A few old copies of onetime popular magazine 'Surya India' leave many stories to read and ponder about the state of affairs in Indian journalism and power politics.
"Politicians shed crocodile tears for socialism and the press barons shed them in the name of a free press. Ironically it is these very people who in conjunction with the political bosses are making the free press unfree," goes one such article under the title 'Unstatesman-like Scribes'.
The article published in March 1-15 issue (1983) talks the "painful" story of "magnificent concept of newspaper management as that of The Statesman (that) had been wrecked by a few power-hungry individuals".
Among other articles of the same magazine (but different issues) throw focus on other news organisations of repute.
One article is called 'A personal Trust' and the strapline of the piece claims some thing rather prophetically "....a number of disenchanted journalists are growing". This is also a story for 1980s and needless to add, I found stories almost similar with minor changes in the name and etc etc from the era of late 1990s too.
If some intellectuals after meeting with intellectual politicians such as Jairam Ramesh or for that matter even virtuous Rahul Gandhi try to draw inferences that the media standard has deteriorated due to 'social media' and Namo factors; they may be told that in the 1980s - we had neither the social media nor the man called Narendra Modi in the horizon of corridors of power play.
Coming back to the 'Surya India' articles - the piece says - "Amidst shouts of press freedom from roof tops and glass houses, what are the so-called champions of press freedom really doing behind the scenes".
This really sounds like a page or line taken out of our new era. The next line is hardly revealing and yet it does !
"Recently Times have exposed many a self-proclaimed champion".
Well, if this also leaves you unmoved; here is another -
"Nepotism and favouritism are rampant. close relations of the government are appointed, some even without a test or an interview".
Before the merciless takeover by the Adani one Nothing Doing media group was quite famous for all that. It produced many self-styled celebrities and legendary (sic) and also Sickular. Some are still experts going around in the town and a few have hopped channels and successfully managed to 'enter' political power houses and also Modi-bashing Sickular parties from Kolkata.
RG Kar episode has left them anguished but is yet to make them 'change' their soul or lead them taking any anti-aapa stance !
Back again with the Surya piece --- the article on 'Personal Trust' says a few things quite obvious :
- Why is the management (of Trust organisation) keen on recruiting the key government officials close relations? Is it not a subtle way of pleasing them or influencing their decision making?
- The article also states: "As instructed by the minister a watered down version was reportedly put out"
(This was in reference to communal tension and riots in Aligarh, Moradabad and Delhi in 1980. And the story also has reference to Kamalapathi Tripathi).
To be continued ......
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