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Journalism of Courage
Plane tales
Security agencies have informed the Government’s intelligence wing about the unacceptable behaviour of the doctor who accompanied Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee on his trip to Africa in September. On the plane journey from Mauritius to Delhi, the doctor was in his cups and because of his boisterous behaviour the toilet was in a mess and the seat broken. The doctor was still in high spirits as the plane landed. The cover-up by the PM’s security staff was so effective, that though there were a large number of nosy journalists on the flight, none got wind of it.
Look who’s talking
Relations between the Central Government and the President, are rather strained. Each side suggests privately that the other is guilty of impropriety. Rashtrapati Bhavan is suspected to be the source of the leak to Frontline magazine of the confidential President’s Minute to the Vajpayee government explaining why K.R. Narayanan could not agree to the demand for imposition of President’s rule inBihar under Article 356. The magazine is at pains to stress that its scoop came from sources within the political government and not Rashtrapati Bhavan, which remained “scrupulously uncommunicative.” Considering the article in question predictably plumps for the Presidential line and Narayanan is rather close to Frontline editor N. Ram, whom he had selected to interview him on Independence Day instead of delivering the traditional address to the nation, the magazine’s stout denials sound unconvincing.
Rashtrapati Bhavan, meanwhile, is perturbed that two BJP appointees as governors, Sunder Singh Bhandari and Bhai Mahavir are not conducting themselves in a non-partisan and dignified manner as expected of their constitutional office. Both governors are often giving interviews on television and even appeared on TV talk shows as well.
Wild species
Bollywood star Salman Khan who posed for the World Wild Life calendar for 1999 swears by his love for animals, but even before the the Jodhpur poachingincident, People for Animals had received several complaints about his reckless shooting of birds and pigs around his farmhouse in Panvel, near Alibagh in Maharashtra.
His co-accused Saif Ali Khan in an interview to a film magazine some years back talked of his love for hunting and said he took potshots at stray dogs in Pataudi, his father’s home town in Haryana. After animal lovers protested about the insensitive remark, his mother Sharmila Tagore clarified that the Pataudis were not a hunting family. But less than a year ago, the senior Pataudis were with a party of Kashmir politicians who were found shooting birds in a sanctuary in the Valley. At the time of the shoot, the general public was debarred from the reserved forest on the pretext that repair work was on.
But why blame the stars alone. Secretary Personnel Arvind Verma, recently in the news for the incorrect affidavit in the Bezbaruah case, had a complaint of poaching deer registered against him in the early ’80s when he was commissioner ofMoradabad. Verma was charged with leading a hunting party in Corbett Park which included the local SP, the district magistrate, the SDM, and the SHO. The matter would have undoubtedly been hushed up but for the persistence of Brajendra Singh, an honourary wild life warden at Corbett. Since the case is still pending in a UP court, it is a moot point as to how Verma was promoted to the secretary rank.
Striking fashion
Considering that the Capital’s society columnists project fashion designers, big and small, rather than industrialists, artists, politicians or diplomats as the true glitterati of Delhi society, it is not surprising that the profession aroused the interest of the Income Tax authorities. The swinging farm parties thrown by designers feature regularly in the glossy sections of the Capital’s newspapers. Many of Delhi’s smart set, however, blame their downfall on a society column writer who has fallen out with some members of their tribe and whose spouse works for the IncomeTax.
Clueless in Paris
The French are amazed at the obtuseness of the Indian government in handling Vajpayee’s publicity in Paris. Unlike New York, in France there was considerable interest among the French media in the visiting Indian PM.
Several journalists from leading publications put in requests for interviews with Vajpayee, including an old India hand like Bruno Phillip, but all requests were turned down. The Indian authorities informed the French that the journalists could at best get written replies to questions submitted in advance and the government would have the right to vet whatever was to be published. Small wonder that Vajpayee’s visit got little publicity and there were practically no French journalists at the MEA press conferences in Paris.
For that matter even the Indian journalists accompanying the Prime Minister to the USA and France were put off by the caste system practised on board the flight. Editors, including those of minor publications, were seated in the businessclass and respected columnists and correspondents of major newspapers in the cattle class downstairs. Two media bigshots keen to display their proximity to the PMO refused to accept their seats in the business class and parked themselves in the first class with the officials, leading to more heartburn.
