MxMIndia

Tag: Mamata Banerjee

  • The mainstream media is unable to point fingers in Manipur, but no such luck in West Bengal, writes writes Ranjona Banerji

    Violence? Floods? All depends on which party

     

     

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    Ranjona Banerji“The mainstream media is unable to point fingers in Manipur. Not towards Chief Minister Biren Singh. Or Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who made one visit of little use. Or the Prime Minister himself, who has not said a word about Manipur yet,” writes Ranjona Banerji

    The Indian media has concentrated with full attention on election-related violence in Bengal. At least 20 people were killed, as a bloody panchayat election was held across the state.

    Several high decibel “debates” were held on TV, where the state government and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was held responsible for being unable to control her party, which was accused of some of the violence. The party that may have been responsible for the rest of the violence shall remain unnamed.

    Heck, even I was asked to answer for the violence by trolls on the payroll of the unnamed party, because all Bengalis are responsible for what happens in Bengal and also in my case, because I share a surname.

    After Banerjee and the Trinamool Congress won with a “thumping” majority, the outrage died down in the media and only mutters remained, mainly in the corridors of the unnamed party.

    Such understandable anger at poll-related violence and the consequent responsibility of the party in power remains absent in Manipur. Even though it’s been two months since the violence began. Observers and commentators have likened the situation to anarchy and civil war. Armed Forces munitions have been raided and stolen. Violence continues.

    The mainstream media is unable to point fingers in Manipur. Not towards Chief Minister Biren Singh. Or Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who made one visit of little use. Or the Prime Minister himself, who has not said a word about Manipur yet

    Which party is in power in Manipur?

    It is the unnamed party in power at the Centre as well.

    And hence, the silence. From the party and the media.

    One prominent TV person was even upset that the European Parliament discussed the situation in Manipur. How dare they, when Indian TV doesn’t? The cheek!

     

    **

    The devastating floods in North India have sadly also been reported party-wise. Although to be fair, there has been some universal condemnation of bad planning, Delhi (AAP) and Himachal Pradesh (Congress) have faced more media attention than the rest.

    Am I being unfair? Just compare the level of anger and outrage in the Yelling Media, and you’ll get your answer.

    The big concentration for our captive media is the Prime Minister’s visit to France. Enough said.

    **

    And so to a curious case in the British media. And an abject lesson in how not to do journalism. Or, conversely what happens when gutter journalism is prominent over all other forms.

    The Sun, not really known for any form of serious journalism, carried a story last week allegting that a “prominent” BBC presenter had paid 35000 pounds to a young man, starting when he was 17, to send the presenter explicit photos of himself. The story was given to the Sun by the man’s mother and stepfather, who claimed that the money was used to feed their son’s drug habit.

    The BBC instantly suspended the presenter and began an internal investigation. Speculation went crazy over the identity of the presenter. And the police started an investigation.

    From last Friday to today, the story has practically turned on its head. The so-called “victim” has stated that his parents’ allegation is rubbish. The police have ended their investigation saying that no crime has been committed. The Sun has said it will publish no more stories on this and will cooperate with the BBC’s internal investigation. The Sun also claimed that the parents had not done this for money – which is common in the British media. But there are allegations that The Sun has paid huge amounts for the couple to appear on Talk TV, a sister concern. The presenter is in hospital with mental health issues. His wife is the one who named him to stop the speculation.

    https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/bbc-presenter-facing-sex-photo-claims-is-huw-edwards-bbc-says-citing-his-wife-2023-07-12/

    All in all, a right royal mess.

    Was there a story at all? Was The Sun just throwing muck around – not uncommon for the British tabloids – to target the BBC? And why was the BBC so quick to act against the presenter without ample evidence?

    This episode reflects what is the worst of the British media.

    As The New York Times says here, the BBC walked into The Sun’s trap.

    And Huw Edwards was hung out to dry.

     

    Ranjona Banerji is a senior journalist and commentator. She writes on MxMIndia on Tuesdays and Fridays. Her views here are personal.

