MxMIndia

Category: COLUMNS

  • The decibel levels were so high on Times Now that you could not distinguish between the sense and the screams, writes Ranjona Banerji

    Ranjona Banerji: Slanging matches over coal continue

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    The talking heads on TV went on with their slanging matches over coal. So far, the understanding of the general public about coal allocations has not been helped by television. Newspapers tell us that people are battling viruses but these have not affected the voice boxes of participants in panel discussions. Many senior journalists are worried about the bad manners of “trolls” on the internet. They should also be worried about the bad manners of VIP guests on TV debates. Noted columnist Swaminathan S Anklesaria Aiyar looked quite puzzled on Times Now last night as Renuka Chaudhury, Swapan Dasgupta and a handsome young BJD man and a not-so-handsome BJP man battled away. I have no idea what they were saying, mainly because I confess I was also watching Masterchef Australia and the US Open but I do know that the decibel levels were so high that you could not distinguish between the sense and the screams.

     

    I did catch Chaudhury getting irritated at Arnab Goswami’s signature “India wants to know” line and she acidly pointed out that those on the panel were Indians as well. I only saw Aiyar looking bemused.

     

    After that, even Goswami had enough of coal and switched to his pet subject: the fun-loving MLAs of Karnataka and their South American holiday. He even called the study tour “macabre” which is quite a stretch of imagination, even if there is drought in Karnataka.

     

    On CNN-IBN, Sagorika Ghose tried to battle with Raj Thackeray and his verbal attacks on Bihar. Novelist Kiran Nagakar said that the biggest threat to Maharashtrian culture came from Marathis and not outsiders and Rahul Navrekar of the Shiv Sena tied himself in knots trying to say that Maharashtrians included not just Marathis but also people who live in the state but it was about ethnic origins but it was not and so on.

     

    In Saamna meanwhile – the mouthpiece of the Shiv Sena – Bal Thackeray came out on the side of his estranged nephew over the Bihar issue. The final result was nothing at all, as usual.

     

    **

     

    Ghose meanwhile has written an impassioned piece in Outlook about the need for net etiquette rather than censorship because of the rude behaviour of “trolls”. It is true that the anonymity of the Net makes people behave quite wickedly and Ghose has quite candidly listed the terms used against women journalists by trolls: rape is a common threat, as are words like bitch, cunt, whore and so on. I am specifically not using asterisks and dollar signs to blank out the words – why hide the ugly truth?
    But I would recommend that senior journalists should take all this in their stride. Even before the internet was invented, there was a certain kind of person who wrote letters to the editor full of hate and sexual taunts and threats. The first time it was a shock, after that it was just crass and idiotic.) http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?282107)

     

    **

     

    Mumbai’s massive rainfall on Wednesday caused the usual problems and TV gave it some coverage. It was left to the newspapers on Thursday morning to give us the complete picture, without the hysterics. This is the first time in many years that I did not see Sreenivasan Jain of NDTV stand at Milan Subway in Santa Cruz under an umbrella talking about Mumbai being flooded. As everyone in Mumbai knows, Milan Subway is below the road level and therefore, if someone pours a bucket of water into it, the water will collect. Maybe no one went there because Jain is no longer in that part of NDTV. What a relief.

     

    Most disappointingly, the morning TV shows did not come back to the rain although, happily, there was lots of US Open news. Even more, dare I say it, than cricket!

     

    **

     

    Since we have 800,000 news channels in India, I’m now hoping that someone starts a weather channel. Without the format of panel discussions. The idea of Chandan Mitra and Manish Tiwari fighting over low pressure weather systems fills me with horror!

     

  • The act of WaPo journalist picking up "lovely" Caravan magazine quotes without a 'courtesy', was worse than Fareed Zakaria's transgression, writes Ranjona Banerji

    Ranjona Banerji: Denyer’s unfair and ‘lovely’ act

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    The right of the Washington Post and its journalist Simon Denyer to say what they want about Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh is undeniable. And equally undeniably, the government is wrong in trying to either demand an apology or even get publicly petulant about criticism.

     

    However, it now turns out that Denyer had used quotes by Ramachandra Guha and Sanjay Baru which had been given and appeared in Caravan magazine. Denyer was asked by firstpost.com about this lack of clarity over where the quotes came from. Denyer said he had an email exchange with Baru about his quotes in Caravan and later spoke to him: “Then I raised the Caravan quotes which I thought were lovely and asked him if he could freshen them up.

     

    He said I could use the quotes but gave me his mobile number in case I wanted to talk.

