Radiagate, barkhagate, mediamafia ...

The last few days have presented a very sorry state of Indian media. First the leak itself and then the deafening silence by leading media houses. It is debatable whether they have crossed the line or not. N. Ram (editor, The Hindu) thinks they have.

The Hindu was the only major media house which gave coverage to this murky affair. I thought very much on the issue and feel that the journalists in question have crossed the line although have done nothing criminal. I personally believe Barkha Dutt should step down but she has not done anything so wrong as to leave journalism. Just as sports persons can have poor form, error in judgement, complacency and disregard for public sentiments so are journalists prone to these fallibilities. Barkha Dutt has done very well as a journalist and this mistake of hers can be forgiven bearing in mind her contribution to field of journalism. It is quite obvious that she has been maliciously targeted on twitter not because of this case but for her stand on other issues.

It is high time that prominent media persons get together and root out this evil from amongst themselves. This is only tip of the iceberg considering that issue of 'paid news' cropped up not long ago. It will be great if people like Rajdeep Sardesai, Karan Thapar, N. Ram, Siddharth Varadarajan and Shekhar Gupta can come together and get India media out of this mess.

Judiciary and media are the only saving grace of our democracy and I hope media continues to bring justice to Indians as it has done in Manu Sharma case.

Newspaper Dilemma

These days I am riding on the horns of dilemma as far as choosing a newspaper is concerned. Till last month I had an 'intermittent' (courtesy IITK vendors) supply of The Hindu. Before subscribing to The Hindu I had 4 months of exposure to Indian Express. I still believe that The Hindu is the best newspaper currently in India. Here I proclaim it to be the best in terms of the quality of articles, veracity of reporting and yes, an important parameter is absence of those obtrusive ads which adore our populist circulations of Hindustan Times and Times of India. By now you might be thinking where the problem is?

The problem is that The Hindu seems unduly sympathetic to left ideology. In fact a regular columnist is M K Bhadrakumar, a former Indian diplomat whose loyalty it seems (and it is my personal opinion, forgive me if you disagree) lies with China. I shudder to think of what he would have done when he was in his service to the 'nation'. You can search for his articles and look how baseless claims he makes. I once commented on his article citing his earlier baseless allegations but to my surprise The Hindu did not even publish it. But just as one swallow does not makes a summer, the rest of The Hindu is a fine example of quality journalism. Indian Express, to me is a nationalist newspaper and comes hard on bigotry, but the problem with it is that it seems anti-Congress to me at times. I am open to fair criticism of Congress but having columnist like Tavleen Singh who are known to spew venom against Congress deters me. A ray of hope is the medium which connects me to you. The online edition of The Hindu is very good but the same cannot be said of Indian Express. Subscribing to Indian Express and reading The Hindu online seems to be an idea worth looking.