Ram Gopal Varma’s ‘Rann’ has been run down by the media, particularly electronic, no end. The Amitabh Bachchan starrer has been rubbished as a figment of RGV’s imagination with an exaggerated story line and unreal characters. Yet, the fact also remains that even highly acclaimed movies such as ‘Three Idiots’ suffer from these very shortcomings – a technical person handling a pregnancy with an improvised suction and the new born responding only to a song ‘All is Well’ in a miraculous climax. Or for that matter, the Oscar winning ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ where an excreta enveloped Jamaal shakes hands with the Big B. But the media did not condemn the movies as they did with ‘Rann’ because RGV touched a raw nerve, rubbed where it hurt the most.
In a world where Rakhi Sawant and Raju Shrivastava are prime time and television ratings thrive on ghost stories, where trivia has become mainstream and professional ethics mere lip service, it is but natural that Varma becomes enemy number one for stating the unpalatable truth. The truth is that sensationalism rules the roost and paid news has become a harsh reality. The Indian Media Centre and its publication ‘Media Critique’ were the first to highlight this syndrome, which was later picked up by The Hindu and subsequently the Editors’ Guild of India. Yet, surprisingly, the Guild’s statements have been published extensively by none other than The Hindu.
Once upon a time, newspapers had the courage and conviction to publish even the counter point but today they have become a self-righteous lot. To cite a recent personal experience, the highly over rated The Hindustan Times recently published an article outrightly condemning former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda terming him as the worst Prime Minister India has ever had. Having covered Mr Gowda extensively as Prime Minister, I knew for certain that he may not have been among the best but was certainly not the worst. I have mentioned his contributions already in these columns earlier. I wrote a small piece for The Hindustan Times enumerating the contributions of the former Prime Minister in response to the critique. Forget its publication, they never bothered to even acknowledge its receipt.
It’s not just about self-righteousness but also vengeance of the highest order. CNN-IBN’s orchestrated campaign against Shiv Sena in the party’s spat with King Khan was apparently and evidently a response to the Sainik’s vandalisation of their studios last year. Whither objectivity? Agreed, Bal Thackeray is no paragon of virtue but SRK too is no messiah. He did not take a Pakistani player in his own Kolkata Knight Riders and painted the town red with his rhetoric generosity towards Pakistani players, ensuring in the process the success of My Name is Khan across the border and courtesy a self righteous media, we had the entire Mumbai police who could not prevent 26/11 protecting the commercial interests of Messrs Karan Johar and Khan.
Silver Lining among Dark Clouds
However, all is not dark and dingy. There are honest and committed journalists around who believe that they have to play the role of catalysts in a society where as per Government’s own figures 77 per cent of the population earn less than Rs 20 a day and for all you know that could even be Rs 2 or 5.
What a tragedy that in an agriculture dominated economy, we have only one P Sainath to boast of. Journalism in this country was born in the cradle of freedom struggle. Journalists were more of missionaries and less of mercenaries. While much water has flowed down the Ganga since then, ilsome of those missionaries are still around. Shivnath Jha is one of them.
The newspaper vendor turned senior journalist along with his wife educationist Neena have brought out a first ever compilation ‘Prime Minister of India – Bharat Bhagya Vidhata’. Nothing great except that proceeds from the sale of the coffee table book on the 14 prime ministers, would go to rehabilatate Sultana Begum, last Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah's great grand-daughter-in-law who currently ekes out a living selling tea on the streets of Kolkata.
The 444-page hard bound 12x 12 illustrated book enlists the performance of the leaders as well as their achievements and the controverises they survived, starting from Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru to Manmohan Singh.
It is the fourth book in the "Andolan Ek Pustak Se" movement, which was launched by the duo in the year 2007 to publish one book per year aiming to honour and help "those who have brought laurels to the country."
"Sultana Begum runs a tea stall in Cowies Ghat slum in Bengal's Howrah district. She lives in dirtiest of conditions and earns a living to support her family. We hope we can help her through the royalty we earn from the book," says Jha.