     

  • Narendra Modi, Yogi Adityanath, MK Stalin, MS Dhoni and Mamata Banerjee

    Axis My India CSI Survey: Most impactful celebrity of 2021

    By Our Staff

    Axis My India, the consumer data intelligence company better known for its exit polls, released its latest findings of the India Consumer Sentiment Index (CSI), a monthly analysis of consumer perception on a wide range of issues. The month of December reveals Prime Minister, Narendra Modi as the most impactful celebrity of the year – view of 40% across India (majority). Chief Minister’s of Uttar Pradesh- Yogi Adityanath, Tamil Nadu- M K Stalin and West Bengal- Mamata Banerjee followed suit along with Indian Cricket captains Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and former captain MS Dhoni.

    Commenting on the December report, Pradeep Gupta, CMD, Axis My India, said: “The survey finds that PM Modi is overwhelmingly popular across the country and the most recognisable face in India. 40% of the total people surveyed have picked him, far higher than any other personality on the list. Virat Kohli stood second at 4% followed by Yogi Adityanath at 3%. Mr. Modi’s popularity seems to be growing at a time when world leaders are facing dwindling popularity. This poll is yet another demonstration of Mr. Modi’s grasp over the pulse of the nation.”

     

  • Oour colleagues on killing beats like health in the middle of a pandemic get shortchanged by their own community, writs Ranjona Banerji

    Second Waves of Praising Modi

     

    Ranjona BanerjiBy Ranjona Banerji

    I had promised to revisit the excellent journalism done by a small group of health reporters who kept us informed about the pandemic last year. They worked against all odds, especially official obfuscation, global confusion and a plethora of half-truths and lies about Covid-19 and its effect on both people and the health system.

    Between that promise made at the end of March and now, we find ourselves in a massive second wave and one that threatens to be as bad if not worse than the worse Covid-19 spike of 2020.

    Events overtake us and journalists cannot sit on their laurels. So here we are again. Having negotiated through the various information minefields of inadequate disclosure, scatty and spotty Covid-19 strategies, the Central Government’s endless publicity gimmickry, the vagaries of the virus itself and then the deleterious effect on the medical community, journalists now find themselves back where they started. In the middle of a pandemic. A number of frontline journalists got Covid-19 and a few sadly succumbed.

    You would hope that we had learnt something from last year. But for the most part, you would be wrong. A vast majority of India’s journalists or if you’re feeling generous, of India’s media houses, continue to see the world in terms of: promote Narendra Modi or keep quiet. Therefore, the Centre’s inept handling of the pandemic has to be covered up. As ever elections jump to the rescue. We have spent months concentrating on the “Battle for Bengal” as if that was all that mattered: five assembly elections.

    And now, the large community of political journalists – especially those on the BJP cheerleading beat – are agog with excitement over Modi’s announcement of a “tika utsav” or vaccination festival. This is while our dedicated branch of health journalists track how states have run out of vaccines, how vaccine centres are turning people away, how the manufacturers have asked for money and time, how the calls for protocols to be loosened are growing wider…

    On what basis will the Prime Minister, who has ignored the second wave to jeer at Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, organise this “festival” without vaccine stocks? Instead of concentrating on facts and logistics, because it is almost guaranteed that all available stocks will be held for the PM’s “festival” from April 11 to 14, we have senior TV persons full of excitement.

    Pallavi Ghose of CNN News18 was practically first off the block: “PM makes a strong case for vaccine – vaccine utsav from 11th to 16th April” in a tweet on Thursday night, minutes after the announcement. The dates are wrong, but we can forgive that in the excitement to get a praise Modi tweet out. Please note that there is no analysis here. No questions on why we just need a proper plan and not more publicity stunts.

    Thus, our colleagues on killing beats like health in the middle of a pandemic get short-changed by their own community.

    Ghosh is just one example. I give you this tweet from Bhupendra Chaubey, formerly of CNN News18 and now with India Ahead: “11th April to 14th April. Anniversaries of Jyoti ba Phule and Baba saheb Ambedkar (sic, sic), in between these days “vaccination festival” @narendramodi. If there ever was a doubt that he was India’s best political communicator, the reference to these two anniversaries should settle it”.

    Again, no questions, no relation to ground realities, only an overwhelming desire to praise Modi.

    In what way can journalists who actually do their jobs – question, question, question– compete with this?