     

    From the Washington Post
    “Correction:

    An earlier version of this article failed to credit the Caravan, an Indian magazine, for two statements that it originally published in 2011. The assertion by Sanjaya Baru, a former media adviser, that Singh had become an object of ridicule and endured the worst period in his life first appeared in the Caravan, as did an assertion by Ramachandra Guha, a political historian, that Singh was handicapped by his “timidity, complacency and intellectual dishonesty.” While both men told The Post that the assertions could accurately be attributed to them, the article should have credited the Caravan when it used or paraphrased the remarks.”

     

    I called him up. We chatted about the PM’s record. He said the first half of the PM’s second term was a “disaster” and “completely wasted.” He also said PM “could have made use of the opportunity he got in 2009. He chose not to.”

     

    It is hard to understand why, having already “chatted” with Baru, Denyer needed to use the Caravan quotes at all. He could have asked Baru for fresh quotes, which he already seems to have. Even if he thought that the Caravan quotes were “lovely”, that’s to Caravan’s credit.

     

    All possible explanations do not do Denyer much credit. Caravan is a small Indian magazine – maybe he thought no one really reads it and certainly not in the US. Or that Baru and Guha were unwilling to provide similar “lovely” and juicy quotes to him – although it is hard to understand why. The Caravan interviews were in 2011. The UPA’s plight has significantly worsened in 2012.

     

    A simple act of courtesy would have been to credit Caravan for the quotes. A correction (at the end of this article) has since been appended to the story on the Washington Post website.

     

    It is interesting to compare this case with the Fareed Zakaria one. Zakaria was suspended for a month when it was revealed that he used data from an article in his blog, passing it off as his own or without crediting the writer. Zakaria picked up a few facts and did not change the language or order in which they appeared, which is what gave him away.

     

    His transgression was far less serious than Denyer’s and yet he had to face suspension from Time magazine and CNN. He made an immediate apology.

     

    The Government of India appears to be more than happy to try and curb and curtail the media in any way possible. Instances like this will only make their resolve stronger, even though the Washington Post’s transgressions are to do with media ethics and courtesy and do not take away from the media’s right to freedom of expression.

     

    There is a lesson here for all journalists, young and old, who like to take shortcuts in the way they do their stories or get their information.

     

     

     

  • And on this Friday, the 14th, Ranjona Banerji wonders why are guests better behaved with Karan Thapar and how no one calls Arnab Rajdeep these days

    Ranjona Banerji: News on TV is not necessarily news in the papers

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    The gulf between newspaper-land and TV-land is as wide as between this solar system and some other, in a place where one must boldly go where no one has gone before. Every night you think the end of the world is imminent as strife, rage and anger rule and eminent Indians are forced to spend the last few hours screeching at each other. And then you open your newspaper in the morning, have sip of your tea or coffee or hot water with a squeeze of lime and there well be horrible things happening in the world but the sun is shining (or rain falling) and birds are chirping, even if they are crows in urban areas. The sky has not been fractured by a rift in time and space and there are no alien spacecraft hanging over our heads.

     

    The reason for this long description is quite simple – I decided to watch Dr Who on BBC Entertainment instead of one more night watching warring armies clash by night!
    In the newspapers, therefore, life has moved beyond CAG and coal. The mysterious letters which Arnab Goswami keeps brandishing have not re-appeared in any newspaper as yet. The diesel price hike and the capping of the amount of LPG cylinders has moved from the outrage of middle classes on TV to the importance of reducing subsidies in order to deal with the nation’s fiscal problems. Obviously, industry is happy but populism is not. The media is sometimes on the side of populism and sometimes against but no one speaks for the outraged middle classes more than TV.

     

    I take that back. No one speaks for outrage more than Twitter. All day, people rant and rave over just about everything. One can only hope that it helps them hive off the stress in their non-cyber lives!

     

    **

     

    Surjit Bhalla in the Indian Express continues to take on CAG on the coal allocations. This week he also targets well-meaning liberals who have decided that anything that is against the government is therefore correct. It’s a bold view to take, in light of the general anger against this government and the mind-boggling enormity of the CAG’s calculations.

     

    **

     

    In between watching Masterchef Australia on Star World, when I went to visit Arnab Goswami on Times Now, he was demurring that he wasn’t in fact the most powerful and influential Indian, with a shy smile. Nowadays, if you’ve noticed, no one calls him “Rajdeep” by mistake any more. Everyone knows better.

     

    **

     

    Is it a mystery why the same guests who are usually obstreperous TV are much better behaved when they are on Karan Thapar’s Last Word on CNN-IBN? I think they know he is sterner and tougher and can out-shout them. Perhaps nothing frightens a badly-behaved guest than a stronger rival?