The "Andolan Ek..." series was begun with a "Monograph on Ustad Bismillah Khan," to draw attention to the plight of the ailing shahnai maestro. Other books in the series include one on the then railway minister Lalu Prasad, "Lalu Prasad: India's Miracle," as well as "India calling -to commemorate India entering 60th year of Independence."
Jha had earlier used the sale proceeds of the book on Bismillah Khan to rehabilitate Vinayak Rao Tope, the great grandson of Tantya Tope, a front line leader of the 1857 uprising.
The book which is priced at Rs 8000, includes writings by eminent personalities including noted historian Bipan Chandra. Your truly too had the privilege of contributing a write-up.
Kudos to Shivnath and Neena for rediscovering that extinct Dodo called journalism with a mission in an era of commodification and commercialization of Media. One sincerely hopes that this modern day classic would inspire the media fraternity to come out of their ivory towers and work for the Sultana Begums and Kalavatis, lost and waiting for redemption in the dusty streets, lanes and bylanes of Hindostan.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
The Other Side of Deve Gowda
Once again the national media is after one its favourite whipping boys: Hardanahalli Doddegowda Deve Gowda. When he was named for Prime Ministership, he was the proverbial dark horse; once he was at the helm of affairs, the urban centric media went out of its way with apparent sadistic pleasure to show a sleeping Gowda. Recently, noted columnist Khushwant Singh described him as a ‘donkey’ or ‘ass’ among Prime Ministers India has had. Ironically, this child of fate, a donkey and sleeping politician is also often projected by the same media as scheming, calculating, shrewd old fox. Certainly, he can’t be both.
One cannot recall in post-independent India a politician who rose to become the Prime Minister and even 10 years later remains as active, if not more. He heads a political party which has considerable influence in Karnataka and is a ruling coalition partner in Kerala. He continues to be elected again and again and often with the highest margin to the Lok Sabha. He is at the forefront of popular agrarian agitations in the state and regularly attends and participates actively not only in Parliament but also in the different committees to which he has been nominated.
At 76, the Civil Engineer turned politician remains as active notwithstanding his diabetes and other health ailments. He is a vegetarian, teetotaler and a total family man. Yet, often he is isolated and targeted by what he himself called the ‘elitist Delhi media’, which only highlighted his rustic ways and background. Except allegations of general nature leveled against all politicians, the fact remains that there has not been a single specific charge of graft against him or the United Front Government that he headed at the Centre, unlike many who are eulogized as messiahs of poor and backwards. Except for the recent unfortunate swear word incident, which is undoubtedly indefensible, Gowda has never been accused of instigating violence or turning a blind eye to pogroms unlike some who are being hailed now as models of governance.
It is indeed sad that a nation has chosen to paint entirely in black an individual who climbed up the ladder the hard way and ignore whatever little contribution he made during his brief 10 month tenure. Even as small states have become a craze in the country now, it was Deve Gowda who as Prime Minister announced from the ramparts of the Red Fort plans to create the state of Uttarakhand.
Television journalist Rajdeep Sardesai had once commented, “That Gowda became PM may rankle those who feel that his ascent to the post devalued the august institution. His choice was pure luck, plucked out of obscurity to the highest post only because the other contenders eliminated each other. And yet, Deve Gowda will go down in history as one of the only two Indian Prime Ministers (Charan Singh being the other) with well-defined rural roots, a consciously non-elite leader, and in his case, the first to perhaps have no connection with the Delhi durbar. In a sense, he was the first genuine regional satrap to become PM, a politian who derived his sense of power and importance, not from his proximity to the national leadership of his party but from his control over a particular state.”
Though 33 per cent reservation for women in Parliament remains a distant dream till date, it was the Deve Gowda Government which introduced the Constitution Amendment Bill to reserve 30 per cent seats in the Lok Sabha for women, as also the Lok Pal Bill to enquire into charges of corruption against public functionaries including the Chief Minister.
