New Delhi: The month of June in Indian polity reminds us all about the Emergency imposed by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
The biggest advice for a working journalist of today’s era of ‘save democracy’ and ‘hate Namo’ media world actually remains in the words of Late Nikhil Chakravarty who once said, “Please do not try to save the world”.
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During the peak of anti-Bofors politics in 1988-89, legendary journalist Chakravarty had said, “Our job is to inform. If you can see the world going up in flames, your job is to communicate that there is a fire so that people can call the fire brigade. Our role is not to play the fire brigade”. But in the contemporary setting – each journalist and each media organisation think they run the fire brigade companies themselves. And this is driving numerous journalists and famed editors running websites etc etc.
Half the problem vis-a-vis the crisis in confidence and the very credibility of the media is due to this.
I know of senior journalists and self-styled independent commentators who used to hate Shiv Sena but after Sena dumped BJP and allied with Congress and NCP, his views had changed. One such commentator had started appreciating Aditya Thackeray as a young, enterprising and dynamic thinker.
But quickly his opinion is ‘again changing’ as Sena spokesman Sanjay Raut recently said PM Narendra Modi is a mass-based 'tallest leader' and enjoys much popularity nationally.
The month of June is crucial in India’s history of free speech and democracy as in 1975 Emergency was imposed on June 25 and all liberties were curtailed. Among many others, journalist Kuldip Nayar was arrested during the period.
Many years later at a function in the Press Club of India, New Delhi he had said, “Detention during Emergency was a high point in my career....The arrest took me behind bars in Tihar jail. But it gave me a sense of satisfaction because I think I raised the standard of defiance”.
Likes of Nayar and Nikhil Chakravarty were eminent journalists and editors clearly believing in the pro-Leftist ideology. M V Kamath, another top journalist, was well known for his right leaning.
Kamath, who worked for organisations like PTI and ‘Times of India’, had also penned critically acclaimed books such as ‘Reporter at Large’ and ‘Narendra Modi – The Architect of a Modern State’.
He called spade a spade. In the book, 'Reporter at Large' he wrote: "There are three main charges against the western news agencies. One, they do not tell the whole truth, two, they deliberately mislead. And three, they do not report news of interest and significance to developing countries".
More or less, nothing much has changed on ground for the western media even today.
Among the veteran journalists and writers, Khushwant Singh had a unique career, style, mannerism and he loved to describe himself - “not a nice man to know”.
Few know that Khushwant Singh had backed ‘emergency’ and when the Janata Party came to power, he also became the Editor of Congress-run ‘National Herald’. However, he did not draw a salary and a few months later also quit.
Old blog: Khushwant Singh
In his own words in the late eighties, Khushwant Singh said: “..... I could not go on. The paper did not publish and it was pointless editing something which did not appear”. But the story is, he had joined ‘National Herald’ at the personal request of Indira Gandhi.
Khushwant was certainly not the run-of-the-mill kind of personality in more ways than one. I had interviewed Khushwant Singh for the PTI Golden Jubilee of Souvenir in 1998 wherein he had said, “The Sahitya Akademi should be abolished”.
"The fact of the matter is that it is the survival of the fittest. That is why I oppose any kind of patronage. The Sahitya Akademi really does not serve anything purposeful other than ‘thoda paisa de diya..udhar award de diya’...The Sahitya Akademi should be abolished. Those writers who don’t find publishers let them die.
Let us not publish anything just for the sake of it. That is why some publishing houses have come up who charge writers themselves to publish their materials. Maybe even they consider the stuff bad to be marketed," Khushwant Singh had said.
In another context, he said once: “Political journalism lacks deeper studies and analyses. Of all the writings on Punjab I have yet to see someone analyse the phenomenon of Bhindranwale. My interest is to look at why and how such a man had developed acceptance for him among Punjab masses”.
In Indian journalism, none can deny the path breaking success of Khushwant Singh's ‘The Illustrated weekly’. “I made it controversial, I gave it a distinct slant of my own and then there was my column which was surprisingly successful.
