Tehelka Tapes: Modernising Media Morality

Farzana # 27

Very good post... excellent points.

THANK YOU TEHLEKA DOT COM

I agree with Ms. Versey and Hindus that there should be more TDC in India. That will help filter out the moronic crooks and only the best will reach to the top. A smart crook will be good for Pak in two ways. He will think before pressing the red button and he will do his ``job`` with more efficacy.

Everyone is agreed that we need more Tehelkas. But I found that the article tended to be a paean to the rookie reporter and the rookier editor, when the truth is different. Tehelka has stuck its neck out; newsprint journalism will not do so. And what is wrong with scholarship and fat and greying editors? Must we look down on them only because some MTV kids jump with a mike and act like watchdogs of society? If the old order was stuck in a groove because it wanted to play safe, the new lot is into another game altogether. They are nowhere near a Tehelka style revolution.

And the extent of their arrogance is manifest when an expose I was asked to do came with the proviso that I should steer clear of mentioning names! This is the Indian media – the conscience-keeper of the nation. If you will bear with me (and Harish, pardon the intrusion, but it may provide another point of view), this is partly what I wrote and published:

[“Who is calling the shots? Journalism today is full of the evils it accuses society of. Where do the people who really matter figure? Isn’t a cavalier attitude also an infringement of the readers’ right to know? And what about the writers? They have no voice; often their words are culled to suit the ‘policy’ of the paper…no one wants to rub people the wrong way. I say, since when has journalism been about telling people what they want to hear?



There is the mistaken notion that political pressure plays a major role. While in the communal times we live in, the Them vs. Us tussle is a worry, it is simpler to deal with. I have found politics is an easy target if you want to camouflage the bigger scourge - commercial considerations. You rile against cancer and splash ads of things that cause the disease; you flaunt naked bodies and to salve your soul you put in regular sermons. This is sickening, by far worse than the demagoguery you witness from the ‘dhoti-sherwani’ brigade.



So, isn’t there anything like freedom of expression? There is, but not for the angst of the idealist, only for the barf of the bimbos. Have you not wondered how so many celebrity-penned columns have sprouted? Infotainment is not only an issue about our appetite for mindless gossip. It is an issue about misplaced priorities and lost opportunities of making meaning. It amounts to the subversion of truth. Press releases passing off as ‘reports’ are old hat. The rich and famous now have the temerity of going through editorial copy before publication. What does it have to do with giving ‘voice’ to the ‘voiceless’? Instead of disseminating information the Press has become insular. A handful of people constitute society and Society.



There have been times when one has wanted to laud the lone rangers in journalism, who fight for a cause. I am told that either there is a political agenda here as well or the cause being espoused is to help a friend or to make sure personal relations are perfect for that bait of the Rajya Sabha seat or the flat to be had under some quota.



Everyone is screwing up their noses at the stink, not realising the garbage is in their own backyard. The Press talks about ethics, it is time it looked within. If you have a dissenting voice, you will be accused of lashing out at “imagined opponents” by people who are busy sucking up to various lobbies.”]

Can we talk of media morality at all, in its modern manifestation or otherwise?

Farzana

PS: Romair, this Tehelka article has appeared thrice because the poor poets had to be shunted out quickly!

India`s kickback syndrome

By Prof Khalid Mahmud

TEHELKA.com has done a great job in exposing institutionalized corruption in Indian defence deals. Full marks to the enterprising team of journalists, in particular the two young reporters who spent six months running from pillar to post to gain access to the routes that eventually led to the racket. That everyone has a share in the booty - the politicians, the bureaucrats and the men-in-uniform - is the message that the ``Operation West End` has brought home. Stunning were the revelations. Some despondent Indian observers were prompted to say that a grave moral crisis had overtaken the country.

Nonetheless, the business remained as usual. Although the opposition disrupted the proceedings in both House of Parliament for more than a week and did not let the government transact any business during the budget session until the Parliament went into recess, the ruling coalition had the cheek to dismiss the whole affair as a `conspiracy` to discredit the government. Prime Minister Vajpayee whose own offices is under fire for a hand in the shady deals, was virtually unmoved until he made the token confession that some mistakes had been made.