It was Gowda who set the peace process in strife-torn Kashmir rolling not only by visiting the state, the first by a Prime Minister in seven years, but also putting in place a popularly elected Government led by Farooq Abdullah after a lapse of nearly eight years and offering an economic package that included construction of 290 km railway line from Udhampur to Baramulla, linking the valley with the rest of India for the first time and completion of the long-pending Dulhasti and Uri Hydro electric projects.
In October 1996, Deve Gowda became the first Prime Minister to visit all the seven states of the North-East and announced s Rs 65,000 crore economic package asserting that “India as a whole cannot progress unless every state including the seven states of the North-Eastern region keep in step with the rest of the country.” He also extended an unconditional invitation to all insurgent groups to meet him saying, “I genuinely wish to understand their points of view and what exactly is troubling them”.
On the External Affairs front, Gowda peacefully resolved the long-pending Ganga water sharing agreement with Bangaldesh and the Mahakali Treaty with Nepal. He played a key role in resumption of stalled talks between India and Pakistan. Gowda set aside protocol and received Chinese President Jiang Zemin and the two sides agreed for Confidence Building Measures along the Line of Actual Control.
Gowda gave a free hand to his Foreign Minister I K Gujral to pursue his ‘Gujral Doctrine’ and to his Finance Minister P Chidambaram to implement his liberalization programes. It was Gowda’s determination to tap the “vast unaccounted money” for development purposes that led to the launching of the revolutionary Voluntary Disclosure of Income Scheme (VDIS). The Mumbai sea link project and Delhi’s Metro too got their approval during his tenure.
Former Cabinet Secretary T S R Subramaniam has narrated the following anecdote in his classic ‘Journey Through Babudom and Netaland: Governance in India’
“I called on Deve Gowda on the day I took over charge as Cabinet Secretary. He was busy that day, and asked me to see him the following evening at his residence, where he spent half an hour alone with me, discussing the things he wanted to accomplish as asking me to help him execute his plans. What he then said impressed me greatly and I am quoting as well as I can remember. "I have spent many years in state politics, seen a lot of things. I have enough money for my lifetime. God has given me the opportunity, unexpectedly, to serve the country as the prime minister. I will be completely honest, straightforward and will keep all politics out when national interest is involved. I want you and Satish Chandran to help me with my plans. My sons and my relatives will want to exploit my present position to their pecuniary advantage. They will use their proximity to me, through open and subtle ways, to influence you, and to put pressure on you. I want you to be completely fair and impartial and not oblige them. Sometimes, they may speak to you in my presence, giving the impression of my full agreement. I may not at that time be in a position to contradict them, because of my close relationship. Even then you should ignore them totally. If i need anything from you, i will ask you privately - but that will be very rare." Deve Gowda was true to his words. He never asked me to go out of the way in any matter, except on one trivial instance, when he explained the reason why he wanted me to stretch a point.”
We are taught to give even the devil its due. Certainly, Deve Gowda deserves better.
One cannot recall in post-independent India a politician who rose to become the Prime Minister and even 10 years later remains as active, if not more. He heads a political party which has considerable influence in Karnataka and is a ruling coalition partner in Kerala. He continues to be elected again and again and often with the highest margin to the Lok Sabha. He is at the forefront of popular agrarian agitations in the state and regularly attends and participates actively not only in Parliament but also in the different committees to which he has been nominated.
At 76, the Civil Engineer turned politician remains as active notwithstanding his diabetes and other health ailments. He is a vegetarian, teetotaler and a total family man. Yet, often he is isolated and targeted by what he himself called the ‘elitist Delhi media’, which only highlighted his rustic ways and background. Except allegations of general nature leveled against all politicians, the fact remains that there has not been a single specific charge of graft against him or the United Front Government that he headed at the Centre, unlike many who are eulogized as messiahs of poor and backwards. Except for the recent unfortunate swear word incident, which is undoubtedly indefensible, Gowda has never been accused of instigating violence or turning a blind eye to pogroms unlike some who are being hailed now as models of governance.
