Don't Cry For Gujaratis, Barkha Dutt

Journalists who are soaked in ‘Arts’ education usually forget some important learning they may have acquired in school or college. They have forgotten Mark Antony V Brutus. The most important lesson being that the public has an opposite reaction to anything that is excessively hyped or should I say ‘trolled’. I recall when Hrithik Roshan first burst on the scene with a superhit with his debut film the media had declared him the next superstar, almost the new Bollywood god. He followed it up with a string of flops. Not too far behind was Vivek Oberoi who was similarly hyped up but came crashing down. But Brutus is an ‘honourable’ man and so too Barkha Dutt is an ‘honourable’ journalist. After all, wasn’t she awarded the Padma Shri? So what drives her obsession with Narendra Modi? She analyses him psychologically but can’t see her own visible feeling of ‘rejection’ that she couldn’t get him.  And that’s what she writes about in another troll-like article titled “Only half the truth” (September 16)  on the Hindustan Times website.

What is amazing is that on the same date as her article, another one appears on the website of her own channel, NDTV, “Narendra Modi on politics, poetry and Rahul Gandhi as PM” by CSS Latha. I wonder if Barkha has managed to read it. Doesn’t matter. As always let’s try and figure what the psychologist’s problem is. (Quotes from Barkha’s article in blue).

Here’s her opening salvo: Much as I would like to borrow from this season’s style and write an ‘open’ letter to Narendra Modi, the Gujarat chief minister would probably make it a point to throw my missive straight into the bin. So you see, when a mind is already working on assumptions and presumptions the road to prejudice is already paved in the recesses of her mind. A journalist has the freedom to write, whether people read it or not is their freedom. Unfortunately, Barkha Dutt is yet to completely understand the concept of freedom. Everytime she talks about absorbing criticism she should read the blogpost by Chaitanya Kunte on her ‘Shoddy journalism’ during the 26/11 terrorist strikes. Her stupid response to that was a legal notice to silence him. And frankly, Kunte hadn’t written anything that was remotely untrue.

While on that topic I wonder if  Barkha has read my open letter to her. She can choose to read and respond. If she chooses the dust bin that wouldn’t surprise me either.

As a journalist who reported the riots from the ground on the stretch between Godhra and Vadodara and pointed out— like many others — the complete absence of police intervention, I have earned the permanent ire of Modi and his legion of followers… Not exactly true! At the time the riots happened Barkha Dutt wasn’t the only journalist reporting from the ground. There were many others too. Barkha lives in denial if she doesn’t recognise that she has earned this “permanent ire” not just because of her reporting in 2002 but more because of the sustained peddling of untruths about Modi by her and her channel. If it still hasn’t occurred to her that she is predominantly perceived as a Modi-hater and Modi-basher then she’s the one out of touch with people and not Modi.  She has earned this “permanent ire”  by hosting dubious characters on her channel to spam Modi with hatred. The honest fact is that when the riots were being reported Barkha Dutt and her colleague Rajdeep Sardesai were actually held in high esteem by the public. It is she who should be wondering how she managed to erode all that trust and credibility that a journalist so values. While the public has helped Modi go from strength to strength, Barkha has simply become a caricature of herself. She has depreciated her standing so much so that her mere appearance on the TV screen is now revolting for many people. The TRP ratings and financial performance of NDTV should give her some sound lessons on who has lost credibility.

By now, in the public imagination, We, the English Media, had become the hostile outsiders and Modi’s narrative had managed to successfully equate all criticism of him with criticism of the Gujarati people. Subsequently, Narendra Modi has resolutely refused to speak to me and a few other journalists for nine years. I have to laugh at this one, hahahaha! Modi is not the only issue why the English media has become hostile outsiders. The slanted and biased reporting on every issue concerning the Congress is what has led English media to its fate. Here’s an honest question for Barkha. Has NDTV covered any major event of significance in Gujarat? Did she cover the last Vibrant Gujarat event? Fact is, every step of the way the English media, NDTV in particular, has provided a platform to Modi-haters than a more balanced approach. Recommend that Barkha read this and check for herself:  “15 Lakh Crores &The Business Channels Don’t Find It Newsworthy!”

But now Modi is confronted with a deeper philosophical question. Does he want to be the chief minister of Gujarat for the rest of his life or a pan-Indian leader with national acceptability and the ability to build consensus across party lines….. Hidden in this stupid question is an agenda that somehow seeks to bring in ‘philosophy’ rather than rational argument. If Barkha cared to read Latha’s article on her interaction with Modi on the NDTV website she would find the answers to all her questions. My advice to Barkha is – stop worrying about what Modi wants or what he will become and start worrying what you had aspired to and what you have become. Journalists are expected to follow morals and ethics more than politicians. This is where Barkha Dutt has failed and therefore everything she says seems hollow and merely a literary exercise.

Barkha Dutt cites the pleading of J.S. Bandukwala seeking some regret or expression of that by Modi. Following the Radiagate episode it was clear that Barkha Dutt had brought more shame on Indian journalism than any other single journalist. In subsequent programs instead of accepting she had erred or was actually corrupt she refused to even acknowledge any wrong doing. With her credibility so completely eroded over the years the wonder is not that this troll even appears on TV or writes in magazines/websites. The real wonder is how or why she has been allowed to even keep her job. No mature media outlet in any democracy would have condoned her conduct.

But reconciliation is often about new beginnings as well. The question is not whether Modi can shed his history. The question is: Does he even want to?  So she writes. Start with  yourself Barkha. Acknowledge you were biased not just on Gujarat or Modi but a whole lot of other issues. These include Kashmir, Kandahar and the list can be lengthened. But as in the case of any compromised journalist, in Barkha’s case truth seems to be that skirt that keeps getting shorter and shorter. The question therefore for Barkha is not whether Modi can shed his history, the question is whether she will express regret and shed her past. Stringing along a crooked source can be managed for a while, stringing along the public won’t succeed forever.

Here’s the reconciliation deal for you Barkha. NDTV has consistently lied about the number of people killed in the riots. Would you correct it and apologise? Your one-time colleague and prominent ingredient of Radiagate, Vir Sanghvi, called Modi a ‘mass murderer’. Is that meant to be objective criticism? Would you ask him to apologise? Your one-time colleague, Rajdeep Sardesai, used the same ‘mass murderer’ term to attempt to humiliate Modi in an HT event in 2007 where Modi was invited as a chief speaker. Would you ask him to apologise. Before you accuse anyone, let alone Modi, take a look at yourself. If people coined the term Barkhagate, they aren’t the vindictive pricks that you imagine they are.

Barkha accuses Modi of shunning criticism. Politicians are used to criticism, gheraos and even heckling as Rahul Gandhi would have recently discovered. There isn’t much they can hide from the public. There are many senior journalists today in Ahmedabad reporting on the two fasts. Where are you Barkha? Fact is there is hardly any public event that Barkha Dutt can go to without being heckled and booed. And that painful truth hurts her into crocodile tears for Gujarat. Barkha has called Gujaratis “traditionally effete people” ! Well, Barkha, don’t cry for Gujjus… We are doing fine.

Update (18/9/2011): Since this post was made many senior journalists have conducted interviews with Narendra Modi at the Sadbhavna venue in Ahmedabad. The ones whose conscience is tainted were the ones missing from the scene. After years of spewing hatred and spreading lies about Modi Barkha Dutt and Rajdeep Sardesai would be the ones facing the problems even talking to him. Instead, with no context at all, NDTV was busy airing a film about Sonia Gandhi during the initial hours of the Sadbhavna mission. Thereby hangs a tale.