    Ranjona Banerji is a senior journalist and commentator. She writes on MxMIndia every Tuesday and Friday. Her views here are personal

  • And the presumption of literacy, esp when the its object of an Apriil 1 prank never realises it as one, writes Shashidhar Nanjundaiah

    April Fool Prank or Fake News

     

    By Shashidhar Nanjundaiah

     

    Shashidhar NanjundaiahI hope we all had fun on April 1. I remember playing—and being played–dumb pranks at school on April Fools’ Day, back in the 1970s. It is so heartening (not really) to see that the tradition of schoolboy pranks lives on in adulthood. It gets sillier when the media plays pranks with us. Eyeball-roll level silly.

    Newspapers have traditionally remained elevated on the no-nonsense pedestal, often to the point of snootiness. We expect news to have little sense of humour apart from the organic-wry type—when the news itself is ironically funny. One that I chuckled at recently was even as Mamata Banerjee was pivoting her campaign by calling BJP leaders “outsiders” to her home state of Bengal, her party colleague Mahua Moitra fell for a typical rhetorical trap and tweeted that her party leader would consider contesting elections from Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh. That remark gave Narendra Modi and other campaigners delightful fodder for counter-rhetoric. Nobody would really take either Moitra’s tweet or the riposte seriously because we have become literate enough to take campaign rhetoric with a grain of salt.

    On the other hand, third editorials and guest columns aside, when newspapers try to be funny, they risk being seen as lacking practice and expertise. When one of the most reputed newspapers in the country ran an April Fool’s prank online, it stuck. In its compulsive fervour, the headline ran: “TD merges with BJP, Naidu finalises deal”.

     

    The “report” went on to provide a file photo of Telugu Desam’s (TD) leader Chandrababu Naidu with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and an intro lead-in that stated:

    It could not be independently confirmed if any of the former TD Rajya Sabha MPs who joined the BJP acted as facilitators.

    The story began:

    Hyderabad: In a development that marks a tectonic power shift in Andhra Pradesh politics, Telugu Desam (TD) chief and former three-term chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu has decided to merge his floundering party with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), bringing to an end the saga of a regional entity that had seen a meteoric rise in the country.

    TD leaders reportedly felt the party has lost its verve and there is little hope of reinvigorating the party within the next three years and wrest power from the YSRC in the next Assembly polls.

    Did anything jump out at you as fake?

    Exactly.

    Nothing. The news piece continued in the way any news item would, even specifying timeline—a month—for the TD-BJP merger. The last sentence of the piece was a half-disclaimer at best (never mind the English):

    A political analyst said, “Readers must carefully look at today’s date. They would realise the right conclusion to come to is April Fool’s Day.”

    Now, that disclaimer could have meant anything. Let us give the mirthful writer and their editor the benefit of doubt and claim they did their job by carrying it, albeit in all its ambiguity. But the assumption that like the writer and the editor, the reader is somehow obligated to read a news item until the last line is fallacious. It is a technicality that does not take in account reader habits.

    That is likely why the already beleaguered Chandrababu Naidu’s Telugu Desam Party promptly wrote to the Editors Guild of India, objecting strongly to the piece. The Guild stands by its editors to the extreme, sometimes to a fault, while protecting their freedoms—so silence would be an expected outcome there. To the party, it must have felt as though the editor was kicking someone who’s down. Being a political party, it also seized the opportunity to seek political mileage, by stating that the article “reeks of agenda, and the timing [just after the TDP badly lost urban local body elections] makes it abundantly clear that the author has allowed his personal interest to influence his professional duties.”

    It was a needless controversy, but is it fake news? That depends on how media-literate we are. The expectation that all or most readers are—or ought to be—somehow fully aware of editorial subtleties is unfair. A look at the social media reactions to the piece tells me most people did not read the article to the last line. Many digital non-native writers habitually keep their punch lines until the end. But articles are not like breathtaking videos. I am reminded of a recent viral video that showed a plane seemingly landing on the divider of a highway, in the end frame anticlimactically stating that it was all a trick at the editing table. In the case of that video, the viewer is much more likely to watch until an anticipated climax, and I would not call it a fake.

    As to the fakeness of the article, the answer in my dictionary is, yes. An April Fool’s prank is meant to make the butt of a joke feel a little silly. It is meant to be humour that causes momentary anxiety before the truth is revealed. It is its own form of satire, and satire is universally accepted as a kosher form of fakeness. But the distinguishing passcode is whether it is recognised by a typical reader or audience as such. In the absence of that receiver-confirmation, fake appears real—the very definition of fake news.