Vajpayee and associates, it seems, are quite confident of weathering the storm. Contrary to the expectation of the opposition, the scam has not caused any disarray in the ranks of the ruling coalition. Mamta Banerjee who resigned from the union cabinet in protest was in fact looking for a pretext to wriggle out of its electoral alliance with the BJP in West Bengal, so as to clear the way for a deal with the Congress before the forthcoming state assembly elections in May. But keeping her options open, though Mamta has quit the ruling National Democratic alliance (NDA), she has not yet removed her party`s backing for Vajpayee government. No other component of the NDA has raised any questions about the scam or shown any strong disapproval of the way the government has been trying to deal with it. Rallying round the coalition partners was no problem for the BJP. For whatever reason, Tehelka revelations have not been deemed a scandal big enough to split the BJP-led coalition.

The Vajpayee government had no cause to be panic-stricken, since it was assured of the allies falling in line. The opposition`s clamour for the government`s resignation made no impression on the ruling coalition. In fact, the Congress party as well as the left front which led the offensive were guilty of miscalculation. With indecent haste, Mulayam Singh Yadav of the Smajwadi party joined ranks with the communists to announce the relaunching of a third front, called `Lok Morcha` (People`s front), as if realignment of forces was on the anvil. Jyoti Basu was named its leader, while V.P. Singh also found it necessary to share the platform for equidistance from the BJP and the Congress.

In a similar vein Congress president Sonia Gandhi announced her party`s willingness to go for coalition politics, indicating that the Congress was no more fixated with the idea, as it was in April 1999, that it had the prerogative to lead non-BJP alternative without a power-sharing `arrangement with other parties.` The two moves were symptomatic of the concern to fill the political vacuum if and when the NDA fell apart.

Little wonder, the BJP was not perturbed by the proceedings and took its time to respond to the hue and cry raised by the Congress and other opposition parties. From flat refusal to acknowledge any wrongdoing and counter-charges of a frame-up manipulated by the Congress, the government eventually offered a full-scale debate in the Lok Sabha and also agreed to hold a judicial probe. `What is there to probe?` Congress parliamentary party leader Madhurao Scindia told pressmen outside the House: `everything is clear and transparent`. Ironically enough, even Bangaru Laxman, who was shown in the video accepting the gift money of Rs one lakh, tried to play the innocent until he was forced to resign his office as the BJP president.

It goes without saying that Defence Minister George Fernandes was the `prize catch.` Reputed to be a `tower of political integrity`, the veteran warrior of countless causes - from railway strikes to Tibet`s independence - was trapped, courtesy his close confidant and handpicked president of the Samata Party, Jaya Jaitley, who negotiated the kickback arrangement with the Tehelka reporters in the defence minister`s official residence.

Fernandes is still sticking to his guns. He told the BBC that he was contemplating legal action for defamation. Perhaps his optimism is not entirely misplaced. Although he was allowed to resign from the cabinet, he has been retained as the convener of the NDA, indicating that he still enjoys the confidence and support of the prime minister. Little wonder then that Fernandes is hopeful that he will be back as defence minister in a few months` time.

The scene of action may now shift from parliament to the streets. The opposition parties cannot afford to go on making futile noise, as they stand no chance of breaking the ruling coalition`s majority in the Lok Sabha. Logically their next move should be to take the issue to the people as V.P Singh did in 1989 to highlight the Bofors scam. There were some signals of such a thing happening, as both the Congress and the BJP organized mass rallies in New Delhi but there has since been no follow-up. Regardless of what strategies are formulated by the warring factions to fight the anticipated battle for `Delhi durbar`, it is understood that no one, not even the opposition, wants early mid-term polls. One reason why the ruling coalition partners have stuck together is that they have a stake in maintaining the status quo, and do not want to disturb the existing arrangement so long as they are assured of a share in power.

As to what has been the magnitude of the damage to the Vajpayee government`s image is perhaps a little too early to say. The CBI`s drive to unfold the Bofors episode has been neutralized by the Tehelka disclosures. Whatever moral edge the BJP was perceived to have had over the Congress in terms of a clean leadership has been lost. Both the principal contenders for power in India are in the dock for promoting corruption in high places, and the only wish the people can have is `plague on both your houses.`

A rather erroneous observation made by some commentators is to wait for the outcome of assembly polls in five states scheduled to be held in May to ascertain the popular mood in India. In all the five states which go to the polls in a few weeks - West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Assam, and Pondichery - the BJP has only a marginal presence. Barring Tamil Nadu where it is a junior partner of the DMK, the BJP`s political fortunes are not at stake in the coming state elections.