     

    **

     

    And lastly, has Meenakshi Lekhi succeeded Nirmala Seetharaman as the BJP’s main female TV voice? I even think I miss Seetharaman…

     

  • If you want to learn something new, don't watch the news channels. Try Discovery, Nat Geo… whatever, suggests Ranjona Banerji

    Ranjona Banerji: ’cause Arnab Goswami wants to know…

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    Suddenly last night, it was no longer “India wants to know” on Times Now. It was “I want to know”. And the nation breathed a collective sigh of kinship – we were all the same as Arnab Goswami, the man who speaks for us all.

     

    The thing is, you or me or even he may want to know, but who is willing to tell us? The discussion (I still call it that, for want of a better word) on FDI in retail was organised as a sort of cross-examination of Ravi Shankar Prasad of the BJP, since his party is the main opposer of FDI. This meant unfortunately that Prasad was given more than his fair share of time to be disingenuous. Everyone knows (that’s you, me and Goswami, hereon known as “I”) that the BJP was all for FDI when it was in power but has been forced to have a change of heart thanks to being in the Opposition and wanting to win the next election and all that.

     

    Anyway, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw of Biocon had a big grin on her face through the whole show as she watched Prasad tie himself up in knots and then proceeded to demolish his arguments against FDI in retail. She even accused the BJP of not looking out for the best interests of the nation, which in a sense, stepped quite firmly into Goswami territory. Veteran journalist Kumar Ketkar also pointed to the BJP’s double standards and then looked on amused. There were some bit players as well, but they just provided ballast.
    The upshot is: did we learn any more than we already knew? What an idiotic question. If you want to learn things from television, you should watch Discovery or National Geographic or whatever.

     

    **

     

    On CNN-IBN’s The Last Word, Press Council of India chairman Markandey Katju told Karan Thapar that he was all primed and ready to take on anyone who filed any more foolish sedition charges against innocent people and how foolish the sedition law is in the first place. It is heartening indeed to know – and Thapar seemed much reassured – that a retired judge who heads a toothless body which deals with complaints against the print media is going to take on the world and save the people from transgressions on freedom of speech. Some people I fear may have more faith in Arnab ‘Save the Nation’ Goswami.

     

    **

     

    By the way, the next issue which Goswami is going to take up is the All India Tennis Association’s decision not to pick Mahesh Bhupathi or Rohan Bopanna for any more Davis Cup ties till June 2014. This is to punish them for their high questionable behaviour in the run up to the London Olympics. Watch out, everyone. L’etat C’est moi.

     

    While on the subject, DNA seemed to get a scoop over other tennis journalists with the news that Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna are ending their doubles partnership. Bhupathi will tie up Daniel Nestor and Bopanna’s trying to get back with his old partner Aisam Qureshi, whom he had earlier dumped for Bhupathi.

     

  • West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee dominated headlines in both mediums, notes Ranjona Banerji

    Ranjona Banerji: TV said Bandh was total, papers said partial

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    Televisionland and Newspaperland presented us with two different versions of India and the news on Thursday and Friday. If you watched TV through the day on Thursday, you would have got the impression that the Bandh was all that had happened, with a couple of detours to take in the split in the anti-corruption movement with Anna Hazare rejected Arvind Kejriwal’s political turn.

     

    The idea of a “Third Front” emerging once again on the stage also excited our TVwallahs.

     

    But what disappointment in the morning: shock and horror, there was other news! For one, the “Bharat Bandh” called to protest against FDI in multi-brand retail was only a partial success and almost a complete flop in some parts of India. Mumbai’s newspapers therefore could not concentrate much on something that hardly happened.

     

    The one person however who dominated headlines in both mediums was Mamata Banerjee. The impulsive and reckless nature of the West Bengal chief minister continues to befuddle and bemuse. The Times of India carries an excellent – and frightening – analysis of the future of Bengal under a chief minister who blocks every economic move by Abheek Barman. In ‘The UPA after Mamata’, Barman explains how the former Left Front government vastly increased the number of government employees. Therefore, he writes; “…the Bengal government could soon become the largest unpaid workforce in India. If it continues to get paid, there will be nothing left to invest in infrastructure, healthcare, utilities and other services which people expect democratically elected regimes to provide.”

     

    **

     

    The Indian Express is now the main paper to go to for updates on Anna Hazare, Arvind Kejriwal and the India Against Corruption movement. The newspaper has been more detailed and more consistent than any other. Today it tells us that Baba Ramdev was behind this new rift.

