The PM and the editor

BY Darius Nakhoonwala| IN Opinion | 19/08/2007

You don`t say!

Darius Nakhoonwala

There is a line in the in the famous 1963 film " Around the World in 80 Days" where the hero, Phileas Fogg, tells his comic valet, Passepartout, "the more and more I see you, Passepartout, the more and more I like you."

For me the reverse is true of our "famed" editors and their "venerable" papers. The more and more I see them, the less and less I like (some of) them.

Reason: they are so partisan and therefore such awful hypocrites. Not all, but enough of them to prove the point that editors must have a fixed tenure because otherwise they develop friendships, loyalties and vested interests that cloud their supposedly pure judgment.

I have often written about the need to be suspicious, as Sherlock Holmes was, of dogs that don`t bark. Last week provided (yet another) example. Editors are important not just for what they write but also for what they don`t.    

The issue was hugely important as subsequent events have shown. It was the Prime Minister daring the bullies of the Left to do their worst -- withdraw support to the UPA government if the 123 deal was such an uncomfortable wedgie in their underpants.

It needed edits. It needed the editors to support the PM. It need them to expose the sound and light show that the Left has been putting up for the last three years.

And yet, hear ye, my countrymen, only three newspapers of note commented on it - The Indian Express, The Pioneer and the Business Standard. The Times of India took a double swipe at the BJP and the Left for opposing the deal but side-stepped the PM¿s response.  The Hindu kept very quiet, as did many others.

I am not going to quote what the three or four who did write, said. Suffice it to say that they all patted the PM on the back and told the Left that it had has it coming. The only issue was why the PM had waited so long.

In contrast, everyone wrote about the PM`s Independence Day speech, which was a bit of nothing, you see, a sort of executive summary of the forthcoming 11 <sup>th</sup> Five year Plan. It was safe to write on it, you see, didn`t need any editorial cojones, as the Mexicans would say.

Now the PM has fired off another salvo, this time at the BJP, saying its leaders had held havens (prayed to God, in other words) that he should die. This is the most extraordinary rubbish that an Indian PM has ever mouthed. It was based probably on some half-baked and self-serving IB report from some very small town somewhere. And the PM thought it fit to sound off.

I am waiting with bated breath to see what venerable editors will say. The Indian Express was, as usual, first off the mark. But it chose to focus on what George Fernandes said - which was right. Fernandes was way out of line and needs to be put to pasture now. But the edit ignored the PM`s provocation altogether! So here is the question Mr Editor: did you read what has been published under your name?

I thought the Pioneer, with its pro-BJP leanings, would go ballistic. But, as of Saturday, it held its fire. I wonder why. Maybe it will come back with a fusillade on Monday. As for the Hindu, it will probably make up for keeping silent about the PM`s dig at Left by fuming about the BJP.

As the Urdu poet said, Excellencies, " Is hammam mein woh sab nangay hain".