVER LITERARY MERIT (Below, L-R) Sharad Pawar is opposed to the decision of giving the Maharashtra Bhushan award to Balwant Purandare
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September 22, 2015 49
Governance Focus
Sharad Pawar
Pawar had cultivated his image as a progressive politician. At the height of his popularity, he had even gently rebuked a journalist for referring to him by his caste as a “Maratha strongman”.
the NCP opposed the award to Purandare, the Shiv Sena stood by its alliance partner, the BJP, which was determined to confer the award. The Maharashtra NavNirman Sena, led by Raj Thackeray, supported Purandare and criticized Pawar for stoking the flames of caste politics.
EXPECTED CRITICISM (Below) MNS leader Raj Thackeray criticized Pawar for stoking the flames of caste politics
MARATHAS VS BRAHMINS The fact is that till a few years ago, Purandare was a popular celebrity in the state and absolutely noncontroversial. Even today, the issue at heart has nothing to do with Purandare per se but with the fact that he is a Brahmin by caste, as is the state’s CM, Devendra Fadnavis. The Marathas—the caste to which Sharad
Pawar belongs—constitute the dominant political caste in Maharashtra ever since the Brahmin intelligentsia lost the upper hand in the post-Independence era. Anti-Brahmin sentiments were revived after the controversy over James Laine’s book, which cast aspersions on Shivaji’s paternity. Apart from vandalizing BORI (because scholars from there had assisted Laine), Maratha activists of the Sambhaji Brigade took umbrage at the depiction of Konddev as Shivaji’s mentor. Maratha community leaders accused Brahmin historians of distorting history to this effect and forced the Pune Municipal Corporation to remove an installation showing Konddev guiding young Shivaji with his mother Jijabai looking on. Since Brahmin scholars were being accused of distorting Shivaji’s history, the Maharashtra government’s decision to confer the state’s highest award on a Brahmin folk historian like Purandare —and that too for his work on Shivaji—was unacceptable to the NCP and Maratha organizations. Every available avenue was explored to scuttle the award, ranging from political opposition, vandalizing of government property and a meeting with the state governor, C Vidyasagar Rao. PIL DISMISSED Even a PIL was filed in Bombay High Court to oppose the award. However, one day before the award ceremony on August 19, the high court dismissed the PIL and fined the two petitioners `10,000 for “wasting the time of the court”. Chief Minister Fadnavis stood firm and proceeded with the award ceremony after changing the venue to the Raj Bhavan for better security. Purandare, who was presented the award by the governor, defended his approach to history and said he had not distorted facts. At the same time, he said he was open to correction if any distortions could be established.
50 VIEWS ON NEWS September 22, 2015
THE POLITICAL DIVIDE (L-R) Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis ensured that the award function went ahead smoothly; Thane MLA Jitendra Ahwad first raised objections to the award to Purandare
In a magnanimous gesture, the nonagenarian bard added `15 lakh from his own purse to the award of `10 lakh and donated the entire amount for the welfare of cancer patients in the state. Perhaps as a snub to Pawar, a video clip was screened at the awards ceremony which showed that Pawar had praised Purandare at a public function. PAWAR POLITICS Pawar’s support to the anti-Purandare agitation emerged clearly as a strategy to consolidate the fragmented Maratha-OBC vote-bank in the state and revive the fortunes of a dissipated NCP to which he belongs. The party is in a shambles with corruption cases and allegations against its former ministers, and has barely 41 MLAs—less than the Congress—in a House of 288. In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls too, the party lost out to the Modi wave, securing just four seats out of 48 in the state. It was, however, unbecoming of Pawar to become a part of the anti-Purandare lobby because, ironically, he had praised and felicitated Purandare when he was presented with a DLitt by the DY Patil University in 2013. The Maratha leader’s game-plan was noticed by his political opponents and he was roundly
criticized by sections of the press and by Raj Thackeray and others for “spreading the poison of caste politics in Maharashtra”. Pawar brushed aside Thackeray’s criticism by saying that there were many who made capital out of his name and Raj was doing just that. The fact is that Pawar has soiled his own image cultivated over the decades as a progressive and cultured politician. At the height of his popularity, he had even gently rebuked a reporter of a national magazine for referring to him by his caste as a “Maratha strongman”. During his years at the helm in Maharashtra, Pawar always stood out as a forward-looking, softspoken mass leader, with an enviable record in winning elections. He was simply invincible in Baramati constituency, which he vacated for his daughter, Supriya Sule, and moved on to another constituency. In spite of his share of controversies relating to assets, investments and real estate (Lavasa and DB Realty-Panchshil being just two of them), Pawar was always seen as an all-inclusive leader who was above caste and communal politics. Much to his misfortune, that image now no longer holds true, with the Maratha leader resorting to playing caste politics in Maharashtra.
