Title: The source and
the story
Author: Saeed Naqvi
Publication: The Indian
Express
Date: January 14, 2000
The Indian Airlines hijack
and lie sudden arrival of the Karmapa Lama from Tibet has sparked off a
debate. is it the government or the media which is to blame for the unfortunate
projection? In other words, is it a messy projection of events by the media
or a simple projection of the mess for which the government must take the
blame?
The issue really touches
on the sensitive relationship between an independent media and the government
in a liberal democracy. That this relationship has to be adversarial is
commonly accepted.
The classical formula,
which once guided media behaviour, was fairly simple: critical support
to the establishment. This meant that the governments in a democracy were
elected by the people. The role of the media was to respect the people's
verdict but also to reserve the right to criticise the government on an
issue by issue basis.
This system, to work
coherently, presupposed a degree of order in the various media establishments.
It was the responsibility of the editor to sustain the political fine of
the newspaper on important matters, of policy- the economy, foreign policy
and so on.
This system worked well
during the phase of the Congress party of the Congress Party's monopoly
on power. After Indira Gandhi split the Congress in 1969, the media too
was fractured, a large chunk of it supporting the more right-of-centre
'syndicate' Indira Gandhi had eased out. The Syndicate along with the Socialists
and the RSS (notably Nanaji Deshmukh) -and media barons like Ramnath Goenka
regrouped under Jayaprakash Narayan's leadership. In some senses the coalition
led by Atal Behari Vajpayee today is an elaboration of that experiment.
After Indira Gandhi's
emergency, the media turned totally against her. The media became part
of the opposition. There was great irony involved here. The media had placed
a glorious role in fighting authoritarianism. But, by becoming a partisan
for the opposition against Indira Gandhi, it also lost sight of the classical
formula: critical support to the government elected by the people.
Since the emergency was
followed by the upheavals of communal, caste and coalition politics, the
old balance had not been restored to the media.
Meanwhile, the communications
explosion and the emergence of the electronic media have certainly energised
the media but also added to the murky incoherence of the general scene.
Economic liberalisation and the promised El Dorado have also led to the,
entry into the editorial yanks of middle-level power brokers, consolidating
their basis by influencing postings and transfers. Their strength is not
professional but that of influence peddlers.
The issues raised by
the hijack and the arrival of the young Lama are, in a lively but somewhat
chaotic circumstances, a challenge to both the government and the media,
particularly its electronic component. After the initial setback of the
intelligence failure at Kargil, the government pulled itself up with remarkable
alacrity. The electronic media venturing into this sort of reporting for
the first time, demonstrated brilliance.
But in the hijack (and
the Lama case) both the government and the media have come a cropper. Why?
H.K Dua, Ashok Tandon, Sudheendra Kulkarni, Kanchan Gupta, now in the Prime
Minister's Office, are all former journalists. They should have some ideas.
The Joint Secretary.
External Publicity, and his staff, the Principal Information Officer. Government
of India, supervise substantial information outfits. How prompt and effective
are they in amplifying official policy and action?
At the media end also
soul-searching must be done. Time was when seasoned journalists were dedicated
to South Block - PMO, External Affairs and Defence. These journalists had
spent years covering NDMC, Municipal Corporation, New Delhi, and Tis Hazari
courts, state governments and Parliament. By the time they touched issues
of national security, they were seasoned, responsible and could be trusted,
sometimes with national secrets.
In the current permissiveness,
the razzle-dazzle of the star system, asking relative amateurs to be involved
with issues of national secularity reflects poorly on the media and harms
the national Purpose.
Someone must take the
initiative to organise a serious brainstorming session, spread over days
if need be, on national security, foreign affairs and the media.