    The responsibility of eyeballs-seeking editorial clickbaits lies in being brilliant enough to discern between humour and fake news—unless the publication is itself biased and blinded by agenda. That may be unlikely in the above case, but look what the irresponsible cat dragged in. The presumption of media literacy is another level of editorial snootiness.

     

    As the founder of BeingResponsible, Shashidhar Nanjundaiah author is attempting to build media awareness among school- and college-goers via Responsible Media Literacy. Prof Nanjundaiah has led media institutes to positions of repute and leadership. He is also an editor. You can reach him at shashi.nanjundaiah@hotmail.com.

     

     

  • Ensure you, family and friends are registered in the electoral rolls. To check, visit https://www.nvsp.in

    Is Your Name on the Voters’ List?

     

    By Your Editor

     

    So the general elections have been announced.

     

    We all have our cribs about our politicians. Narendra Modi, Amit Shah. Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi. Mamata. Mayawati. Kejriwal. Shiv Sena. About the inefficiencies in the country: potholes, corruption, traffic, trains, buses, educational system, no jobs. We are fed up of our systems, and many of us believe that things will never improve in our lifetime.

     

    Perhaps this belief is correct. But we can try and make a difference. For starters, elect a candidate and political formation to represent us. And pray the elected reps do something. Make them accountable.

     

    The question is: how many of us will beat the summer heat, the lethargy and the attraction of sleeping those few minutes extra because it’s a holiday? For those in Mumbai, the voting day is April 29, a Monday. Perhap enough reason to get out of the city for a long weekend.

     

    It’s however important for each of us to vote. If there’s no candidate who you think is worthwhile, press the NOTA button. It’s critical to express ourselves and get the right person elected as Member of Parliament.

     

    Please check if you are on the voter’s list.

     

    Visit: https://www.nvsp.in

     

    If you get an error, just click on reload. It will come on.

     

    Then enter your name and search. If  you don’t remember your Assembly constituency, don’t bother. The search facility is pretty powerful.

     

    Also, please check with all those eligible to do the same, if they haven’t already done that. If they haven’t registered, they must. And if they have registered, they should keep checking at the website.

     

    The submissions (for proof) are simple: photograph (passport- or ID card-sized), birth certificate, passport, driving licence. If you don’t want to link your Aadhar Card with this, you can manage without it. The only painful thing is that if the first-time voter is over 21 years of age, then there’s a self-declaration to be filled in, signed and uploaded (click here). Please ensure that the scans of all of the above are jpegs/jpgs, not pdfs.

     

    We’ve done it ourselves for a recently turned potential voter and are hence convinced that it’s simple. You’ll get an sms near-instantly giving you a reference number.

     

    Please do visit the website. Check if your name is on it. As also your family. And then get your friends, colleagues etc to do something.

     

    Also, if you are an employer or a biggie at an organisation, dream up something to incentivise voters. An extra day’s salary may be a bit much, but how about a meal at a good restaurant? Or tie up with a Big Bazaar or Book My Show and get some discounts. Even tie up with the Nykaas of the world asking them to cosmetics at a 50% rate.

     

    We need some of upscale stores to step in too. Foodhall, Nature’s Basket, the five/seven star hotels, an extra discount to Zomato Gold members who have voted.

     

    How about some brands sponsoring hot and healthy/unhealthy breakfast outside the voting booths? Meal boxes.

     

    Can our TV channels position their popular stars at selfie points for people who have voted. Take a selfie with Shankar Mahadevan?

     

    If brands can do major activations at the Kumbh Mela, this is a Maha-Maha-Maha-opportunity for a public connect.

     

    Dream on, folks. Let’s make the 2019 Lok Sabha elections an unforgettable one. And elect a government we want out there.

     

     

  • Sumit Sen, Editor of The Times of India, Kolkata, passed away on Sunday night after a valiant battle with cancer. He was 60

    Sumit Sen, Editor of TOI Kolkata, passes away

    By A Correspondent

     

    Sumit Sen, Editor of The Times of India, Kolkata, passed away on Sunday night after a valiant battle with cancer. He was 60.

     

    A keen and versatile journalist who cut his teeth in The Statesman before moving on to The Hindustan Times in 2001 and The Times of India in 2003, Sumit Sen was as passionate about his work till his last day in office as he was on the day he started out as a cub reporter on the crime beat.

