Author: Chandan Mitra
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: June 17, 2002
"Aap ko to maloom hoga, kya PM sach-much
meetings mein so jaate hain," queried the Chairman of a leading public
sector bank last Friday. Unable to figure out the context of his question,
I asked him what prompted it. "Arrey, aap ne Time magazine ka article nehi
padha kya," he elucidated.
I had no knowledge of it then. But
within the next few hours I was shown faxes and e-mail printouts of the
relevant portions of the impugned report. My conviction that nobody in
India reads Time was dented. Even if they don't, in this age of information,
relevant portions of such publications will definitely get accessed. Next
day, a newspaper extracted the "juicy" parts and published a brief story.
Over two dozen people have asked me since Friday what I thought of the
Time report on the Prime Minister. Exasperated, I finally read it Saturday
night.
Picking up cudgels against a fellow
journalist or publication is "not done" in our profession. It is permissible
to pass snide remarks in private about a report's inaccuracy or bias, perhaps
put out a counter to "put things in perspective," but it's certainly unusual
to write a rejoinder especially when it does not involve this writer or
his publication. However, as an Indian I was outraged. I was outraged by
the supercilious, patronising, white-supremacist, flippant and crassly
ill-mannered tone of the piece. I was outraged that a magazine of such
awesome reputation could actually publish a catalogue of bazaar gossip,
almost totally incorrect and unsubstantiated. I was outraged that not a
single person was quoted to confirm even one damaging observation. I was
outraged that an American journalist and his redoubtable publication had
mocked at the democratically elected leader of a country of one billion
people.
Americans resorted to similar mockery
against their adversaries during the Cold War. Leonid Brezhnev or Mao Tse-tung
were often at the receiving end of the poisoned pens of American scribes,
pilloried for their alleged fetishes, weaknesses of the flesh and physical
disabilities. Since the erstwhile USSR and China were closed societies,
it was impossible to ascertain the veracity of such crudely irreverent
comments. But to write such gibberish against a man who leads one of the
most open societies in the world is not just in pathetic taste but also
indicative of a mindset that is contemptuous of non-Western societies.
Also, the turgid pieces against Communist leaders of yesteryear were part
of the American psychological war to debilitate the enemy. Are we to conclude
the Time magazine's tirade against our Prime Minister is a post-script
of that strategy?
I am not an acolyte of the Prime
Minister and meet him but rarely. Still I know him well enough over 25
years and interact sufficiently now to categorically say that Alex Perry's
article is a compilation of outright untruths, insinuations, distortions
and obnoxious assertions. It is apparent he has never met Mr Atal Bihari
Vajpayee or spoken to anybody who could give him an authoritative account
of the Prime Minister's health or habits. Condescendingly titled, "Asleep
at the Wheel?" and sub-titled "As India and Pakistan put up their nukes,
is an ailing and frail Vajpayee the right man to have his finger on the
button?" the article mostly comprises figments of a journalist's imagination.
The stuff that have been put in cold print would not have been said by
congenitally irreverent scribes even after consuming three stiff whiskies
at the Press Club. The Prime Minister is accused of forgetting names, dozing
off at meetings and even looking "half dead!" Indian TV crew are allegedly
instructed to shoot him only waist up to avoid showing his ungainly, post-knee
surgery gait! Alex Perry then has not lived in India long enough or watched
Indian TV channels. While it is true that Mr Vajpayee is an unlikely entrant
in an athletic contest, it is a blatant lie that TV cameras are ordered
not to show his shuffling walk.
As if Indian TV channels would obey
even if instructed! If I know their mindset they would focus even more
on the lower half of his anatomy if directives to the contrary were given.
What does Alex Perry take the Prime Minister's advisers and Indian journalists
for? Such things might be happening in the US, but they don't happen here.
As for the sharpness of the Prime
Minister's memory, anybody who has ever interacted with him shall vouch
for his incredible ability for recollection. Just recently as we were travelling
to Almaty, he came out of his cabin on the plane to greet journalists and
promptly asked me, "Ye 'Leh kar hum Sindhu ka dil' ka matlab kya hua?"
For a fraction of a second, I was stumped but only to realise quickly that
he was referring to the headline in this newspaper on my report on the
Sindhu Darshan ceremony in Leh. I explained the headline was based on a
popular film number from the 70s. He frowned to say he had not heard the
song and that's why didn't get the pun.
Arguably, Mr Vajpayee is given to
long silences while framing answers in his mind, but anybody who thinks
that's because he's gone off to sleep is living in a fool's paradise. I
have observed him close his eyes at meetings, giving the impression he's
catching forty winks. Then comes his turn at the microphone and he rebuts
or endorses point after point made by previous speakers, quoting their
words with remarkable exactitude.
Alex Perry knows nothing of the
Prime Minister's habits, mannerisms or intellectual depth. He has written
about Mr Vajpayee's eating habits as if he were present inside the pantry
in Race Course Road whereas he has at best glanced upon the complex from
a distance of 500 metres. While attempting an article on the Indian Prime
Minister's ailments and dietary adventurism, should Mr Perry not have quoted
people actually in the know? I have often heard Mr Vajpayee is fond of
sweets. However, I have never seen him gobble down rasgullas or laddoos.
It is preposterous to suggest that
on the return flight from Almaty he chastised his staff for not serving
him the regular ("spicy" according to Perry) menu. First the Air-India
meal was sumptuous, but not spicy by any standards. Second, Mr Vajpayee's
diet is strictly monitored by his family, doctors and dieticians. He is
often served a special menu even in state banquets. Where Mr Perry got
the "information" about the PM's diet is a subject of abiding mystery.
All this leads to just one conclusion:
There was a motive in running the article. And that motive can only be
to humiliate India and get us to kow-tow to American diktats in the confrontation
with Pakistan. As it is, the West is laughably paranoid about the (non-existent)
prospect of a nuclear war in the sub-continent. It, therefore, bolsters
their argument if it is proved that a sick man's fingers may trigger a
nuclear conflict. The aim is to lower India's confidence level and deflect
the Government into trying to salvage the Prime Minister's image rather
than address the more important military and diplomatic tasks at hand.
Fortunately for India, Mr Vajpayee
is far from sick. If anybody is sick it is the tribe of scribes that trots
out such disgusting pieces of writing in the name of "investigative journalism."
I have often said at various seminars
that the Indian media is much more evolved than the West's. Alex Perry
has reconfirmed my belief. No Indian journalist would think of penning
a piece as condescending and blasphemous about anybody, leave alone the
Prime Minister of a global giant. When he was in office, did anybody write
about Ronald Reagan's Alzheimer's Disease, for instance? First, our tehzeeb
(manners, culture) prevents us from doing so. Second, we are not given
to concocting stories with the kind of merry disdain for truth that scribes
like Mr Perry and his dollar-hungry Indian "informants" have displayed.
(Mr. Mitra is the Editor of Pioneer
newspaper.)