     

    **

     

    The anchor story on the front page of the Mumbai edition of the Times of India said in its headline: ‘How Rushdie helped world meet Potter’. The few paragraphs there told us all about his friend and first publisher Liz Calder. Not a squeak about JK Rowling and boy wizard. You were asked to go to page 22. And had to trawl through a very complicated sequence of events which led to this: Rushdie did not give Calder Satanic Verses to publish. And Bloomsbury, where she worked, discovered Rowling. Thank you. There is an impolite term for this kind of a story and they’ve just made a Hindi film with that as a name (if you use the initials). I tell you no more.

     

    **

     

    To get back to the Bandh, I am sorely disappointed that no newspaper that I read told me why the Bihar police, in an NDA state, arrested Ravi Shankar Prasad of the BJP for protesting against the Central government’s policies. India or at least I demand an answer!

     

  • Twists and thrills dominated television news channels, though not created by the TVwallahs

    Even though, even though…

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    Everyone is claiming credit for exposing the irrigation scam in Maharashtra. The Times of India says it did it (which is how I remember it). CNN-IBN is saying it did it. And the BJP is saying it did it.

     

    Well, whoever was responsible, they should all be thanked. But the coverage of the scam has made a couple of segues since it made the news. The first side-step came with the resignation of Maharashtra’s deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar of the Nationalist Congress Party, one of the chief accused. Suddenly, we were into the drama of Pawar versus Pawar, Pawar versus Chavan and NCP versus Congress. Only the very naïve journalist (on television of course) took it as far as government in trouble.

     

    Then out of nowhere came another sideswipe – from one of the RTI activists (of India Against Corruption) who had also worked on exposing the scam. Anjali Damania said she had met Bharatiya Janata Party president Nitin Gadkari who apparently told her that the BJP could not go all out against the irrigation scam because of his connections with the Pawars. Gadkari, Damania, also said he was going to stop his partyman Kirit Somaiya from filing a PIL on the matter. This however did not happen.

     

    That was it. The whole mood shifted and Ajit Pawar, Rs 72000 crore and the loot of Maharashtra are now almost forgotten. Gadkari refused to speak – but he has filed a legal notice – and BJP spokespersons had to take time off from their convention to try and put up some sort of defence.

     

    By the evening and primetime, the nation wanted to know where Gadkari was and why he wasn’t defending himself. However, as all Maharashtra journalists know and will make the light of day sooner or later, Maharashtra’s politicians are quite cosy with each other when it comes to money matters and sharing the spoils. From all parties, they’ve had their hands in the till.

     

    **

     

    It was in fact Arvind Kejriwal who put on his best with Arnab Goswami face and first asked Gadkari to come forward. He was very chuffed that all along, having been accused of being RSS-BJP agents, here he was, challenging the BJP president.

     

    **

    Friday’s news cycle had a couple more thrills – the Supreme Court announced, on listening to a presidential reference on 2G that auctioning of national resources was not a must and on a CBI plea on the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case, that former Gujarat minister could get bail but that the case would be shifted to Maharashtra.

     

    The Central government felt it was off the hook as far as coal allocations were concerned on the first one and on the second case, as usual, many journalists confused bail with acquittal.

     

    **

     

    In one of those rare occurrences, cricket did not upstage national events even though India has a new board of selectors and even though Jimmy Amarnath was unceremoniously dropped – even though he was tipped to become chairman of the selection committee – and even though Sandeep Patil became chairman seemingly out of nowhere.

     

    The overuse of “even thoughs” comes down this unexpected turn of events – a few years ago, any slight wiggle in the world of cricket would have dominated the discourse in India.

     

    **

     

    In all these news breaks, a couple of events could do with some more TV attention – the two cases of gang-rape in Haryana and the floods in parts of North East India.

     

    **

     

    For intelligent, cohesive discussion minus melodrama, the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha channels are still the places to go. Lok Sabha TV even had a discussion on Thursday on the implications of the face-off between China and Japan over the Diaoyu-Senkaku islands, an issue which has barely dented TV radar in India and had a very small play in print.

     

    Ranjona Banerji is a senior journalist and Contributing Editor, MxMIndia. The views expressed here are her own.

     

  • The latest quarterly figures of the IRS have seen newspapers and mags use 'degrowth' to describe their condition, notes Ranjona Banerji

    Ranjona Banerji: Of degrowth, ungrowth & regrowth

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    Newspapers and magazines have started using a wonderful word to describe their condition as far as readership and circulation are concerned: “degrowth”. And for once, journalists are not responsible for this travesty of logic, comprehension and grammar.

