The Holes In The Mint

At the height of Beatlemania in March 1966 John Lennon was quoted as saying the Beatles were “more popular than Jesus”. This was enough to cause a world-wide Christian outrage. Beatles’ concerts were threatened, their records burned in southern US, Mexico, South Africa, Spain. Later, Lennon did express regret to pacify the Christians. Lennon had only responded to a question on the decline of Christianity which was being widely discussed at that time. His actual statement was: “Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn't argue about that; I'm right and I'll be proved right. We're more popular than Jesus now; I don't know which will go first—rock 'n' roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me”. Factually, Lennon was right; Beatles were popular in every corner of the world (beyond Christians) and had more influence on kids and youth. The Pope even chose to forgive Lennon years after he was killed as if anybody gave a damn. Frankly, the Vatican has more to apologise for than Lennon, as later events have shown. Lennon didn’t really ‘abuse’ Jesus in any way for so much outrage. Can you imagine Hindus outraging like that? Lennon did have the choicest words to frequently describe the “establishment cronies” and even returned the MBE awarded by the Queen in protest of some war. 

I have lost count of the number of times I’ve said there are two Rajdeep Sardesais. One is the guy on TV and the other is off it. On TV is the man driven by compulsions of business and the ‘agenda’. Off TV the man is often thoughtful in his writings and quite introspective when he tweets. So on November 10 when he tweeted seeking to understand how to make up with Twitterati it was amazing to see someone seeking vicarious pleasure in hunting down certain people and informing their workplace. Haha! I’m surprised why this bitchy woman didn’t go a step further and seek to write a complaint to moms and dads of some Tweeple. I honestly didn’t know much about Priya Ramani before but I learn that she runs something called Mint-Lounge, a section of Mint, a paper that Hindustan Trolls tries to sell. Now what exactly is Mint Lounge? It’s one of those extras for women with money and nothing to do. It shows them the philosophical way of ‘baking a Pizza’ at home or how SRK doesn’t want to be a lover-boy, art of the grotesque and so on.

What does strike me is not that Ramani wants to hunt down these “persnarltees”. She figured in an earlier post of mine (From my inbox to Fiberals) on her mindless rant against NitiCentral and the 499 crores of Rajesh Jain. In that post I had shared how some journalists feel about their work. It makes me wonder how the people working around Ramani really feel. Forget the persnarltees on Twitter or SM, those around Ramani may be on constant surveillance for every word and sentence they utter everywhere. Ramani probably spies on all her co-workers and employees of Lounge to make sure they’re behaving. I wonder if she reports every silly tweet of her co-workers to their parents or their spouses.  Who knows, she might even add a note on how to spank such people. I wonder if online behaviour is a factor for salary hikes or cuts at Lounge or Mint itself. Come to think of it they might even have an annexure to the appraisal form where an employee's good and bad behaviour instances are listed. Like, you know, number of accolades for Ramani might get +10 each, and number of times the employee calls her a bitch gets a -20. Damn! This woman could truly revolutionise behaviour assessment in media outlets.

We’ll get back to Ramani’s extraordinary brilliance but in the meantime I would like you to find out what Balvenie is. I’ve often said that certain TV channels and magazines are meant only for those with a ‘Mini-bar’ at home. You can pronounce Balvenie as ‘Bal-when-ee’ or ‘Bal-ween-ee’. Both are acceptable. See? I’m learning, why don’t you start too?

More Mint! On November 8 Madhu Trehan was at a debate at the World Economic Forum hosted on NDTV. She was battling ‘Nothing’! I mean she was battling Kapil Sibal over Internet freedom, hooliganism and stuff like that. Doing a running commentary, Mint put out these two tweets attributing statements to Madhu. Turns out both statements were absolute LIES. It sounds like the Mint editor, Suku, was playing Sudoku. So he quietly deletes the tweets and privately apologises to Madhu. Mint value system: Tar in public and apologise in private. Most companies have that in reverse, don’t they? The tweets were to public at large and there was no apology to readers for misleading them. Many tweeple were not very kind to Madhu after reading the Livemint tweets. Worse, Mint stupidly deletes those tweets hoping the crime will disappear. I guess they are yet to learn that not even Kapil Sibal can wipe the footprints off the internet.