It may not be an overstatement that the phenomenon of corruption in high places is so omnipresent in India that the people have by and large resigned to it as a necessary evil. A politician, in public perception, is no less than a monster who thrives on his nexus with the bureaucrats, the police and the criminals. It is no news to them that people in positions of power and authority make fortunes by unscrupulous means, even at the expense of compromising the quality of the country`s defence purchases. The Indians have had an incredible number of corruption scams brought to the fore during the past decade. The year 1996 in particular is remembered as the `scandal season`. Apart from the widely publicized `hawala` case which unravelled a corruption scenario beyond the imagination of even the prophets of doom, several other scandals of making money through shady deals were exposed.

In August 1996, Rs 3.51 crore in cash was seized by the CBI in raids on the houses of ex-union minister Sukh Ram who was alleged to have favoured a Hyderabad-based firm during his tenure as a minister. The Jharkand Mukti Morcha (JMM) pay-off case, revealed in September 1996, provided a new perspective on money politics when four JMM MPs were charge-sheeted by the CBI for receiving Rs 3.5 crore to support the ruling Congress party in a crucial vote of confidence to 1993. Two other notable scams brought to the fore in 1996 were the Rs 133 crore `urea scam` involving Prime minister Narashimha Rao`s son, Parshar Rao, and the `fodder scam` in Bihar which led to Bihar chief minister Laloo Prasad Yadav`s trial.

http://www.dawn.com/2001/04/04/op.htm#2

Jay:

SNM Abdi broke that story of Bhagalpur blindings, Aswini Sarin broke the story of buying and selling women in Madhya Pradesh famous as the Kamla case, Pritish Nandy got the first exclusive interview with Frank Camper who trained militants in his terror school in US, Rajat Sharma first revealed Chandraswami as a fake..because the Swami claimed he had seen him coming...and proclaimed his name as Pritish Nandy, Arun Shourie`s claim to fame is the famous Antuley case...which was headlined ``Indira Gandhi as commerce,``

If you notice...the reporters went on to be reporters...while the editor`s get the credit for these stories. Few of these reporters get remembered...or even credited in public memory.

Newsgathering is not as highly regarded by the general public unless it makes an impact. And then, it is the editors who are remembered.

This is not a grouse against editors...only underlining a particular malady of our press..that tehelka cut through. The reporters being interviewed...writing about their exploits...etc...

Harish

Re: Shankar # 14
One can only agree with your conclusion.
But us non-martial Pakistani ``Banias`` already
know what the fortune tellers and palm readers
in Delhi are saying about us.
The Roadrunner can only outrun the Cayote on
a full stomach. But both need to be aware of the
Jackal who watches for either one or preferebly
both to fall.

Ras

[reposted]

macgupta Apr-3-01 #: 20

No lectures to our neighbors (period). Need to clean our own house first. There is no need to discuss these lists or ratings set up by one organization or the other.

Man we must realize that our military is corrupt to the core. This was the last institution we believed to be above the Hindutva and Congress ``FUND`` raisers. Now that belief has gone down the drain.

If our generals are squandering our hard earned dollars then they need to be given the boot and I mean the military boot. This is the time to kick some f#$@k!ng a$$.

Military drama, the security drama and the hindutva drama must go. Down with the three dramas.

Poor masses need bread and shelter. There ain`t no f#$@k!ng sovereignty if the people are conned in some day light Hindutvai robberies.

Gurv say kaho hum Bharati hain.

We all need to take pride in true Bharati culture and not in some westernized, corrupt INDIAN culture.

macgupta Apr-3-01 #: 20

No lectures to our neighbors (period). Need to clean our own house first. There is no need to discuss these lists or ratings set up by one organization or the other.

Man! we must realize that our military is corrupt to the core. This was the last institution we believed to be above the Hindutva and Congress ``FUND`` raisers. Now that belief has gone down the drain.

If our generals are squandering our hard earned dollars then they need to be given the boot and I mean the military boot. This is the time to kick some f#$@k!ng a$$.

Military drama, the security drama and the hindutva drama must go. Down with the three dramas.