     

    Degrowth does not mean that the periodicals have slowed down. Nor does it mean that they are at status quo. It means that they have shrunk in numbers. They have “un-grown” in fact. The latest quarterly figures of the Indian Readership Survey have been released. Ungrowth and degrowth are everywhere to be seen. Seven of the 10 top mainline dailies have seen a decline in their readership. Only DNA, Mumbai Mirror and Tribune have grown.

     

    Already The Times of India’s Mumbai edition is selling degrowth as a virtue: or at least ignoring the degrowth and concentrating on the fact that it’s ahead of its competition virtually everywhere. Undoubtedly others will follow as their marketing departments try to put their own spin on degrowth.

     

    Incidentally, I first came across this word when I worked at DNA and at least it’s good to see that the newspaper is now regrowthing – it was once the second largest read newspaper in Mumbai but has in the past couple of years slipped to a dismal number 3 behind Hindustan Times.

     

    **

     

    The fight between the BJP and Congress over Narendra Modi’s allegations that Rs 1880 crore was spent on Sonia Gandhi’s treatment has become very high decibel on television but completely lacking in clarity. Rajeev Shukla of the Congress and Meenakshi Lekhi of the BJP yelled over each other almost throughout their interaction with Arnab Goswami on Times Now and Lekhi shrieked alone. This constant stream of allegations and counter-allegations cannot instil much confidence in the sanity of the members of the two parties and I am not even sure it makes for good television any more.

     

    It took The Indian Express to shed a little light on where the figure came from. The Gujarati daily Jaihind published it on July 12: “The editor Yashwant Shah told The Indian Express that the item had been sourced from a local agency, “Hindustan Samachar’. Hindustan Samachar bureau chief Bhupat Parikh, however, said the item “was not my story at all”, and pointed out that it was not credited to the agency.

     

    Make of that what you will. But there is an old adage which every journalism is told at birth: Never believe everything you read in the newspapers.

     

    **

     

    Arvind Kejriwal launched his new nameless party and spoke “exclusively” to every news channel in India. One day, hopefully, they will realise that the viewing public is on to this “exclusive” gag. However, while Kejriwal’s entire speech promising the moon on a platter was most assiduously covered by every channel, none of them told us how many people he was talking to.

     

    This morning we discover that it was 1,000. Best of luck, is all one can say.

     

    **

     

    The big story of the day is of course the expected. The poor Indian cricket team has been knocked out of the T20 World Cup. ‘How India lost the plot’ said The Times of India; ‘India disgraced’ said Hindustan Times and ‘Run-rate mars India’s fate’ said Mid-Day. The post-mortems and gratuitous are not going to be kind, one prophesies.

     

  • Ranjona Banerji on how Hindustan Times' efforts to carve a niche for itself is paying off. The edit page though has far too little analysis or informed opinion

    Ranjona Banerji: Why HT scores in Mumbai

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    For Mumbai, The Times of India has to be the primary English newspaper. But seven years ago, a very serious challenge was mounted by the Hindustan Times and DNA. For at least five of those seven years, DNA was well ahead of Hindustan Times in circulation and readership and for a while, even had the Old Lady of Boribunder worried. But since then, Hindustan Times has overtaken DNA and left it behind as a third contender. The difference between the two papers is not much in terms of numbers – a few thousand copies, not hundred thousands – but it represents how much DNA has lost, its recent rise in IRS calculations notwithstanding. I’m not counting Mumbai Mirror in this race since it is not a standalone newspaper.

     

    So far it has seemed that DNA’s loss was HT’s gain – through no major effort of its own. But lately, HT’s efforts to make a niche for itself seem to be paying off. Unable to compete with the TOI for blanket coverage of city news – and severely hampered by the no-poaching pact between their managements – HT had specialised in packaging and focused campaigns. Now it seems to be taking a surer route – re-introducing the city to its readers.

     

    Monday’s newspaper has an excellent exploration of changing trends in the Girgaum area by senior journalist Smruti Koppikar. It’s good to see Ayaz Memon’s insightful and incisive column on “So Bo” (how I hate that phrase!) back in HT, shifted to Monday’s city pages from its earlier Sunday slot. HT Cafe is clearly trying to be less PR-driven than its competitors and ruffling a few feathers with its stories. And HT sports section – although this has little to do with Mumbai – is one of the better ones.

     

    That leaves HT’s edit page, which for my money is too skewed towards India’s TV stars and has far too little analysis or informed opinion – in my humble opinion!

     

    There are many ways for a newspaper to gain ground and many of those have to do with circulation, branding and management. But for editors, you have to grab the hearts and minds and HT Mumbai seems to be working that out for itself after seven years.

