The Electronic Gandhis of our times

On Sunday, the 16th of April, a 24 hour news channel Sahara Samay National was running a special package on the Naxalite movement going on in Chattisgarh with the name "Dahakta Bastar". It was amazing to have seen the purely one sided story on the Naxalites as if they were terrorists of some sort or the other who have put Bastar on fire. The treatment was more or less same as the treatment in the case of Jama Masjid or Banaras blasts where Islamic terrorists had left the signs of mourning in the last days, according to police. Just have a look on the words used for the Maoists- Naxali, Ugravadi, Atanki, Algavvadi and the list goes on.
I just called up one of my old friends in the channel and requested him not to run the story, and if it is required, run with some basic amendments. The story was factually and reasonably incorrect. In the 30 minutes package, there was not a word on the the gory details of Salwa Judum and the reason for the masses uprising. No one was bothered about the massive mining campaigne which has left thousands of tribals landless and without the basic sources of their survival. I don't know from where the reporter Ruchir Garg got those bytes which were against the Naxalites. But it's not very difficult to understand that the coverage of the Naxalite issue in that area is more or less completely in the hands of the Salwa goons and the state machinery. That state machinery which has send proposal to the president that any one covering the issue in that area will be declared as sympathiser of the Maoists. Obviously, if anyone goes for the coverage, he or she will have to be hand in gloves with the anti people lumpens and do the story in their favour. So it's not very heroic, Mr. Garg that you have covered the issue.
"As the Dandakaranya revolutionary movement triumphantly completed it's 25th year and as the Adivasi peasant masses started to steadily build their own organs of political power though in a rudimentary form, the ruling class in their desperate bid to wipe out this movement root and branch, further intensified their campaign of brutal repression, drowning the masses in rivers of blood. As a last resort, the state is resorting to all the notorius strategies of the fascist rule book i.e. kill all, burn all, loot all; shatter the people's lives by hitting at their economic lifelines; use violence against women; and finally forcibly evacuate people from their villages and shut them up in concentration camps."
This is precisely what is going on in the Dandakaranya area of Chhattisgarh State for the past eight months in the name of Salwa Judum.And I asked an electronic friend of mine, "What do you understand by Naxalism?" Such an innocent reply I got that I was stunned a second, "Terrorism..." Now what to do of these electronic jokers and byte carriers of the first order who are always Gandhi when it comes to the coverage of anti-establishment issues.They see everyone with one eye. So don't get shocked when you hear from these guys next time in response to the question, "Who is Medha Patkar?" They will certainly say-"The same women in support of which Aamir Khan is shouting, bull shit."

WHAT IS TO BE DONE? A postmodern speak!

One day, the boss called me in his chamber to discuss the future plans for eradicating poverty, discrimination, unemployement and exploitation. He spoke at length about What Is To Be Done...words in bracket are writer's comments.
"You see, Abhishek, the basic problem in our country is the marginalised people.(Gareebi Hatao se Gareeb Hatao Tak). How can you imagine that many of our people don't get their food, their daily bread. We are insurance holders and why should we cosmopolitan chaps think about them. Because we are getting funds to think about them. You know, World Bank has withheld billions of dollars for the health sector in India. I said to David Page that you just give me a few 10,000 or so dollars. It will suffice, but beta, before that we will have to device the plans so that we get funds and utilise in the projects.
You see, our work is not very easy. In the whole of Adivasi belt starting from Orissa to Chattisgarh and West Bengal to Jharkhand, violent people's movement is going on. I have devised a name for our project Violence and Development. I think this is a nice balancing act in the sense that if we use only violence, state will put us in jail which is a political sort of thing. Basically, we are apolitical. (As if anything is apolitical on this earth...) If we shout on behalf of the state, then our People's Voices type of image will be in danger. So we must try that we create a balance between the two and think of what is to be done in the area of development.
You see, Abhishek, yesterday I was talking to a Member of Parliament who was the first student leader of Meerut University. He told me two amazing things which I think will be of great use to us with respect to story generation. He told me that first, at the accident site no student went armed. Usually students of Meerut University keep arms with them.(As if he had checked each and every pocket) Secondly, no one was drunk. Excellent! (As if you had put your nose into each mouth) So the crux is that, every youth is having his back to violence in this country. They are gradually turning non-violent which is a good sign. We want this only and for this, we want funds.
You see, my boy, You must have a developmental eye (for funds) in each area. Don't let your human spirits get blunted. Mere facts and figures will not suffice. You must go down and watch that how a common man goes to daily haat and buys vegetables in the minimal amount he earns. (This person takes lunch in IIC Annexe Dining Hall) It's so horrible.You must keep an eye on the lower middle class of this country.(I said I too belong to that class only) So, what do you think that I am speaking bookish language? (He never gets angry)
You see, Abhishek, we all have risen from that class only. (That's why you don't know Hindi). We feel the problems of the masses. I had a meeting with the minister yesterday and he has promised for funds so that we can start an ICT project in the Lunkaransar village of Rajasthan. We are planning to equip the villagers with a laptop so that they can have the information regarding their propriets at any time they want. (Sir, there is no electricity in that village). For that, we have made alliances with local NGO's and we are mobilising people that they don't take a violent path as we are experiencing in the red corridor. We want development and for that you will have to work hard, my dear. (That's why it is written on your coffee mug 'A worst day of golf is better than the best day of work!)"
If this is what is going to be done in this empire without clothes, better leave us to play golf...sorry...gully-danda and remain docile beasts only.

