Opinion Blue Journalism

When NDTV asked him again about his close associate getting Kochi team sweat equity,Tharoor spoke,spoke well and without interruption,about Ms Pushkar’s experience in brand management,about team managements’ seeking her experience,about how this sweat equity will make money for those who got it only after the team turns a profit,etc. All very well. But did he ever stop to think that his close associate getting a share of the pie he was self-admittedly helping bake was politically,at the least,a troublesome issue? NDTV never asked this. NDTV didn’t say,minister you knew Ms Pushkar was part of the venture,didn’t you,and you knew you were backing it,so,minister,didn’t the conjunction of these two facts trouble you,especially since you are saying you value personal integrity so much? Tharoor said,quite beautifully,that he has been always seen as upfront. Jolly good. And that was the cue for NDTV to ask,minister if you were upfront,why did you not say your close associate was part of the venture you were backing,or if IPL rules stopped you from saying so (as may be argued),why didn’t you think that whenever this fact came out it would look very un-upfront indeed. But NDTV didn’t ask that. So,we got to know from NDTV’s exclusive interview with Tharoor that Tharoor belongs to that exclusive circle of politicians who are a pleasure to listen to,provided you don’t mind news interviews sounding like elocution lessons.

Arundhati Roy is very articulate too. And CNN-IBN’s exclusive with her,not quite as exclusive as NDTV’s exclusive (Roy has been on TV and talking about Maoists plenty of times),was also a pleasure to listen to,provided you could stay calm when you heard Roy’s elaboration of the mining economy. Private mining benefits others’ economies while wrecking our ecology,she said. It benefits our economy too,as a matter of fact,and while mining and ecology have a problematic relationship,condemning private mining because it is private is,well,a heroic reinterpretation of economic reality. Did CNN-IBN ask her this — a very basic point? No. Did CNN-IBN ask her to give some data when Roy said India’s tribals were fighting their own annihilation? That’s a big claim,no? If I say it,I have to support it. If you say it,you have to support it. If CNN-IBN says it,it has to support it. So why didn’t CNN-IBN ask Roy to support her claim? True,CNN-IBN with Roy was better than NDTV with Tharoor. CNN-IBN asked more questions and more pertinent questions,for one. It also appeared to have done more homework. But where was the questioning that some of Roy’s claims so justly deserved?

Roy said Indian democracy is only real if you stay in GK-1 (south Delhi). I stay in GK-1. So,maybe,I am biased. But star activists who habitually call Indian democracy fake must be interrogated more closely by those who,like CNN-IBN,believe that our democracy is real. Among the many reasons why it is real is because even those who move from five-star hotels to a nice house in Lutyen’s Delhi —as Tharoor did —have to face questions. If only news TV,when it gets the chance,would ask those questions properly.

saubhik.chakrabarti@expressindia.com