     

    **

     

    Mohd Junaid Ansari asks in what passes for the humour column on The Times of India’s edit page: “Aren’t we all a little bit in love with Hina Rabbani”. This takes off from the gossip that Pakistan foreign minister is involved in a love affair with the Pakistan president’s son and putative heir, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.

     

    Attractive as Rabbani is, I would contend that only men and lesbians are likely to be in love with Rabanni. Even accounting for female foeticide, dowry deaths and accounting for same-sex selections, roughly half the human race might prefer to not to be in love with a woman. Some might even pick Bilawal over Rabani. We do count you know, even in a male-dominated world!

     

    **

     

    Arvind Kejriwal and Prashant Bhushan and other members of the new un-named political party and what’s left of India Against Corruption are bound to be disappointed with the media’s reaction to their allegations against Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra.

     

    Although TV has given the story playtime, newspapers have been tepid. The main reason is the allegations are unsubstantiated and it requires some work to find out just how the connections between Vadra and DLF work. It looks as if Kejriwal and friends just threw a pebble into the pond to see how many ripples it would create.

     

    Now instead of taking it further, the anti-corruption crusader and politician is encouraging people in Delhi to break the law.

     

    Ranjona Banerji is a senior journalist and commentator based in Mumbai. She is also Contributing Editor, MxMIndia

     

  • And why all Indian TV editors should give themselves a 10-minute window where they speak and the rest of the world listens. and then allow their guests to have their say

    Ranjona Banerji: When Arnab congratulated Rajat Sharma…

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    The business dealings of Robert Vadra and the DLF group remained top of the news. Discussions were held on the major English news channels but of the lot, Karan Thapar’s Last Word and Sagorika Ghose’s Face the Nation, both on CNN-IBN, stood out. That is mainly because unlike Arnab Goswami on Times Now and Nidhi Razdab on NDTV (I did not check Headlines Today last night), neither Ghose nor Thapar invited the spokespersons of political parties to take part. Every time I skipped past Times Now, there was either the BJP’s Meenakshi Lekhi screeching at dangerous decibel levels or the Congress’s Manish Tiwari trying to answer her with big words which only prove that he did well in vocabulary in school. I don’t know if the other guests got a chance to speak.

     

    On The Last Word, Shalini Singh of the Hindu was clear that there was some hanky-panky in the Vadra-DLF deal, tax expert Subhash Lakhotia was equally sure there was not and so Thapar had to play referee, Gurcharan Das said he needed more information and lawyer Dushyant Dave said it was common for the relatives of all politicians to behave extraordinarily rich. It seemed clear though that based on the revelations made so far, no laws had been broken by Vadra or DLF. The link between Vadra getting unsecured loans/property from DLF and DLF getting land or other benefits from the Haryana government has not been established. Until then, further action is not likely.

     

    On Face The Nation, all the participants – Madhu Kishwar of Manushi, Siddharth Vardarajan of The Hindu and Jonathan Shanin of Caravan magazine – agreed that the Indian media usually pussyfoots around political figures and does not subject them to intense scrutiny.

     

    The only problem with the show was Ghose’s unfortunate habit of speaking over her guests or speaking on their behalf. She asked Vardarajan a question about the different ways that the Congress and the BJP handled the media and then hijacked the answer when he had barely begun his explanation. Perhaps all Indian TV editors should give themselves a 10-minute window where they speak and the rest of the world listens. After that, they should allow their guests to have their say.

     

    It is not news of course that the Indian media is usually respectful of important people and it is also true that important people in India will not tolerate it any other way. The tough interview is rare. Personal lives are also usually still sacrosanct in India. Some will prefer it this way. But while we don’t have to go as far as stalking Kate Middleton sunbathing on holiday, a little extra scrutiny of powerful people would not go amiss.

     

    **

     

    India TV’s sting operation on cricket umpires involved in match-fixing – in this instance to do with the Sri Lanka league – was the other news of the day. Rajat Sharma of India TV found himself on Times Now, thanks to the largesse of Goswami who most graciously congratulated Sharma, who looked a bit bemused: should he crow over his journalistic coup or should he be mindful of the tremendous honour bestowed on him by Times Now by acknowledging him?

     

    **

     

    The suicide of singer Asha Bhosle’s daughter Varsha Bhosle is a blow for the family and for the journalistic community. Varsha had been a very popular columnist for rediff.com for many years and was known for her scathing style and her support for the Hindu right wing. Her column stopped some years ago. She had been suffering from depression and attempted suicide a couple of times before.