Then there are other writers at Mint. There is one Aakar Patel who writes mostly about nothing but Narendra Modi. This one is not sure whether he’s in love with Modi or not. Er. somewhat like those “he loves me, he loves me not” games with clover leaves. Modi has been called a lot of names but it’s only Aakar Patel who finds him a “sex symbol”. Some call it an obsession and some call it infatuation with Modi. One hopes AakTel will someday make a confession. Then there’s Samar Halarnkar (actually with Hindustan Trolls) and he is accused of plagiarising the works of Frances Moore Lappé in his articles on fighting hunger and food shortages. Ah, I think that had something to do with Brazil. I guess guy doesn’t know even Wiki has an entry on him to that effect. It’s a long story that will take up too much space. What’s the short story? Samar is also reportedly the husband of Priya Ramani. Yeah, the one that wants to hunt down people. In all the posts so far I’ve never found the need to use any expletives. I think I can be bad enough without the use of those. I once used the ‘f’ word but that was an actual tweet of Rajdeep I quoted. This Ramani takes it further than hatred can possibly take anyone. She calls Lord Ram a loser. Her friend calls him a “C***” and typically, like the American woman she is, she corrects him: It’s “D***”. Ramani is not alone. She has a sister-in-arms in Sagarika Ghose who frequently abuses Ram and Hinduism.

Where does such hatred and loathing of a Hindu icon come from? That too with no particular provocation! Ah, for that we’ll have to go back two years to an article Ramani wrote in the same Mint. That was called: “I may not be an Indian” (June 2010). Yeah.. you leave us in no doubt about that. She hates being Indian, she hates Ram for being a loser; in short she hates everything about herself. Technically, for all her stupid utterances Ramani could well be charged with sections 294, 295 and 295A for deliberately insulting religious sentiments under the Indian Penal Code. A glimpse of her self-hate can be seen in the image from her article. She hates Diwali, she thinks Holi is a time for ‘molestation’. 

I believe it would be easier to make a list of things she doesn’t hate about India or Indians. That would probably equal to ‘Sibal’. And then, this stupid moron claims she is a victim of abuse on Twitter. Who in his right mind would want to abuse her when she abuses herself so much? She is probably one of those failed journalists or writers who couldn’t make it to the top like Chetan Bhagat. She probably wonders why she had to be born Indian. I have lived abroad for a short while and have seen western culture too. I love many of their good practices but don’t hate them for what could be called bad practices. We are here because India isn’t perfect. Some people take that imperfection as a chance to correct our faults. Some people simply choose to hate the country and her people. Ramani leaves us in no doubt which category she belongs to. But hey, sure as hell, she can probably tell you how to bake a cake with her magazine. And you can guess her favourite drink: Balvenie! The single-malt Scotch whiskey which probably inspires her writings and tweets!

There are many interpretations to Lord Ram’s response to the utterances of a washer-man. That is not even important here. Ram could have slashed the man’s head, imprisoned him, maybe he put his people above family. It can go on and on. What do you know, if Ram were with us today all he would have to do is send an email to Kapil Sibal and the washer-man would be in prison under 66A in a flash. But it would most certainly take an extreme moron to call him a loser or a D*** or C***.

Some wonder what would happen if Ramani were to make similar statements about Islam or Islamic icons. Not just her, the entire bunch of media morons wouldn’t dare. I’ve no doubt the swords would be out, her family would be dead and her house burned to the ground. But that’s hardly the issue here. Even Christians outraged over Lennon’s largely innocuous remark. My answer to this particular moron who passes as Priya Ramani is this: You didn’t become who you are all by yourself. The self-hate and loathing didn’t come to you all by yourself. No one said it better than John Adams: “Our individuality we so, so revere is not entirely our own… We ARE, who we WERE”. So I’m in no doubt those with such extreme hatred didn’t get it all by themselves. They are, who they were. Their forefathers, ancestors, friends, family and co-workers probably invested in them with such hatred. Hindus will no doubt be angered but they’re definitely not going to draw swords.

Most of us “Are who we Were”. Most Hindus are brought up with some spiritual principles and tolerance. That is the foundation of this country. I have travelled to the smallest corners of India. In many rural towns life is terrible. In a bus for 22 they usually pack a 100 and even add another 50 sacks of vegetables and grains. While I did find it alarming and discomforting, I don’t regret living the lives of those people and with them for a while. They didn’t choose that life and live in hope things will change for their children. The uncouth, uncivilised aren’t the ones who only spit or litter. The Ramanis can sip their Balvenie and keep hating Ram and India. John Lennon said to an audience once: “Will the people in the cheaper seats clap your hands? All the rest of you, if you'll just rattle your jewellery”. So why do I have write about these idiots at Mint? That’s a good question. Let me again quote the last verse from a song Lennon-McCartney wrote many years ago (A day in the life – One can find it easily on Youtube):

“I read the news today oh boy

Four thousand holes in Blackburn, Lancashire

And though the holes were rather small

They had to count them all

Now they know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall.

