Make the cook the new editor of the Express

Under the new Bill, even the most accurate of reports of what is said in or decided by a foreign Parliament/Court is defamation if it amounts to saying that someone has violated a law in existence, or failed to do his duty.

“Why this new clause? I will tell you,” he thundered. “In a court in Honolulu in a trial of a CIA spy, Rajiv Gandhi’s name came up. To reproduce that trial is defamation. In Bonn, the prosecutor has said that if he comes across any Indian connection he will disclose them. To reproduce this is defamation under the new Bill. This business of snatching at the hardships of the common man is nothing but fooling the public. In fact it is not to secure the conviction of a defamer, but to have a weapon to harass the press,” he said incisively.

Mr Shourie continued disparagingly, “He says: V.P. Singh is Mir Jafar. A defamatory statement. He says Madhu Dandavate is anti-nation. What can be more slanderous? Today, for political purposes, some Ameeta Modi has to be defamed. They can go on saying that Sanjay Singh has killed Modi even before he is convicted. But if Sanjay Singh says in defence that this is a conspiracy hatched to frame him, then is it defamation, Sir?” he asked scornfully.

Referring to the preposterous clause that a case can be filed anywhere in India and the editor and others concerned have to be personally present at the day-to-day trial, Mr Shourie said that it was only aimed at disturbing the day-to-day work at any newspaper. File twenty cases all over the country, make sure the editor has to personally attend each one, and you ensure the collapse of the newspaper.

“But we have thought of a very simple strategy, the moment the Defamation Bill comes through, we will make Mr Goenka’s chief cook, Mr Mahesh Nandan, the new editor of the Indian Express. I tell you he’s so excited by the prospect…He will be the roaming editor of the Indian Express in court.

“While I can dispense with personal attendance in court by the courtesy of Mr Mahesh Nandan, can Mr Rajiv Gandhi send his cook to step into the witness box in place of the PM?” he finished, while the students roared in appreciation of his sarcastic wit….

Excerpts from a report filed by Anoop Ahuja and Sidharth Luthra, `Mid-day’, Bombay, September 19, 1988NEW DELHI, September 22: Journalists throughout the country welcomed the withdrawal of the Defamation Bill. “Our stand has been vindicated,” said the National Co-ordination Committee, which had fought the Bill.Some journalists were jubilant, some were cautious, while some saw the withdrawal of the Bill as a “face-saving device” on the part of the government. But, on the whole, the scribes felt that the danger to the freedom of the press had been averted.

“The pledge we took to continue our agitation until the Bill is withdrawn has been redeemed,” said the National Coordination Committee of the Press Against the Bill.

The purpose for which journalists and various non-journalist organisations had come together under the umbrella of the National Co-ordination Committee had been fulfilled, it stated.

“The call given by the committee for different agitational measures now stands withdrawn.”…

Excerpted from `The Indian Express’