     

  • Ranjona Banerji found Arnab Goswami's refusal to take waffling from studio guests and wasn't enthused by the Nissan roadblock in TOI

    Ranjona Banerji: Claiming credit for the exposes

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    Arnab Goswami was in fine form on Wednesday night and I’m being sincere here, not snarky. He took on two subjects and did not allow any waffling or humbug from his contestants, sorry, studio guests. The first subject was the planned martyrs memorial in the Golden Temple in Amritsar and the honours given to the families of killers of former army chief General AS Vaidya. The revival of the Khalistani movement in Punjab – or at least the apparently tacit support given to Khalistani terrorists by the current SAD-BJP government is back in focus especially after the attack on former Lt General KS Brar in London.

     

    Goswami went to the heart of the issue: was SAD reluctant to take on terrorist-sympathisers and did it find nothing reprehensible in honouring killers? Kiranjot Kaur, of the SGPC tried every trick the book to deflect the issue of sympathy for the Khalistani movement in spite of sufficient evidence to the contrary from hurt sentiments after Operation Blue Star to “you don’t understand the history” and presenting a garbled version of her own. Manjit Singh of the Akali Dal would not answer questions about how weapons landed up within the Golden Temple. The army representatives were furious about Vaidya’s killers being honoured and the proposed memorial for Khalistani terrorists – retired brigadier V Mahalingam was particularly scathing.

     

    This debate was not just vital because it gave space to the Khalistani problem but also because Goswami did not allow his guests to run away from the topic towards their own agendas. I would have liked however someone to take on Harsimrat Kaur Badal, daughter in law of Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal and MP from Bathinda, for her comment that the Congress should concentrate on “their government and their country”. I personally find this a deeply offensive remark and think it needs further exploration; at the very least what Badal considers to be her country.

     

    This attitude continued in the next debate on the growing incidence of rape in Haryana, especially in the light of former chief minister Om Prakash Chauthala’s endorsement of the khap panchayat suggestion that girls get married early to prevent rapes. Goswami, who has always taken a strong feminist stance, did not allow any obfuscation of this issue either from the men on the panel and the politicians of Haryana. All credit.

     

    **

     

    Rahul Kanwal of Headlines Today claimed that the channel had done a long investigation into the Zakir Husain Trust run by Union law minister Salman Khurshid and his wife Louise Fernandes and found many discrepancies. However, Arvind Kejriwal also claimed credit for exposing the trust. Am confused.

     

    For instance, so far with the irrigation scam in Maharashtra, the Times of India, CNN-IBN, Anjali Damania, Kirit Somaiya and now Sreenivasan Jain of NDTV have all claimed that they exposed it. Whodunit?

     

    **

     

    Thursday morning’s newspapers were a great disappointment, after all the excitement on TV the night before. They were bland and boring and paid lip service to the big issues. The prime minister’s anodyne plan to fix corruption got the most play.

     

    The Times of India was most disappointing of all, as it played into the hands of an advertiser and not only restricted the size of its newspaper but also printed the entire paper except the opening double spread in single sheets. This was so it could have 16 pages with the notes from the musical scale on each page (Sa re ga ma and so on). Exactly what this had to do with a new Nissan car I have no clue. Perhaps the car does something really annoying like sing to you?

     

  • Ranjona Banerji isn't too amused that Virat Kohli is the latest victim of the media's "amplify and then crucify" policy

    Ranjona Banerji: Don’t take readers for granted

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    Amitabh Bachchan’s 70th birthday was brought in with great excitement but I really don’t know what happened to it after that. TV greats did interviews with the super-great or maybe he’s now meta-great? And there was a party, I was told, with breathless excitement. And this Friday morning, I see a photograph of the meta-great man touching Kokilaben Ambani’s feet in the Economic Times.

     

    Make of that what you will.

     

    Next to that telling photograph is a charming piece on the “Kejriwal” by Vikram Doctor. This egg-cheese-chillies-bread combo is a Bombay special breakfast treat or any time snack. Doctor tells us how it came about, who makes it best and why it isn’t related to the RTI activist turned politician.

     

    **

     

    I could not make head or tail of visit of the UK high commissioner to Gujarat. I lived in Gujarat for some years, with The Times of India, in the Modi era itself and met both the UK and US envoys, based in Delhi and Mumbai. This was after the riots. Modi also visited the UK in that time. The impression I got from reading the Times of India and Hindustan Times was that Modi was off to the UK again and the supposed ban on his entry and all had been forgiven for the riots. I read in the Indian Express that the UK government was keen to bolster business ties with India – which includes Gujarat of course – and also get justice for the three British nationals killed in the riots.

