Reprinted with permission from the Indian Express, January 07, 2002

• AFTER THE EXPOSE
• BENDS AND MEANS
• PIMPING IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST
• TELESCOPE / BOX POPULI
• PRIME TIME FOR RESURRECTION
• THE EXUBERANT MEDIA
• IS THE MEDIA A FORCE MULTIPLIER OR A NUISANCE?
• NONE SO BLIND AS THOSE WHO WILL NOT SEE
• THE POWER OF THE IMAGE
• PRIVACY VS PUBLIC INTEREST
• TALK TV: SHOULD EDITORS BE READ OR HEARD?
• POUNCING ON THE MEDIA
  

Reprinted with permission from the Indian Express,

 January 07, 2002

AFTER THE EXPOSE
By Tarun Tejpal

In my 18 years in journalism, had I spent more time hanging around with politicians, and less with other kinds of achievers, I would have known better. In 18 years, had I dabbled more in the business of journalism than in journalism, I would have known better. When Aniruddha Bahal and Mathew Samuel finished their eight-month-long investigation - unparalleled in India for its ingenuity and courage, and driven by nothing but the excitement of a major expose - I would have perhaps, had I the savvy in business and political venality, known better than to have dived off the deep end.

It is not as if we did not take pause. We did, but not for long enough to break our resolve. With due respects to Kamala, Antulay and Bhagalpur, we were aware we were taking on much more than any other story, because we were going up against an entire ruling party and government whose various echelons had been captured in corrupt compromise. All good editors know that guerrilla stories, investigative skirmishes, are easy to commission and handle: you nip at one flank while warmly stroking the other, the behemoth tolerates the pinpricks and laps up the caresses in some cosy understanding of occupational necessities. The watchdog and the monster go dancing into the twilight, making just enough yipping sounds to confuse the onlooker.

The nip and yowl, the dancing semblance to a duel, allows even the most honorable editors to break bread with their conscience. The others, the savvy ones, have of course figured that journalism is just another business, and dancing with the devil inevitable in public affairs. We, on the contrary, knew we were sailing into a pitched battle, and were allowing the monster no room to dance.

But we did not think too hard about how it would pan out; we just went with the momentum of the story. We knew we would reap a whirlwind, but were confident of weathering it because we imagined our fulcrum of pure intentions and honorable motives would keep us from being uprooted. Many people have called it naivete. If it is, then let me say it proved to be valuable naivete; without it there would have been no Operation West-End, and its many distressing revelat