Written with Ajith’s trademark wry humour, these real stories, often more entertaining than fiction, are a testament to a journalist’s life, as well as a comment on the changing nature of the effervescent Indian media.
Ajith Pillai has been has been a journalist of standing of us many as 28 years. He has reported out of Mumbai, Chennai and Delhi and also covered events in Bihar, Andhra Pradesh and Kashmir related to politics, crime, conflict and social change for several publications that include Sunday Observer, The Indian Post, The Week, Pioneer, India Today and Outlook with verve and vitality that comes through as one reads page after page.
Too often, though, it makes painful reading. Right from the start Pillai makes it plain that today’s journalism has reached the nadir. As he says, in a perfect universe, there must be perfect newspapers, perfect editors and perfect reporters. Alas! Pillai reminds us that “this utopian world does not exist except in the minds of aspiring journalists.”
Pillai quotes instance after instance of journalistic perfidy making it plain that this development is of recent – says a decade – origin. During this period, most of the big stories in the media, he says, have come from a single source – mainly whistle-blowers or those who share information because they have vested interests.
Leaks from government organisations like the Comptoller and Auditor General (CAG) have emerged as a major source for new stories and development journalism and rural reporting have taken a back seat and “be¬come an aberration in most publications”. Is Pillai generalising and is he fair in his estimation? Pillai, of course is writing from inside information and must be given credit for it.
A new breed of journalists has apparently come into existence who “drive around in fancy cars, eat at expensive restaurants, and boast of high salaries. As Pillai sees the overall situation corruption has become rampant and involved are not only industrialists, politicians and businessmen but Ministers, not to speak of the keepers of law and order, the police.
About, the 1993 Mumbai riots, for example, Pillai has some sharp things to any. He had attended Police commissioner Srikant Bapat’s briefing during which, says Pillai, the Commissioner “tried to convince the media that things were not as bad as they seemed and in days to come the Mumbai Police was not only playing down casualty figures but also looked the other way and allowed the rioters a free hand”. And that is openly said of the Commissioner of Police? If the salt loses it savour wherewith shall it be salted? The Commissioner’s statement, it seemed to Pillai “was also offering tacit support to the Sena-sponsored violence”.
Corruption, according to Pillai began in the mid-1980s but reached its crescendo post-liberalistion. Suddenly – almost overnight – reporting became a lucrative beat. Not only business reporters wined and dined, but they began to receive more expensive gifts. To start with ‘gifts’ were comparatively. ‘cheap’ consisting of shoes, shirts, jeans, cassettes, watches, fruit juicers and ketchup bottles.
Says Pillai, “There were days when four public-issue press conferences were packed in a single day which, translated into Rs 4,000 worth of coupons. Three or four days of ‘press-conferencing’ worked out to more than the salary earned by most journalists in a month. Again the question arises: Most journa¬lists? Yes, most journalists.
The chapter on ‘Gifted Journalists’ tells it all. Pillai makes it a point to say that, of course, not all journalists are corrupt and ‘many journalists felt guilty about having accepted’ gifts. But then he adds: “A gift is a gift.” Before business reporting become big business, political correspondents were supposedly notorious for using their contacts to get favours done. This practice says Pillai, “still continues” though he adds that “not all those covering politics or, for that matter, business should be turned by the some brush”.
Furthermore he says: “There are enough honest journalists who diligently do their work because all the exposes of corruption in politics, business and sport would not have been possible otherwise.” For all that, accepting gifts had became standard practice. Gifts could be in cash or in kind and sometimes a reporter earned more in five days than his monthly salary. Some Corporate houses have even started paying select journalists a monthly retainer for doing their bidding.
The question may be asked: Why has corruption taken hold of journalism? Why do politicians and Ministers lie? To go back to the 1983 riots, Pillai ssys: “The then Congress government in Maharashtra failed to act throughout the violence. There were allegations that it was allowing the Shiv Sena a free hand. Chief Minister Sudhakar Naik told us that things were under control, which they obviously were not. We asked him about police complacency and he stoically defended his force…”
To shift to another subject, the infamous Radia Tapes. Nira Radia was in the media business and she was using her acquaintanceship with big business and government officials to mutual benefit. The authorities became aware of this and her phones were tapped by the IT Department with authorisation from the Union Home Ministry. In that sense, the tapping was legal and authentic. The conversations revealed a lot of dirty work done by Radia. The tapes put a question mark on journalists and their nexus with political friends. This was not surprising considering, as Pillai put it, that in the past “some senior journalists had been caught on tape discussing government formation and promising to lobby on behalf of their political friends.” The Radia Tapes showed to what depths journalism can fall. Is what Radia practised journalism?
Lastly Pillai talks about opinion polls during election time, some of which were bogus. A sting operation conducted ahead of 2014 general election revealed that eleven polling agencies were willing to manipulate results for a price. So where do we go from here? Should we blame liberalisation and the growth of riches for all that is happening? Perhaps the reader can provide an answer. The truth is journalism as a profession has its face tarred. This book says it all.
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With great shock and sorrow I have come to know of the sudden passing away of the great Journalist Shri M.V. Kamath. I had the privilege to know him since 1955 as my very first article “And Man Can Achieve Anything” appeared in Free Press Bulletin when Mr. Kamath was the then Editor of the Newspaper. It was Mr. Kamath who encouraged me to write by giving me tips and hints. Since then there was no looking back. I had the honour of having his Forewards written for all my five published books viz.”Gems from Mythology” (Bharatiya V.B.), “Rosary of Saints”(B.V.B), “Strewn Pearls” (English Edition),”Moral Legends from Epics and Puranas” (English Edition) and “Worship” (Leadstart Publications).
Mr. Kamath was to me my guru, guide, philosopher and also a true friend. He used to encourage my freelance writing and was always a source of inspiration to me. I have no words to express my grief and my loss, and to the world of Journalists as well. I only pray may his soul rest in peace.
-Meera S. Sashital
M. V. Kamath
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