     

    Even till Sunday evening ­ just an hour or so before his passing ­ he was planning a major campaign on the mystery around Netaji’s death and taking stock of the daily reports. Fellow journalists remember him for his enthusiasm, focus, and the way he made friends out of complete strangers.

     

    During his time with TOI, he gave the Kolkata edition a burst of energy, direction and fighting spirit. Always brimming with ideas, he would constantly coax colleagues to think out of the box, and stay ahead of the times. Under him, TOI Kolkata came to be known as a paper that was always fresh and positive.

     

    He fought through pain for the last nine months to carry on working the way he always did. When someone complimented him on his will power, he would brush it away and say, “I am simply taking this as another phase of life. This, too, shall pass.”

     

    Marcus Dam, who was with him at The Statesman and remained a close friend for over 30 years, said: “It was a WhatsApp message about two weeks ago. In response to a ‘hope u r doing well’, he sent back a smiley. He was a man of few words. His language was simple. He was very passionate about his work and very loving. We have shared a huge number of secrets that perhaps no one else knows about. I won’t call it a loss. He is someone not to be lost. He is always around. He and I shared a dream of taking a vacation in the hills. When the rains came down in Kolkata, whenever it used to turn misty, he would always call me and describe it as ‘home weather’. He took pride in the fact that he was from North Bengal. Yes, he will always be around.”

     

    Chief minister Mamata Banerjee offered her condolences and rushed to hospital late at night to pay her last respects. The TOI family and Kolkata media were in complete shock and struggling to deal with the untimely loss of someone so vibrant.

     

    Sumitda, as his colleagues and friends called him, is survived by his wife, noted Bharatnatyam dancer Malabika Sen.

     

    Source:The Economic Times

    Copyright © 2015, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. All Rights Reserved

    Licensed to republish

     

  • In Freaking News, Ranjona Banerji reviews the fare in the morning papers and the nightly news. And sometimes the afternooners, the newsmags and all that's on the Web

    Ranjona Banerji: The news that did not happen on TV

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    All day on Monday all that happened in India was that yoga teacher Baba Ramdev and a few thousand followers continued their protest against corruption and black money in New Delhi. That is, if you watched television. As the day progressed, political leaders attended the protest and gave speeches. That was it. The rest of the news day was in Shavasana – the dead body pose.

     

    Not however, if you read the newspapers on Tuesday. Grains rotting in Gujarat, Haryana minister Gopal Kanda on the run after an employee’s suicide writes a letter saying that a suicide note is not admissible, the latest on the Mumbai violence, especially the provocative doctored videos on the attacks on Muslims in Myanmar, Sharad Pawar given the number 3 slot in the Cabinet behind AK Anthony, a woman researcher allegedly molested on the IIT Mumbai campus by a staff member and the end of the Olympics.

     

    This is just a smattering of the news that did not happen on TV. There is more, though undoubtedly a lot of it is city specific. However, it would have been interesting to know how Delhi reacted to the traffic snarls created by Ramdev’s protests, whether people suffered or not, how many were affected and so on. TV sadly did not oblige.

     

    ***

     

    Press Council of India chairman Markandey Katju has been mainly silent after his dramatic ascension to the throne. But now he’s popped up again. Strangely, it is not the media which is his focus. Rather it is West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who he had once lauded for her honesty and determination. Now he is appalled at her authoritarian ways after a farmer was arrested after he questioned the CM at a rally. Banerjee accused the farmer of being a Maoist.

     

    Katju has also stated that Anna Hazare and Baba Ramdev’s anti-corruption movements are “empty gas”.

     

    He said: “Nothing is going to happen by Anna or Ramdev’s crusade against corruption”. The former judge said he was not justifying corruption but instead was pointing out that India was going through a “transitional period where there is no moral code”. His prophecy: corruption will continue for 15 years.

     

    Presumably, we will all become moral after that.

     

    * * *

     

    What does one make of anti-corruption activist Kiran Bedi’s statement that the media spends too much time on “small rapes” (she then said she meant rapes by “small” people) instead of corruption? In Bedi lies a lesson for the media. She was pumped up for being India’s first female IPL officers and qualities were attributed to her which she never had. Once she was made into a heroine in the people’s eyes, it became very difficult to dethrone her. As a result of all that hype, she is now in textbooks and has won numerous awards.