It is indeed sad that a nation has chosen to paint entirely in black an individual who climbed up the ladder the hard way and ignore whatever little contribution he made during his brief 10 month tenure. Even as small states have become a craze in the country now, it was Deve Gowda who as Prime Minister announced from the ramparts of the Red Fort plans to create the state of Uttarakhand.
Television journalist Rajdeep Sardesai had once commented, “That Gowda became PM may rankle those who feel that his ascent to the post devalued the august institution. His choice was pure luck, plucked out of obscurity to the highest post only because the other contenders eliminated each other. And yet, Deve Gowda will go down in history as one of the only two Indian Prime Ministers (Charan Singh being the other) with well-defined rural roots, a consciously non-elite leader, and in his case, the first to perhaps have no connection with the Delhi durbar. In a sense, he was the first genuine regional satrap to become PM, a politian who derived his sense of power and importance, not from his proximity to the national leadership of his party but from his control over a particular state.”
Though 33 per cent reservation for women in Parliament remains a distant dream till date, it was the Deve Gowda Government which introduced the Constitution Amendment Bill to reserve 30 per cent seats in the Lok Sabha for women, as also the Lok Pal Bill to enquire into charges of corruption against public functionaries including the Chief Minister.
It was Gowda who set the peace process in strife-torn Kashmir rolling not only by visiting the state, the first by a Prime Minister in seven years, but also putting in place a popularly elected Government led by Farooq Abdullah after a lapse of nearly eight years and offering an economic package that included construction of 290 km railway line from Udhampur to Baramulla, linking the valley with the rest of India for the first time and completion of the long-pending Dulhasti and Uri Hydro electric projects.
In October 1996, Deve Gowda became the first Prime Minister to visit all the seven states of the North-East and announced s Rs 65,000 crore economic package asserting that “India as a whole cannot progress unless every state including the seven states of the North-Eastern region keep in step with the rest of the country.” He also extended an unconditional invitation to all insurgent groups to meet him saying, “I genuinely wish to understand their points of view and what exactly is troubling them”.
On the External Affairs front, Gowda peacefully resolved the long-pending Ganga water sharing agreement with Bangaldesh and the Mahakali Treaty with Nepal. He played a key role in resumption of stalled talks between India and Pakistan. Gowda set aside protocol and received Chinese President Jiang Zemin and the two sides agreed for Confidence Building Measures along the Line of Actual Control.
Gowda gave a free hand to his Foreign Minister I K Gujral to pursue his ‘Gujral Doctrine’ and to his Finance Minister P Chidambaram to implement his liberalization programes. It was Gowda’s determination to tap the “vast unaccounted money” for development purposes that led to the launching of the revolutionary Voluntary Disclosure of Income Scheme (VDIS). The Mumbai sea link project and Delhi’s Metro too got their approval during his tenure.
Former Cabinet Secretary T S R Subramaniam has narrated the following anecdote in his classic ‘Journey Through Babudom and Netaland: Governance in India’
“I called on Deve Gowda on the day I took over charge as Cabinet Secretary. He was busy that day, and asked me to see him the following evening at his residence, where he spent half an hour alone with me, discussing the things he wanted to accomplish as asking me to help him execute his plans. What he then said impressed me greatly and I am quoting as well as I can remember. "I have spent many years in state politics, seen a lot of things. I have enough money for my lifetime. God has given me the opportunity, unexpectedly, to serve the country as the prime minister. I will be completely honest, straightforward and will keep all politics out when national interest is involved. I want you and Satish Chandran to help me with my plans. My sons and my relatives will want to exploit my present position to their pecuniary advantage. They will use their proximity to me, through open and subtle ways, to influence you, and to put pressure on you. I want you to be completely fair and impartial and not oblige them. Sometimes, they may speak to you in my presence, giving the impression of my full agreement. I may not at that time be in a position to contradict them, because of my close relationship. Even then you should ignore them totally. If i need anything from you, i will ask you privately - but that will be very rare." Deve Gowda was true to his words. He never asked me to go out of the way in any matter, except on one trivial instance, when he explained the reason why he wanted me to stretch a point.”
We are taught to give even the devil its due. Certainly, Deve Gowda deserves better.
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