Scindia, Phoolan Devi And The Media
By S.Anand
The death of four journalists along with Madhavrao
Scindia was mourned by the media. But nobody has asked the question, what were
these journalists were doing with Scindia on a private flight? That the four
journalists who accompanied Scindia morally compromised themselves has not been
seen as an issue by any media critic.
The death of four journalists along with Madhavrao
Scindia was mourned by the media. But nobody has asked the question what these
journalists – Anju Sharma of The Hindustan Times, Sanjiv Sinha of the Indian
Express, Ranjan Jha of the television news channel Aaj Tak, and Gopal Bisht,
cameraman for Aaj Tak – were doing with Scindia on a private flight. Veterans
of the political beat take pride in their contacts with big netas – ostensibly
for news, but also for ‘plants’ and other favours that come along, sometimes
unasked for. Reporters covering a party fall in love with it; they lose all
perspective and begin to behave like party spokespersons; and they would go to
any length to oblige leaders they get close to.Fellow-journalists may
disapprove of my wrong sense of timing in raising this issue, but Scindia’s
death and the fact that four journalists died with him, I think forces us – at
least those of us who believe in ethics and responsibility, and in criticising
ourselves – to get some perspective on what is happening.
On September 30, 2001, Scindia (who was carelessly
described by most television and newspaper reporters as ‘Maharaja’ though this
monarchic-feudal institution has been scrapped) was flying to Kanpur for a
Congress rally. How important was this rally for four Delhi journalists to fly
along? Could not Indian Express or HT have deputed their Kanpur reporters to do
the job? Why did Sanjeev Sinha or Anju Sharma have to fly all the way? Did they
go to Kanpur when Muslims were killed there some months ago? Why not then, why
now? How much space/time would Express, HT or Aaj Tak have given to Scindia’s
rally – what was the rally all about anyway? A single column in the papers, if
at all; and 20 seconds perhaps on the TV channel. Would we have known at all
about the Scindia rally had not the plane crashed and all onboard died? If
there had been no mishap, we would perhaps have never known that Anju Sharma,
Sanjiv Sinha, Ranjan Jha and Gopal Bisht had made the trip.On the day of the
death, Congress leader Priyaranjan Dasmunshi broke down while being interviewed
by Rajdeep Sardesai for Star News. Besides mourning the death of Scindia, he
was equally pained by the death of "Ranjon" who, he told us, used to
come to him (Dasmunshi) and Scindia every morning for dope. Such
politician-journalist intimacy is vulgar, to say the least.
That the four journalists who accompanied Scindia
morally compromised themselves has not been seen as an issue by any media
critic. Most mediapersons tend to see this as part of their job. In the process
of cultivating contacts, reporters get ‘close’ to powerful persons and have to nurture
these ‘contacts’, is the reasoning. This, at best, helps one access
information/ soundbytes at the right moment. One can hardly term a trip to
Kanpur a ‘junket’ – that term is reserved only for foreign trips which result
from being ‘close’ to officials in the ministry of external affairs. And for
these junkets there is great lobbying even within a publication. Such trips are
shared by senior, accredited journalists who toe the government’s foreign
policy line. This of course means only journalists who operate from Delhi.
Right now, being in the good books of home minister L.K. Advani could mean he takes you along to the annual Sindhu Darshan, an out-and-out hindutva-RSS affair. Flying to Kanpur with Scindia might hardly be on a par with such exercises. But obliging Scindia here could mean a lot to the journalists involved on some other occasion. It is another thing that neither survived the trip to be able to enjoy the professional perks that would have accrued on some later date.