And the real reason for the Weekly’s increase was telling Indians about their own country. We did a series on different communities and a whole series on India that you do not know and an elaborate write up on birds, trees and animals”.
(The Telegraph, weekend piece, Oct 23, 1988).
Khushwant Singh also holds the distinction of being invited by Kolkata-based 'Anand Bazar' newspaper group to launch a new English daily. He had declined believing such a paper would not do well. However, much junior to him M J Akbar took up the responsibility and launched ‘The Telegraph’.
In January 2009, reviewing a book by Rafiq Zakaria, M V Kamath had written: “Consider this. Whether Mir Barqi destroyed the Ram temple in Ayodhya or not, there is plenty of evidence that he did.
If only Muslim community had graciously conceded to the Hindus the entire site without making such a song and dance about it, the Hindu-Muslim friendship would have blossomed to the skies and Hindus would have remained ever grateful”. (Free Press Journal).
In retrospect about Emergency, there is an interesting anecdote vis-a-vis Kamath’s ‘support’ to Indira Gandhi initially. But subsequently, he backed out.
Finally the differences between him and Indira Gandhi had a permanent break. Actually, after supporting Emergency, Kamath had shot off a 40-point lengthy letter flaying Indira’s decision.
PM’s press advisor, B Y Sharda Prasad, had reportedly assured that the Prime Minister would get back to him.
But she never did that.
ends
It's 'sacred duty' to ensure a healthy planet, Land degradation poses a 'special challenge' : PM Modi at UN meet
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday gave a clarion call to the global community to "reverse" the damage caused to land by human activity and said will be a sacred duty to leave a "healthy planet for our future generations".
"Land degradation poses a special challenge to the developing world," Mr Modi said in his keynote address at UN “High-Level Dialogue on Desertification, Land Degradation & Drought".
"In the spirit of South-South cooperation, India is assisting fellow developing countries to develop land restoration strategies. A Centre of Excellence is being set up in India to promote a scientific approach towards land degradation issues," he said.
Thus, Mr Modi said there is an utmost "need to devise effective strategies for land restoration while promoting indigenous techniques".
The Prime Minister emphasised that "it is mankind’s collective responsibility to reverse the damage to land caused by human activity. It is our sacred duty to leave a healthy planet for our future generations.
Thanking the President of UN General Assembly, for organising this High-Level Dialogue, Mr Modi said land is the fundamental building block for supporting all lives and livelihoods and all of us understand that the web of life functions as an interconnected system.
"In India we have always given importance to land and considered the sacred Earth as our mother," he pointed out.
However, he said, "Sadly Land degradation affects over two-thirds of the world today. If left unchecked it will erode the very foundations of our societies, economies, food security, health, safety and quality of life. Therefore we have to reduce the tremendous pressure on land and its resources. Clearly a lot of work lies ahead of us. But we can do it. We can do it together."
The Prime Minister underlined that India has taken the lead to highlight land degradation issues at international forums. "The Delhi Declaration of 2019 called for better access and stewardship over land, and emphasised gender-sensitive transformative projects."
He further said, in India, over the last 10 years, around 3 million hectares of forest cover has been added. "This has enhanced the combined forest cover to almost one fourth of the country’s total area. We are on track to achieve our national commitment of Land Degradation Neutrality. We are also working towards restoring 26 million hectares of degraded land by 2030".
This would contribute to India’s commitment to achieve an additional carbon sink of 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, the Prime Minister said.
"We believe that restoration of land will start a virtuous cycle of good soil health, increased land productivity, food security and improved livelihoods. In many parts of India we have taken up some novel approaches," he underleined.
In this context, the Prime Minister gave the example of the Banni region in Rann of Kutch in Gujarat that "suffers from highly degraded land and receives very little rainfall".
In that region, the Prime Minister said land restoration is done by developing grasslands which helps in achieving land degradation neutrality. "It also supports pastoral activities and livelihood by promoting animal husbandry," Mr Modi said.
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