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Journalism of Courage
Exit guest artiste
A tearful Sushma Swaraj pleaded with Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee that she be allowed to resign from her Delhi Assembly seat so that she could return to Parliament. Vajpayee finally gave his consent. But it was a crumb of consolation since Swaraj had to witness the same day Pramod Mahajan and Jagmohan taking charge of the ministries which she had assumed were being kept vacant for her.
Scapegoat axed
In a bid to improve the government8217;s image, the Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, demanded the removal of Principal Information Officer S.Narendra. It is odd to make the PIO a scapegoat for the government8217;s poor image considering that for the last eight months, the Prime Minister8217;s Press Adviser Ashok Tandon has made every effort to ensure that the PIO and the Press Information Bureau PIB were cut out from the dissemination of government news. The coup was so crude that Narendra turned up for work in the Prime Minister8217;s Office PMO one day in April to find Tandon sitting in his chair, even though Narendra8217;s name plate had not yet been removed. The PMO stopped giving PIB prior information of the PM8217;s programmes or speeches so that they could make suggestions and alert the media.
To dispense with the services of a seasoned professional who had worked under four prime ministers and has an insider8217;s knowledge of the functioning of the government shows poor judgment. The new political appointees as press advisers 8212; official and unofficial 8212; are amateurs who keep tripping up. The latest gaffe was to announce news of Narendra8217;s departure to afavoured news agency a week before the official order was passed.
Insurance policy
In an interview with Business India magazine, liquor baron Vijay Mallya 8212; who owns the Bangalore and Calcutta franchise of The Asian Age newspaper and who recently acquired the tabloid Blitz 8212; admitted rather cynically that the reason he was buying into the media was that, quot;In India it is an essential part of the management of our business8230;it8217;s my insurance policy.quot;
Which seems to explain why The Asian Age has launched a malicious campaign against Attorney General Soli Sorabjee simply because he happened to give a legal opinion in favour of the Chhabria group in its dispute with Mallya over the takeover of Herbertson.
Rules permit a law officer to give a legal opinion in a matter between two private parties which does not concern the government or a public sector undertaking. Lal Narain Sinha as Attorney General gave an opinion in favour of Escorts when Swaraj Paul attempted totake over the company. G. Ramaswamy as Attorney General appeared in court for clients after obtaining government permission. What is unusual is that former Chief Justice P.N. Bhagwati who is at present chairman of the SEBI Review Committee committing to give an opinion for Mallya concerning the take-over code when the matter is to come before SEBI.
Incendiary motive
After a perceptive colleague relayed to me the whole story of the movie Fire it seems obvious that the Shiv Sainiks have not seen the movie. Otherwise, they would not have missed the snide anti-Hindu tone of Fire, which appears to be a subtle take-off on the Ramayana. Shabana Azmi symbolises Sita who despite going through agni pariksha is banished.
Since Mehta deliberately named her character Sita, she seems to have been looking for trouble. The lumpen who disrupts cinema shows should be dealt with firmly by the police, at the same time I question the motives of some of our chic intelligentsia, which goes out ofits way to proclaim its secular credentials by wounding and shocking sensitive religious sentiments while trumpeting it as freedom of expression.
The target audiences for Fire were film festival delegates and foreign viewers who ever since Katherine Mayo8217;s Mother India crave for depictions of India which the natives will find offensive.
In a way Mehta should thank the Shiv Sena. After all Fire which had a peaceful three weeks run was about to be taken off the Indian theatre circuit when the Sainiks got into the act. Now the director and actresses in Fire are busy giving outraged interviews in the national and international media. Thanks to the brouhaha, audiences abroad are queuing up to see what the fanatics in India find so objectionable.
Still meddling
One would have supposed that after Jaswant Singh was made Minister for External Affairs, Principal Secretary to the PM Brajesh Mishra would finally stop meddling in the ministry. Far from it. On the day of theswearing-in ceremony, Mishra held a briefing on foreign policy for a few senior editors at Hyderabad House. His views on relations with the USA and India8217;s signing of the CTBT were naturally at variance with those of the new Foreign Minister.