The issue at heart has nothing to do with Purandare per se but with the fact that he is a Brahmin by caste.
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September 22, 2015 51
Editors’ Pick Harish Khare
Gujarat Starts Process of
Disowning Modi
VON brings in each issue, the best written commentary on any subject. The following write-up, posted on The Wire, has been picked by our team of editors and reproduced for our readers as the best in the fortnight.
Future historians may trace the political meltdown of Narendra Modi to the events this week in Ahmedabad and the rest of Gujarat
BEFORE THE STORM (Below) PM Narendra Modi at Red Fort on Independence Day, oblivious of the impending threat
B
EING the very smart man that he is, Narendra Modi will be the first to recognise—even if he does not acknowledge it publicly—that August 25, 2015, is the day when Gujarat finally started the process of disowning him. Future historians may even mark August 25 as the date when it all unravelled and the Modi political meltdown began. An over-statement? An exaggeration? A wishful fantasy? Consider this: from March 2002 to August 24, 2015, nobody, and that means nobody, other than Narendra
Modi had been able to collect a crowd of five lakh people in any part of Gujarat. The last time such a large-scale mobilisation took place was way back in the mid-1970s, during the days of the Navnirman Andolan. The August 25 congregation, right there in the heart of Ahmedabad, took place despite Modi’s wishes and his long-distance monitoring and micro-managing of everything political that goes on in Gujarat. And, not since 2002, has the Army been asked to come out in aid of the civil authority. Words in headlines like “curfew”, “police firing”, “deaths” belonged to a bygone era, so we were told. The rockstar
who mesmerised the suburban Gujaratis at Madison Square Garden has been upstaged by an upstart: a hitherto unknown Hardik Patel, who has the native Patels eating out of his hand. It is ironic that only 10 days ago, on Independence Day, the Prime Minister was using that grand pulpit at the Red Fort to exhort us to beware of the danger of “casteism” and communalism. And then, a few days later, he was in Gaya, Bihar, showering goodies and special packages on that “bimaru” state, singing songs of his own politics of development, and preaching against the vendors of caste politics such as Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad Yadav. Now, on his own home turf, the caste calculations and demands have erupted gloriously. THE BACKSTORY There is a context to this Patel eruption. And, it is necessary to recall that context. In 1981, it was the Patels of Khadia in downtown Ahmedabad who raised a violent voice against a new reservation regime. That agitation was directed at the newly elected Congress government, headed by Madhavsinh Solanki. The Congress had stormed back to power, riding on the KHAM strategy. The KHAM—
If the Gujarat model of development was so successful, so transformative, so revolutionary, how could a 22-year-old become the fulcrum for a caste-centric mobilisation? Kshatriyas, Harijans, Adivasis, and Muslims—inclusive promise had yielded massive electoral dividends and Gujarat’s political landscape was drastically re-arranged. The Patels were ejected from the commanding heights of Gujarat politics which they had occupied for many decades. In the 1985 Assembly elections, the Congress repeated its performance, consolidating its political dominance. The Patels again soon found an excuse to raise their voice against “reservation”. This resentment among the upper castes, especially the Patidars, was easily shoehorned into the new Hindutva project. Over the years, the Hindutva forces patted themselves on the back for their ability to invoke the religious idiom to get the better of the castecentric KHAM and its inclusive politics of social aggregation of the disadvantaged. Now, the same Patels are demanding reservation. Gujarat is back to the 1981 days. THE END OF THE POST-2002 ERA The Patels were and are at the core of the Modi constituency. They are vocal, aggressive and assertive in their sustained support