Poor masses need bread and shelter. There ain`t no f#$@k!ng soverinity if the people are conned in these day light Hindutvai robberies.

Gurv say kaho hum Bharati hain.

We all need to take pride in true Bharati culture and not in some westernized, corrupt INDIAN culture.

ROmair # 18

very good question

----

An international anti-corruption organization

http://www.transparency.org/

This org. is active in India (one of my relatives started a local chapter).

You can find their corruption index for 2000 at

http://www.transparency.org/documents/cpi/2000/cpi2000.html

India ranks 69 out of 90.

Pakistan is not on the list. It was on the list in 1999 (http://www.transparency.org/documents/cpi/1999/index.html#cpi)

Why it is not on the list in 2000 is not good news -- ``This year`s CPI covers 90 countries, compared to 99 last year. Some countries had to be dropped because there was insufficient 1998-2000 data. For example, some of the surveys used in the CPI are based on international investor attitudes and if a country is widely seen to no longer interest investors, then some survey sources may drop that country in their polling.

``The message is clear: dropping out of the CPI for lack of data may be bad news for countries and may indicate reduced investor interest stimulated by enhanced perceptions of widespread corruption in these countries.

-----

Urstruly, you will always lose if you play the bash-India game.

-Arun Gupta

Romair:

It is to stress on the fact that Indians are inherently very corrupt. I congratulate them on their newly acquired staus of being the most corrupt nation on the planet and probably the known universe (Far Eastern Economic Review). Their corruption should not be a cause for concern for Pakistan, however, what should worries us the most is that fact that they are corrupt AND morons that they got caught in that pathetic way. And these morons & religious nuts are sitting on the nuclear trigger. Hasta la`Vista everyone.

Why is this article on the page three times?

taikonaut reply #: 11

``Corruption won`t stop as long as hate mongers are ruling Bharat``.



I agree, also IMO, the fundameantalists and communalists are always, everywhere, more corrupt and unscrouplous than any other ruling group.

Just one thing though,how exactly one defines a unified Bharati culture? I guess I am not very comfortable with the idea of a single culture for a country like india........it does have ominous portents.

Sincerely

Bakait

Harish,

Arun Shourie with the reporting of the blinding of the prisoners in Bihar was the first true investigative journalist. Blitz and Karanjia was primarily a tabloid journalist. Only thing going for karanjia was the personal friendship of Gama Abdul Nasser of egypt. Blitz was more of slander and rumers than any investigation.

regards

jay

taikonaut,

No Bharati believes that corruption will stop after tehelka. Politicians & civil servants will have to be more careful, thats all. Just the fact that these corrupt SOBs are going to become more paranoid & spend some sleepless nights is sweet victory.

Monicagate wont stop a future US President from cheating on his wife. However, I doubt if a future President will consider getting a bj in the oval office. Besides, no American smokes a cigar these days without a chuckle:) It was worth it.

Ras,

Yaar you have figured us banias out quite well. We dont consider ourselves coyotes for nothing. Now we can tell the world that cleansing our internal political structure is more important than futile talks on Kashmir that everyone knows wont go anywhere. The US press will wholeheartedly agree & will applaud us banias for developing the fourth estate.

Tehelka killed two birds with one stone. Like Omar Mirza says, US opinion IS important. Whether Pakistan likes it or not, you arent the darling boy who stops Soviet expansion anymore. Those days are over. Just yesterday a storm is brewing between China & the US over the spy plane. Watch us banias exploit both US & China.

It takes more than the chest thumping ``martial races`` to check the bania coyote:)

URstruly, start foaming at the mouth:)

Indians need a crash course in corruption

By T. V. R. Shenoy ,Gulf News

http://www.gulf-news.com/Articles/news.asp?ArticleID=13563

``Would that some power gift us the power to see ourselves as others see us!`` wrote Robert Burns. I had just that experience, being outside India as the Tehelka scandal chugs along. The first man I met – airline staff and airport officials excepted of course – was Mohammed from Multan, the driver assigned by Virgin Air to take me from Heathrow to Buckingham Gate. That is a ninety-minute drive in rush hour, and Mohammed was in a chatty mood. Given that he was from Pakistan I braced myself for some insults, but Mohammed was charity itself.