Watching the Watchdogs is a bit dangerous

I got a call from one of my friends in Hyderabad at a very odd time. He works in ETV, a part of the huge Eenadu group. He told me that one of his colleagues has been sacked from the job. Incidentally, I had also an aquaintance with that colleague, even older than the friend who called up. I got to know that he tried to speak against the workers exploitation in the channel. Basically, what he did was created a blog and revealed the secrets of the group, it’s loyal journalist workers and their internal deals and relationships. I called him up and listened carefully to the details straight from the horse’s mouth.

The other day, a team from Delhi was send to Ramoji Film city to investigate the allegations which he had send on e-mail to the Labour Minisry and PMO. This news was completely unheard in the Delhi media and no one is aware of it till date. The Eenadu group tried its best to cover the whole melodrama by calling computer experts from UK and deleting all the matter which was on the blog, hacked his e-mail and left no signs of truth.

He is now in Delhi. Sad, depressed but again rejuvenating himself to join some other group more or less of this character only. There is no way out. You can’t speak about the media if you are specially in the media itself. A few months back one of my friends tried to reveal some old facts against the giant Benett Coleman. It was an old case and it is pending in the courts till date.

If someone could remember the old issues of Onlooker, a publication of the Free Press Journal and Frontline, it can be easily recalled that some of our revered journalists and intellectuals had criticised the editorial policy of Times Of India and Economic Times. These twin sops had tried to influence the Enforcement Directorate in regard to the FERRA cases against Ashok Jain. When the then Editorial Advisor Mr. H.K. Dua refused to do so, he was sacked from the group. Justice P.N. Bhagwati was appointed as the ombudsman of the Times Of India and this was also criticised in the Onlooker. After a long judicial case, Onlooker ceased to be published and the matter got stucked in the volumes of Supreme Court and High Court.

Why this matter had got new life, became relevant was due to a NRI who is fighting a long Judicial case against the group i.e. Sahu Jain & Co. This NRI is charged with 44 fake cases by Delhi Police and not only this, the Parliament Of India has been misleaded in this regard by an Ex-CBI Chief. Inspite of this hue and cry, the matter has not been even taken into notice by any of the Presidents or Prime Ministers as this is directly related to the most rich Watcdog of this country. To say least, the reporter was got sacked from the publication where this story came out recently and the Editor jailed on a fake charge. So, what do you think now, can you speak against the media group being a journalist. No. It’s a bit dangerous.

Have you heard any voice of dissent from the Hindustan Times group when recently key post holders in the editorial were given VRS. No. Rather, the Chairperson has been awarded with a chair in the Rajya Sabha and the Editor Padma Shree. Don’t talk of small publications like The Day After where the Editor is day long engaged in liasoning with the politicians and casting-couching. He is now a member of Press Council Of India and a member of INS. Ooooh...INS reminded me more than 300 newspapers many of which only publish file copies. The Bureau Chiefs of many of them get a meagre salary around 7000/- p.m. but if one offers them with a key post in any national newspaper and high salary, they will just refuse to come. Why? Because they are getting seven thousand bugs simultaneously from many sides. So why to leave a Sarkari Naukari of this sort? If you don’t believe, just have a look at the stringers of the newspapers in Delhi. I know one of them who is covering Greater Noida nowadays, gets paid for the news published, walks with a Hyundai car and has pistols on his sides. How? We know better, but can’t speak out.
So, can any tribunal or a committee be formed in future to keep an eye on this Fourth Estate mischief? But who will form it? I think if it gets established, it will not act more than the IAS Association of U.P. where the aggrieved and the allegators are the most corrupt. So if at this point of the article, I reveal to you the most breaking news of our times that Ashok Jain is alive and living in Caracus with a fake name, abbreviated which is only A.K.J., will you say yes! Can’t say. When I told this fact to my previous boss, he just said two words; Bakwaas and paranoic talk. He did not want to go into details because he had to survive in the media and for this, you are bound to cover your eyes, shut your mouth and listen to orders only. Better were our ancestors with at least a long tail to keep off flies from their bodies. We can’t even do so. In Hindi, there is a phrase which goes like...jinda makkhi nigal jana. We all are doing the same.