I'd love to turn you on” ....

Well, the song was banned for radio play because the British establishment thought the phrase “turn you on” alluded to drugs. But they totally missed something else. It is known that the 4000 holes refer to the potholes in Blackburn’s streets with relevance to a council election. But what’s the reference to those holes filling the Royal Albert Hall? There are many interpretations and one of them is of decaying flesh and another is assholes in the system. That’s the reason I had to count all the morons at Mint. Now we know how many holes there are in the Mint.   

BabaRamdev: Media's Mudslinging-Season-2, Episode-1

In a tweet on August 8 I had predicted some serious mudslinging against Baba Ramdev (BRD) when he starts another campaign at Ramlila on Thursday, August 9. No it didn’t take the IB or RAW to tell me that. I just recalled how last year CNN-IBN had inaugurated mudslinging season against BRD as he started his agitation in June 2011. This time Rajdeep Sardesai and Sagarika Ghose (the eminent Social Genius) are not alone. They are joined by master ‘News-Breaker’ Bhupendra Chaubey from their own stable. And then there were others like Madhu Trehan, Suhel Seth (The Item-Girl specialist) and a few more. We will come to Chaubeji and the rest a bit later.

First things first! Let’s start with the common question by all anchors, all anti-BRD panellists and of course, Congress. Why is BRD’s assistant Balkrishna appearing in posters with terrorists like Bhagat Singh and Rajguru at Ramlila? That’s blasphemy! Oh wait, it’s not me calling them terrorists, it’s our own school text books calling them that. And who allowed such textbooks? ICSE and the Congress govt of AP did. Even Mahatma Gandhi reportedly did not protest the hanging of Bhagat Singh. I did not see a similar protest from the media when heroes like Bhagat Singh were called terrorists. Did you? It’s alright, as they say one man’s freedom fighter is another man’s terrorist. In this case one has to wonder who the other man is. Not to forget, when Anna’s ‘secular’ movement pulled down the large back-drop of ‘Bharat-Mata’ the media thought that was fair and there were no questions.

You see, idolisation is fine with the media only as long as it is for the Gandhi family. They can be anything or anyone. Take Rahul Gandhi. He can be Kashmiri, he can be Dalit, a Muslim, a Sikh, an Allahabadi and he can be a Brahmin as well. If there were a Chameleon’s Association they would have been seething in anger and protest. Not our media. But RG didn’t start that trend. It was started by Nehru then followed by Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and now Rahul Gandhi.

Hell, I forgot someone in between! The great saviour of India: Sonia Gandhi. Five years back Congressmen in MP dressed her up as the brave Rani of Jhansi in posters (don’t miss the cute little Rahul in the back-pack).  In true spirit and bravery of the Rani of Jhansi SoniaG battles all evils that threaten India and her people. Oh, I’m sure even in that case you will recall how strongly the media protested and Rajdeep, Arnab, Barkha, Chaubeji were all lambasting the Congress for insulting the memory of the brave Rani. No? They didn’t? Okay, so little Balkrishna appears with many other ordinary men in a poster with heroes and that’s the biggest problem for media. Exemplary unbiased morons!

Now, we can come back to Chaubeji. On August 9, he got up early and got out early and headed straight for Ramlila grounds to confront some women in the crowd. He asked them if they came on their own or were truck-rolled into Ramlila. To his surprise they told him they came from far off places in Maharashtra, Uttarakhand and such states. Not enough! So he goads another woman: “There are people who allege BRD has evaded tax, accumulated wealth and illegal properties?”. Hmmm! The woman replies with nonchalance: “Woh bewakoof hai!” (They are fools!) So Chaubeji got bitch-slapped over and over again with his silly questions. His questions tried their best to slander BRD but in vain. And he had stated in a tweet that he had the most “explosive” details about BRD’s tax evasion. Well, one sincerely hopes those explosive details don’t bomb the way Chaubeji did at Ramlila. So from last year our Mr.Chaubeji has now become Mudslinger Jr., next only to his boss.

And if Chaubeji does his thing in the morning can his boss, Mudslinger-in-Chief, be too far away? Rajdeep Sardesai started off early morning too with a stupid tweet asking if Ramdev can get some rains. Mind you, no Baba, no Swami, no Guru … nothing but plain ‘Ramdev’. Such is the contempt that our media gurus hold for him. Had it been a mullah Rajdeep would have addressed him as “Imam Saheb”. Well, you see BRD is clothed in saffron and Rajdeep’s loathing for that colour and Hindu traditions and customs is not such a big secret.