     

    When newspapers decided that everyone has watched television all day and therefore does not need to read the news but only the reaction to the news – as TOI and HT did with this story – they do the reader a great disservice. When I started out in journalism eight million years ago we were repeatedly told what we cannot take our readers for granted and therefore had to be lucid and informative. It was a good lesson especially for youthful exuberance which can be too clever by half.

     

    **

     

    This is a mere observation. But doesn’t it look like cricketer Virat Kohli is the latest victim of the media’s “amplify and then crucify” policy? He is being built up for greatness – which he may well be on his way to achieving – but a burden of expectation is also being dumped on him. The next slip – inevitable in all humans – and the nails will be sharpened and the cross will be hammered together. I am not sure that this is necessarily the best trend to ape from the west. How about objective appreciation and criticism? Naah, I’m clearly knocking on the doors of idealism.

     

    **

     

    The truth is that I haven’t watched even a tiny smidgeon of TV news all Thursday. It was an enlivening experience: My blood pressure is low and my tolerance quotient is high!

     

  • There was much drama starting 3pm on Sunday when law minister Salman Khurshid addressed a press conference to defend his family trust, his wife and himself against allegations of misappropriation of funds

    Ranjona Banerji: Drama when the world was snoozing

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    The most dramatic recent television event took place on a Sunday afternoon at 3pm when most except the most avid news junkies were likely enjoying a well-deserved afternoon snooze. Union law minister Salman Khurshid held a press conference to defend himself, his wife Louise Khurshid and his family trust, the Dr Zakir Hussain Memorial Trust against allegations of misappropriation of government given funds to provide the handicapped with aids, prosthetics and equipment.

     

    The matter had blown into a scandal after a special investigation done by Aaj Tak and Headlines Today – both part of the TV Today group, the TV wing of Aroon Purie’s media empire – had shown discrepancies in camps there were supposed to be held in various districts of Uttar Pradesh and money received. The channels based their investigations on letters written by the UP government to the Central government.

     

    Former anti-corruption crusader and aspiring politician Arvind Kejriwal jumped into the fray with his own documents about wrongdoing by the law minister and demanded his resignation.

     

    Khurshid of course was very vociferous in his criticism of Kejriwal in the former income tax officer’s earlier avatar in the Anna Hazare-led anti-corruption movement. His press conference was a fiery affair: the minister was sarcastic and often visibly angry and the journalists from TV Today were very aggressive. However, the minister did provide proof – photographs, witnesses, letters, audited accounts – that some of the charges at least were incorrect.

     

    The TV Today journalists were quick to jump on to the other allegations – forged signatures, fake affidavits – which the minister deflected by saying a probe was on. There was a lot of confusion over dates, which the average viewer could not always fathom in the ongoing ruckus.

     

    **

     

    There can be some questions raised about the TV Today probe however. Without a doubt, the reporters at the press conference were very angry that their work was being mocked at and their proof being countered. But an investigation of this nature needs to work on more than passion and zeal. It needs some hard, cold evidence and some considered sifting of allegation from fact.

     

    What seems evident from the outside is that the story has been fed by another NGO which also works with the physically handicapped and had filed an RTI application about the Khurshid trust’s camps. Kejriwal who has distanced himself from the TV Today story is basing his own campaign against Khurshid against the RTI answers.

     

    There is no problem with accepting a story from vested interests. But it is worthwhile to check and corroborate a rival’s allegations – in order for a media group to maintain its objectivity. Even if the Khurshids refused to respond, it is possible to check the facts with others involved.

     

    As matters stand today, there are loopholes in the TV Today investigation as well as in the Khurshuds’ defence. There are too many backtracking on their claims and too many leads which don’t seem to have been followed through. Some problem seems to exist in the UP government, which remains uncovered. Nor is there sufficient evidence that the Khurshids personally benefited from the Rs 68 lakh or 72 lakh grant which was given to them by the Central government through apparently fraudulent means.

     

    **

     

    Arnab Goswami held a special edition of the News Hour on Sunday night, with interviews with Salman Khurshid and Arvind Kejriwal followed by a discussion between Louise Khurshid, Mahesh Jethamalani and an India Against Corruption member to try and shine some light on the issues for the nation.

     

    However, although Goswami was in fine form in his search for clarity and asked all the right questions, the bottom of the matter remained murky.

     

    Headlines Today, which held some discussions on the news conference early in the evening, by the night was showing other set programmes.

     

    **

     

    Meanwhile it is unclear just who called this story a sting operation. Salman Khurshid said this was a sourced story – his wife used to be a journalist – and the TV Today journalists said that they had only recorded people.

     

    A media sting requires some entrapment of people who do not know that they are being recorded by journalists.