     

    Prolonged exposure to her during the Anna Hazare-led movement has however exposed her many short-comings. Now we know that amongst her other faults, she is also dismissive of rape. Some female role model.

     

  • In Freaking News, Ranjona Banerji reviews the fare in the morning papers and the nightly news. And sometimes the afternooners, the newsmags and all that's on the Web

    Ranjona Banerji: Is the media fickle, or just having fun

    Ranjona Banerji

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    Television is, of course, very worried about the next President of India, but newspapers have given it the treatment it deserved – reporting on the news rather than trying to create it.

     

    Which means that Friday morning saw the straining of the ties between the UPA and Trinamool Congress get full play in the papers, although Mamata Banerjee’s mocking of the prime minister seems to have got a muted response.

     

    There has been a distinct movement to belittle Manmohan Singh and the media now appears to have been taken along for the ride. It seems a bit odd that rather take a non-partisan stand, the media has been party to this campaign. Or maybe it is not odd and I am not surprised.

     

    The downside for Team Anna is that Mamata Banerjee has stolen their limelight. Of particular interest is her declaration in today’s Times of India that she is a “simple man”. Indeed.

     

    * * *

     

    Mumbai’s newspapers have focused this week on the extraordinary behaviour of the Mumbai police, with its raids on bars and restaurants and treatment of customers. On Thursday, The Times of India, Mid-Day and Hindustan Times dedicated pages to the police’s highhanded methods and its reliance on archaic laws to harass people. Vasant Dhoble, the assistant commissioner of police who conducted most of the raids, was also targeted. Pritish Nandy has written an impassioned article on the destruction of civil liberties in Mumbai over the years in TOI.

     

    Some of this concerted media focus has prodded the minister of state for home to ask the police to exercise some restraint. There has also been some discussion to re-look at all these old and pointless laws.

     

    Friday’s Mid-Day has a story on how the protests against Dhoble and the police which started on cyber space are now entering real life as well. And, according to the paper the city’s “young leaders” like Milind Deora and Poonam Mahajan have also asked the police not to harass the innocent.

     

    * * *

     

    The unfortunate ego battle between Indian tennis stars Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi has now got full media attention, especially as it affects India’s Olympic media chances. Here too, the media is divided between the two and as Bhupathi is better at building media relations, his case is being viewed with more sympathy. This is, in spite, of the fact that Bhupathi is the one putting up terms and conditions and refusing to play with Paes and also that Paes has bigger dibs on the Indian Olympic team because of his higher ranking.

     

    * * *

     

    The News Corp noose around British prime minister David Cameron gets closer and closer. Testifying in front of the Brian Leveson Inquiry into media ethics, Cameron tried to stand his ground that he had done no wrong but was hard-pressed to explain a text message from former News Corp CEP Rebekkah Brooks which said “we’re definitely in this together” just before the general election which the Conservative Party and Cameron won.

     

    The nexus between Britain’s political classes and the Murdoch organisation is no secret but its tentacles appear to have poisoned British polity, the establishment and the media itself.

     

    * * *

     

    Interesting to see after all the hoopla over former army chief VK Singh and all that bombastic media support, suddenly the media focus seems to have shifted to his detractors!

     

    Fickle or just having fun?

     

  • Cartoons have caused incalculable damage in the recent past, writes Ranjona Banerji in 'Noosemaker'

    Ranjona Banerji: Cartoons as weapons of mass destruction!

    Ranjona Banerji

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    All efforts are now being made to wipe out India’s most dangerous weapon of mass destruction: the political cartoon. This awful instrument of power, if it falls into the wrong hands (ie, cartoonists), can end up doing the most terrible damage to reputations, thin skin and “sentiments”.

     

    In recent times cartoons have caused incalculable damage. But strangely – and this is their enormous reach – the cartoons have emerged from the past where they had been lurking. It is not enough to imagine that because today’s newspaper is tomorrow’s sev puri wrapping, the power of the cartoon is diminished. It has an insidious way of reappearing in other forms – like those other lethal objects, books. And even worse, textbooks.

     

    Young minds, while they can easily absorb news of war and cruelty and indeed thrive on the vulgarity which passes for entertainment in India, would be irreparably tainted if faced with a political cartoon. And yet, by stealth for what else could it be, these cartoons have managed to inveigle themselves into textbooks.