at home and in the NRI portals for the post-2002 Modi and his narrative. The post-2002 Modi and BJP were able to enlist, enthuse and ensnare the Gujaratis in an epic battle in defence of Gujarati asmita. The Patidars applauded the new Hindu hriday samraat, first as he struggled against Vajpayee who chanted the strange mantra of rajdharma. Then they cheered him as he locked horns with a Sonia Gandhi who levelled the maut ka saudagar charge, and next they sided with him against the “vicious” UPA that would demand accountability in fake encounters. The Long March to Delhi ended on a triumphant note. The Hindu hriday samraat is the lord and master of all he
52 VIEWS ON NEWS September 22, 2015
VIEWS ON NEWS
U-TURN (Left) In the 1980s, Patels were opposed to reservations
September 22, 2015 53
Governance
Editors’ Pick Harish Khare
The Patels were and are at the core of the Modi constituency. They are vocal, aggressive and assertive in their sustained support at home and in the NRI portals for the post-2002 Modi. A NEW FORCE (Right) Hardik Patel has changed the political dynamics of Gujarat overnight
surveys from Raisina Hill, the pseudo-secularists are licking their wounds, and even the judiciary seems disinclined to uphold secular values and practices. The majority in Gujarat has nothing to fear. Its “protector” is the chief magistrate and sheriff. The intimidated Muslims have already retreated into their pitiful ghettos. The eruption in 2015 of Patidar violence from the same BJP strongholds of 2002 suggests that the objective conditions that propelled the Modi phenomenon in Gujarat became redundant with his election victory on May 16, 2014. Suddenly, the objective conditions that sustained the Modi phenomenon have melted away. In pure realpolitik terms, the “2002” business has finally lost its power and raison d’etre. Even antiCentrism, the main plank of the Modi phenomenon in Gujarat, got dismantled on May 24, 2014, when the new Prime Minister took his oath of office in the Rashtrapati Bhavan forecourt. WHAT’S LEFT OF THE GUJARAT MODEL The all too obvious communal underpinning of the Modi project apart, the Patidar eruption demands a sober reassessment of all that we have been persuaded to believe about the Gujarat model of development. The thinness of the so-called Gujarat model now stands so demonstratively exposed. Those who questioned the claims made in its name were dubbed anti-Gu-
54 VIEWS ON NEWS September 22, 2015
jarat and damned as pseudo-secularists. The pain of deepening economic inequalities was never allowed to intrude into the “vibrancy” optics. Rather, those at the receiving end of the harsh economic realities were palmed off with the Hindutva rhetoric and practices. Those realities have not vanished. Nobody, for example, was allowed to ask how many local Gujaratis had been given jobs in the famed Nano project at Sanand. For that matter, no one knows the terms of the agreement between the Gujarat government and the Tatas. All we have been told is how a pro-business, pro-market, pro-growth, pro-industrialisation chief minister had grabbed the opportunity to entice an entrepreneur, scorned by those backward looking politicians in West Bengal. That was the defining moment when the “vibrancy”of the Modi model was reaffirmed and consecrated. Soon the captains of industry were queuing up in Ahmedabad to issue the certificate of good conduct to the then chief minister. The road to Delhi was mapped out. Before and after 2014, there was no dearth of cheer-leaders extolling the Modi phenomenon and its relevance, demanding that it be replicated throughout the country. The best and the brightest among the pundits proclaimed that India stood tutored in the new grammar of development, merit, growth, liberating modernity. An alternative reality emerged on August 25. If the Gujarat model of development was so successful, so transformative, so revolutionary, how could a 22year-old become the fulcrum for a caste-centric mobilisation? And why should Bihar buy into the presumably post-caste “development” rhetoric? —Harish Khare is Editor-in-Chief of The Tribune
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