So at night Rajdeep repeats Chaubeji’s question: “Can Ramdev become the face of Anti-corruption?”. Someone on Twitter responded by asking if a bargirl and waitress can be the head of the UPA govt why BRD can’t be an anti-corruption crusader. Never mind! So RS asks Congressman Mani Shankar Aiyar the question and about crowds at Ramlila and MSA responds by stating “It’s a flop show”! Rajdeep turns to another panellist, Devender Sharma, and asks for a response. Sharma states a stunning fact: “The biggest flop in India is Congress’ youth icon Rahul Gandhi although the party will not accept it”. I would have to say going by history and facts Rahul Gandhi’s failures would actually be considered more than a flop. those would technically count as a total disaster. The difference is: Rahul Gandhi rides in the back-pack of Jhansi Ki Rani unlike BRD.

Hmm… so this Devendra Sharma wasn’t very obliging. So Rajdeep turns to a trusted RSS-hater, Kumar Ketkar. And because Rajdeep knows him to be a RSS-hater asks him a leading question: “Is BRD backed by RSS?” . Happily, Kumar Ketkar lets off a well-strung rant about BJP, RSS and BRD being the mask of these forces. KK implies, without saying it, that RSS is anti-national and to that Tarun Vijay shoots a few bullets calling KK “Friend of Pakistani supporters and ISI supporters in the media”. So you can see how Rajdeep wanted the debate to go. The idea was neither black money or corruption or BRD’s movement. Once again, it was how to trash BRD. Mudslinging at its best! I think both Mani Shankar Aiyar and Kumar Ketkar are scumbags from the filthiest of waters. But hey, don’t take my word for it! Listen to someone who is usually more profound with his loathing of the Twitterati: Nikhil Wagle. His tweet says a lot about about MSA and KK and their filthy language.

It’s not over until Justice Arnab sings it’s over. So apart from CNN-IBN, TimesNow too had a hilarious debate. Nothing particularly outstanding in that show except for Madhu Trehan outrageously charging BRD with “duping common people” and when asked about BRD’s ability to draw crowds, Item-Boy Suhel Seth responded with: “I can get item-girls from Bollywood and get you crowds of 30000”. I believe that is perfectly in sync with Suhel Seth’s job description. These are the stupid utterances of Trehan and Seth that pass for debate.

The singular chant of all anchors and media celebs is that BRD has been issued notices by IT department and allegations of illegal properties, whose private jets he flies and so on. Firstly, the IT and ED notices started only after BRD’s agitation last year. We all also know how the IT and ED work lately. LK Advani rightly stated: “The UPA survives because of its ally the CBI”. That’s how IT and ED are also used by Sonia Gandhi and the govt against adversaries and then their media stooges tom-tom that message as if BRD has been already proved a criminal. Nobody expects BRD to work miracles or expect black money to come back in 3 days or corruption to end immediately. He may not even know how the system or govt works. But there has to be a reason why the Chaubejis, Rajdeeps, Madhus, Aiyars, Ketkars and some more indulge in this extra-ordinary mudslinging against the man. Maybe it has to do with a colour or maybe it has something to do with phonecalls from upstairs. But either way, welcome to Mudslinging: Season-2 Episode-1.

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India's Best Journalists

Since the article on India’s Worst Journalists-2012 (IWJ) last April I had received many suggestions to do one on India’s best. Some even recommended that the same ‘worst’ should be put to another poll to find out which are the best among them. When I looked up the ‘Charter of MediaCrooks’ there were hundreds of provisions to identify and talk about the crooks but not a single one to identify the good ones or the best in the business. Fair, since that wasn’t the task of MediaCrooks. So I derived inspiration from the 'Worst list' and ‘manipulated’ the Charter to enable this site to identify the best journalists. The candidates on the best journalists list were all picked by people on the social media. (Thanks to all who contributed). If I had left it to the Anti-SocialMedia (MSM) probably none of these names would have figured.