     

    It started however with that other source of free expression, the Internet. Someone committed the most heinous act of forwarding a cartoon making fun of West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee. But in spite of the strict action taken against the transgressor, the cartoon has only got bolder.

     

    Soon after a cartoon from 1949 was discovered being satirical about the delays in putting the Constitution together. Not only did it show the Constituent Assembly as a snail but it showed Dr BR Ambedkar sitting on the snail, with a whip in hand and then Jawaharlal Nehru whipping the snail. This is wrong on so many levels and particularly to snails. What have these fat sluggish creatures done to deserve whips? They have no feet and they cannot move any faster. There are no records about the action taken against the cartoon in 1949 by the Royal Society for the Protection of Animals but one can only hope that People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals will soon be holding a mass agitation at the Ramlila grounds in Delhi to increase awareness about this subjugation of snails. Good luck with getting hundreds of naked girls to agree to have snails crawling all over their bodies – a normal PETA method of agitprop. But protests there have been and there must be.

     

    And now we have a cartoon from 1968 implying that students in Tamil Nadu knew neither Hindi nor English. Now what could be more insulting to the education system of the past? Implying that students had been taught nothing is most unfair. How can the education system from 1968 possibly stand up for itself? It is therefore only right that the protests should happen in 2012.

     

    The other way of course is to put the cartoon on the endangered species list and wait for the World Wildlife Fund to step in…

     

  • Every Thursday, Ranjona Banerji will write about a grouse. Either spewing venom or tongue-in-cheek

    Wanted: translators for press conferences

    Ranjona Banerji

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    This is targeted at TV newswallahs. They have a tendency to show us live press conferences that they deem to be important, from across the country. This week, we had Mamata Banerjee, chief minister of West Bengal, after the victory of the Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian Premier League. Then we had Kiran Reddy, chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, on the arrest of his predecessor’s son Jagan Mohan Reddy by the Central Bureau of Investigation.

     

    All very commendable, bringing us the news when it happens. The grouse? Banerjee spoke in Bengali and Reddy in Telugu. This of course makes it virtually impossible for anyone to understand what they’re saying. The on-screen translation process was extremely slow and then, only paraphrased their remarks. Which means for about 3 minutes of someone talking, you got about two lines of material. The reason I know this is because I understand Bengali and have a smattering of Telugu.

     

    If anyone is old enough to remember, it was a bit like the scene in Charlie Chaplin’s Great Dictator where the typist is taking dictation from the Adolf Hitler character, Adenoid Hynkel. Hynkel talks and talks and the stenographer types two words.

     

    On the BBC and al Jazeera this week, a live press conference with the British foreign secretary and Russian foreign minister on the Syria issue was also covered.

     

    When the Russian minister spoke there was a live voice translation. One understands that the translations were provided by the governments concerned and not the TV channels but it is a process which a multilingual country like ours needs to understand.

     

    It might be more sensible for a reporter present to provide a paraphrasing of events rather than subject people to listening to something they cannot understand. Neither press conference, it has to be said, was particularly scintillating.

     

    * * *

     

    There were few scuffles and a lathi-charge in Kolkata’s Eden Gardens when the celebrations were being held. All afternoon, Times Now behaved as if it was covering a major riot and hundreds had been badly injured. Even if you dislike Mamata Banerjee and Shah Rukh Khan, some perspective please. NDTV called it a “mild lathi-charge” which is an unfortunate choice of words but perhaps a more appropriate sentiment.

     

  • In Freaking News, which will now appear every Tuesday and Friday, Ranjona Banerji reviews the fare in the morning papers and the nightly news. And sometimes the afternooners, the newsmags and all that's on the Web

    [MJR] Mamata’s antics dominate the news

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    The strange doings of West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee continued to dominate print, TV and social media. The arrest of a Jadavpur university professor for forwarding a cartoon about her was compounded by news of another arrest of another professor for protesting on behalf of slum-dwellers in Kolkata. On Times Now, one lone “sort of” Trinamool Congress-Mamata Banerjee supporter said yes, but, maybe, should not, but. In print, edits and edit page pieces have consistently made fun of her and social media has of course been rife with criticism.

     

    It is also true that a lot of this anger is middle class rage which does not always translate but it is interesting nonetheless.