(Perhaps the fact that he has been in Britain for thirty-eight years had something to do with it.) Instead of being rude about India and its leaders, Mohammed preferred to be complimentary about the Indian media. (No, I had not told him that I am a journalist.) Defence scams, he said, take place everywhere, including Pakistan, but nobody challenges the Establishment.

Everything came out into the open in India, he said, because the media is free and can pursue its job without fear. And the strength of that democracy will see India through this crisis too.

The next person who talked to me about the Tehelka exposé at length was Michael, a don at the Sorbonne in Paris. Michael began by pointing out that corruption is not unknown in France – just now his Prime Minister and President are going through an embarrassing period of their own. But the worldly-wise don was surprised at the naivete of the victims.

How, he wondered, could the Bharatiya Janata Party president accept money from a total stranger? How could the chief of the Samata Party discuss contributions while sitting at the residence of the Defence Minister? Michael, as befits a don, is very thorough with the details. He knows that a contribution of a lakh or two will not get anyone any contract even if graft is involved. He was surprised at the utter amateurishness of all concerned.

``You should invite us to run a crash course in corruption``, he said. (Well, it was nice to hear someone from the Western world admit that Indians still have a thing or two to learn about graft!)

However, the most bizarre reaction by far was heard in Washington. Several Non-Resident Indians had gathered in the American capital to greet Lalit Mansingh, the new Indian ambassador. Much to my astonishment I found myself a target in my capacity as a representative of the Indian media. Most of them, it seemed, thought the whole Tehelka exposé was a giant conspiracy.

One set – and I won`t bother mentioning which part of India they hail from – was convinced that it was a plot to defame South Indians. Why? Well, because Bangaru Laxman`s roots are in Andhra Pradesh, George Fernandes hails from Karnataka, and Jaya Jaitly is a Malayalee. I tried, feebly, to point out that Laxman was not elected from Andhra Pradesh, and that Fernandes has only been elected from Maharashtra or Bihar. (As for Jaitly, I can`t remember her standing for even a Panchayat election in Kerala.)

I cannot say that my interlocutors seemed convinced by these facts. Instead they gave way to another set of people who were firmly convinced that it was an anti-minority plot. Taking pity on my bemusement, they deigned to explain that Laxman is a Dalit, Fernandes the first Christian to rise so high in the ranks, and Jaitly is a woman.

Quite frankly, I was left a bit staggered by all this. Tehelka`s actions may be open to question. (I understand that people back home, too, are wondering whether everything was above board; some even allege that it was nothing more than a put-up job by the Congress (I).) But I am sure that Tehelka did not deliberately take aim at Bangaru Laxman, George Fernandes, and Jaya Jaitly for ethnic reasons!

And I was frankly shocked that a taxi-driver from Pakistan had more faith in Indian journalism than did the wealthy Non-Resident Indians gathered in Washington. The fourth reaction that I encountered came from a friend in the U.S. State Department. It was particularly interesting since Americans have had an overdose of scandal in the past four years or so – the second Clinton term. So how does an intelligent American see the fallout of the Tehelka scandal?

His reaction was interesting, not least because he is a member of the American foreign policy establishment. He preferred to focus on the future rather than speculate on conspiracy theories. The first point he made was that the Vajpayee ministry should carry on without being too perturbed. If nothing else, there is really no other alternative, so it will be irresponsible to do anything else.

The second part of his thesis drew upon the lessons of the Clinton years. For only the second time in history, he noted, an American President had been impeached. Charges of corruption - including money-laundering, tax evasion, sale of offices, perjury, and misuse of the power to pardon - had been hurled at Clinton. Most of these allegations were believed to be true. Nevertheless, Clinton`s personal popularity continued undimmed.

There is also a lesson for the Indian Opposition. In the Congressional elections of 1998, at the height of the Lewinsky scandal, the Republicans actually lost seats in both houses of the American Congress. Two years later, the Democrats came within a breath of retaining the White House – and they might have done it too had they used Clinton during the campaign.

The lesson seems to be that voters were more interested in bread and butter issues than in scandals. The lesson for Sonia Gandhi is: tone down your rhetoric, or take the consequences.

So there you have them: the reaction from a Pakistani taxi-driver, a French don, several Non-Resident Indians, and an American diplomat. Whom does one agree with?