Author: R.V. Pandit
Publication: Outlook
Date: February 18, 2002
Some recent news and views:
* L.K. Advani, 74, is alleged by
a Pakistani newspaper, The News, to have been involved in a September 1947
plot to murder Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan. Jinnah died
on September 11, 1948, after an illness.
* Yukio Hatoyama, president of the
Democratic Party of Japan and leader of Opposition in the Diet, visited
India on January 10-11 and laid wreaths at the building of the National
Assembly of J&K at Srinagar and at Parliament House, New Delhi, as
a mark of respect for those who died in terrorist attacks on October 1
and December 13 respectively.
* Harish Khare, of The Hindu, wrote
an editorial page article in his paper of January 23, 2002, titled "The
General and the Minister" with a sub-head: "The fraudulent deshbhakts who
preside over New Delhi ought to be slowed down in their heedless quest
for making India into a garrison state," whatever that meant!
Prominent Indian newspapers today
claim prime readership from the 20 to 40 age group, and their contents,
including the luscious Page 3, are designed for that age group. Thus, the
bulk of their readers would not be familiar with events of the '40s. The
Pakistani newspaper report about Advani's alleged involvement in a 1947
plot to murder Jinnah was naturally big news in our newspapers, but not
a single newspaper pointed out that the home minister was not even 20 when
that plot was supposed to have been executed! Incidentally, Advani had
visited Karachi in 1978. If he was involved in so dastardly a plot as to
murder the Qaid-e-Azam just thirty years earlier, how come the Karachi
police did not detain him then? The report thus had inherent credibility
problems, but our newspapers failed to point these out. Negligence? Carelessness?
Then how about The Hindustan Times headline for their front-page report:
"Pak rakes up Advani case". What case? Yet, The Pioneer had the very appropriate
"Theatre of absurd! Advani on Pak list" as the headline for their front-page
report of the same story.
Yukio Hatoyama is likely to be the
prime minister of Japan in the near future. The Japanese, until Prime Minister
Atal Behari Vajpayee's visit to Japan in December 2001, were not very understanding
of the Indian position on Kashmir and cross-border terrorism. Hatoyama
was the first G-8 leader to visit Kashmir in a long time-and the first
to denounce terrorism from those two spots where India bled. It made headlines
in Japan, but several national dailies, including The Times of India, ignored
the visit, though some did carry brief reports. How does one explain this?
Ignorance? Neglect? Yet, our PM had a 45-minute one-to-one with Hatoyama,
followed by a delegation-level meeting with the visitors for another 45
minutes. Is the press informed?
The provocation for "A General and
a Minister" in The Hindu by Harish Khare was clearly the statement by the
defence minister on the evening of January 11, soon after the pre-Army
Day press conference by General S. Padmanabhan. Whatever be the merit of
the army chief's televised statement (it was undoubtedly a clear-headed
presentation) and the surprise follow-up by the defence minister, Khare's
diatribe-"...unwittingly the General invited comparison with the circumlocutory
external affairs minister, with the discredited and inconsistent defence
minister, not to mention with the halting and pausing Prime Minister, and
with the always-full-of-himself home minister"-demonstrates how prejudice
and hate dictate what is written by editorialists these days. The deliberate
ignoring of the breakthrough success of the vigorous and sustained diplomatic
campaign in the West, in Moscow, in Beijing, and even in Tokyo to make
the world understand our stand as regards Pakistan is symbolic of the refusal
of the press to learn.But can it?
This short piece has been occasioned
by the reactions to the booklet-in-the-news, "The Whole Truth with all
the Documents, About the Aluminium Caskets Bought by the Defence Ministry
in 1999-2000", authored by me. The booklet exposes, with documents-none
secret or confidential in any manner, and all available to any enterprising
journalist-the untruths that the national dailies led by The Times group
papers published, prompting the politicians to mouth the same untruths
even louder, and disrupting Parliament for two days. The booklet has provoked
the Left and the Congress to demand George Fernandes' resignation for giving
this writer "secret" and "confidential" documents. Nonsense. Jaipal Reddy
goes so far as to allege that the documents quoted in the booklet had the
legend "secret" deleted from them! Somnath Chatterjee has found fault with
the booklet joining issue with the CAG and the press for their misdemeanours.
But neither the CAG nor any of the publications of The Times group have
questioned the veracity or rebutted what this writer has written. Strangely,
the politicians are rushing to their defence by attacking Fernandes and
my little booklet. The truth is not allowed to prevail! How, then, can
the press inform or educate?
On February 4, 2002, the newspapers
carried large-size advertisements about the Shram Awards function that
day: "Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Hon'ble Prime Minister, honours 28 workers
for exceptional contribution to nation-building with Shram Awards on 4th
February 2002 at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi", the headline proclaimed, listing
the 28 winners. But the advertisement featured the photographs of only
the PM flanked on either side by the labour minister and the minister of
state for labour and employment! Can the media inform and educate when
government information is so irrelevant and frivolous?
(The writer is a senior journalist
and former editor of Imprint)