     

    Mumbai newspapers were not unnaturally taken up with Monday’s autorickshaw strike which crippled the suburbs. In the north, it was the chief ministers’ conference on matters of “federalism” and their general beefs with the Centre. Beef is the wrong – or is it right? – word to use here as a “beef-eating festival” organised by Dalit students at the university in Hyderabad has led to near-riot conditions with the right wing Akhil Bharatiya Vidhyarthi Parishad objecting.

     

    The Taliban attack on Afghanistan was an important part of the news cycle. The last couple of weeks have been minus the sort of media hysteria which has gripped us recently. This means that news can get its normal play without being whipped up and re-packaged as end-of-the-world scenarios.

     

    * * *

     

    The murky underbelly of fixers and operators which trawl the paths of Mumbai’s hopeful newbies searching for money, fame and glamour has been exposed by the three murders currently in the newspapers. Intriguingly, the same people are somehow involved in three deaths or connected at any rate.

     

    Although the cases have got much coverage, thankfully the sort of breathless hysteria which has coloured cases like the Aarushi Talwar-Hemraj murders or the J Dey murder-Jigna Vora arrest has been missing here.

     

    * * *

     

    It was a joy to read about Nari Contractor by Makaran Waingankar in Tuesday’s Times of India in what appears to be a nostalgia series called “Bombay Boys”. Made a change from the sniping and/or hagiography about current players practised by some young sports journalists these days!

     

    * * *

     

    Also interesting in TOI is an interview with Google co-founder Sergey Brin about how apps are reducing web freedom! Since I am app-less am guessing I should celebrate my freedom!

     

  • We still don't know how the President acquired this army land for herself. Did she use her position as commander and chief of the armed forces, revenge for those hours of standing in the Republic Day parade with her hand to her forehead? Or did someone do all this for her?

    [MJR] Women on top: A caricature and a cartoon

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    This week, we have to share the honours between two very important women. First – this is not because she is more important but because she sort of is, in an official kind of way – the President of India, Pratibha Patil.

     

    According to a group of ex-soldiers (you know the lot, formerly noble and so on and now a bit, well, suspect) have claimed that 2.6 lakh acres of army land in Pune, meant for housing jawans, has been taken over by the President to build her retirement home. If that wasn’t bad enough, two colonial-era bungalows have been broken down in the process.

     

    Now everyone knows, especially since Adarsh, that no one – not the army, not the government – actually wants to build anything for jawans. Since Adarsh, we also know that senior defence personnel, bureaucrats and politicians will happily take any government land cheap and make luxury homes for themselves and their families.

     

    Given Pune’s proximity to Mumbai, it is possible that the President was inspired by the Adarsh adarsh (that’s a pun by the way. It is clear, I make this clear, as we approach the next noosemaker, because it is possible that I will find my own neck in a noose. Jokes are verboten you see).

     

    Still, in all the fire and outrage – now an essential ingredient to any dish in modern India – we still don’t know how the President acquired this army land for herself. Did she ride in on silver, flashing her firearms? Did she use her position as commander and chief of the armed forces, revenge for those hours of standing in the Republic Day parade with her hand to her forehead? Or did someone do all this for her?

     

    * * *

     

    And then we reach the Great Supreme Leader who is incapable of staying out of the noose and the news. The indomitable Mamata Banerjee, crusader against communists and cartoonists. Ambikesh Mahapatra, a chemistry professor at Jadavpur University, apparently a hotbed of dangerous anti-Didi-ists, forwarded a cartoon which used dialogues from Satyajit Ray’s film Sonar Kellato poke a little gentle fun at the removal of Dinesh Trivedi as railway minister.

     

    Mahapatra and a neighbour were, therefore, arrested and kept in jail for one night for not only forwarding this hurtful and nasty cartoon but also outraging the modesty of a woman. They were also beaten up by members of the Trinamool Congress for the same crimes. The police, also upset at this mocking of the Great Supreme Didi, made a mockery of the justice system.

     

    In all this fun and games, could Didi be far behind? She promptly piped up saying those who commit crimes will be punished. Quite right.

     

    It goes without saying that Mahapatra’s act of forwarding the cartoon showed him to be a communist and therefore deserving of every punishment meted out to him. It also proves that West Bengal or Poschim Bongo or whatever it’s called, has to stop these illegal acts of laughing, giggling, sniggering, smirking at Didi’s expense. Is it any wonder that Dada has left the Kolkata Knight Riders and joined Pratibha Patil in Pune?