There is something else about the journalists on the list. You won’t find most of them flamboyant or glamorous. You won’t find most of them frequently in those back-scratching media awards functions. The greatest thing about the candidates on the ‘best’ poll is that when they write an article or appear on TV it is highly unlikely you will find them asking: “Oh God, what should I tell them”? They speak their own free minds. So here are those who have been voted India’s Best Journalists (Poll results appended at the end of this post):

10. Ashok Malik – Malik has been in the business for over two decades now. His association has mostly been with The Pioneer but you can also find him in other journals and lately also on many TV channels as a panellist. His writings are not the kind that will set you on fire but Malik manages to put across his views and arguments gently and without offending. That might be surprising since many bios of his mention his wanting to be a gossip-writer in film magazines. That’s hard to believe because he looks so serious. It would be nice, though, to see a gossip column from him – just to see some stuff from him on the Poonam Pandeys, Sonam Kapoors and Uday Chopras.  In any case, don’t expect him to be politically incorrect. Like other successful journalists who have adapted to the Internet Malik understands and values the social media. He is happy to write in a form that the MSM wouldn’t consider really ‘Sexy’ in these times. He speaks his mind anyway and that’s the obvious reason he’s here. 

9. Madhu Trehan – She’s one of the survivors from the journalism of the old world charm. The co-founder of IndiaToday, India’s first weekly news-magazine, has many firsts to her credit. The other significant claim to fame has to be her video news-magazine ‘Newstrack’, in the days of Doordarshan’s monopoly, which was made available as videos through her magazine and through regular video outlets. But Madhu Trehan is not on this list for her past laurels though. She has re-invented herself and has been active on the social media. Her news channel Newslaundry is growing in popularity. It’s a site where Madhu and her colleagues launder the regular crooks in the media with a lot of humour and candour. Viewers and readers of Newslaundry have often felt she has been soft on the crooks but that takes away nothing from her sincerity and her commitment. She has also learned to engage with the crowd on social media. Her popularity is on the up again.

8. R. Jagannathan – Business World, India Today, Express group, Business Standard, DNA he has worked with all of them. A significant involvement has to be the launch of Business Today. Other than that he has spent relatively smaller tenures with most of these publications. But TheJaggi, as he calls himself on Twitter, came to greater prominence with FirstPost. Though I call Firstpost the online sidekick of the Network18 group (CNN-IBN, CNBC-TV18 etc.), Jaggi has brought a lot of balance and freshness in the online news business. As editor of Firstpost not only his own articles but even those of others have largely been truly interesting and fair. That’s what is amazing. Since the group’s TV channels are heavily biased and are nearly political mouthpieces, Firstpost doesn’t appear to be so. Being a business journalist himself, his articles on economics and financial matters make exceptional reading. I don’t have numbers but I would dare to state Firstpost could easily be the most popular dedicated online news site at the moment and will grow in strength. A lot of credit for that must go to TheJaggi.

 7. P. Sainath – He calls himself a ‘rural’ reporter. One of the few Indians to receive the Ramon Magsaysay awards Sainath is the art movie equivalent of Bollywood in journalism. And I say that nicely. On the mainstream media degenerating into entertainment he once remarked: “"I felt that if the Indian press was covering the top 5 per cent, I should cover the bottom 5 per cent” and that he does splendidly. On another occasion he observed there were 400 journalists reporting on a Fashion show in Delhi but not one reporting on poverty in India. One recent article by him “Reaping gold through cotton, and newsprint” about the misreporting and twisted journalism by TOI is indicative of the tenor of most of his articles and exposes. It is indeed surprising that he hasn’t been called upon to be a panellist on TV shows relating to farmer suicides and such related issues. Maybe he just detests the very format of these debates and avoids them. Outspoken against Paidmedia and other evils of the press he is one reporter who should be inspiration for a lot more.

6. J. Gopikrishnan – There must be a reason his name starts with G. His stunning investigative reports on the 2G scam has exposed many corrupt politicians and the entire UPA govt itself. Gopi, as he is called in trade circles, systematically pursued and exposed the manner in which scarce national resources were sold for a song by the corrupt. Naturally, apart from rising popularity among people a number of awards followed as well in the last year or so. The mostly compromised bigger media outlets started following the 2G story only after his reports. That Gopi works with a relatively small newspaper like The Pioneer also reflects on where good journalism is coming from lately. In the words of his own editor, Chandan Mitra, “He has put on no airs despite the accolades he has received and the many awards he has won. He remains committed to his profession and profession alone”. What followed Gopi’s reports are similar assessments by the CAG on 2G and worse, the explosive Radiatapes that exposed the media-politician-lobbyists nexus. More power to him.

5. Sucheta Dalal – She could have been somebody…. Somebody like… You know who, a media super celebrity. She could have easily compromised ethics and traded that for millions. But Sucheta Dalal is one of the most reliable financial journalists around. From the Harshad Mehta scam to Ketan Parekh to current misdeeds in the financial markets she has served ordinary investors and consumers all her career. Having worked with all the major newspapers in the country she now runs her own web magazine, Moneylife. Apart from various investment and securities boards, including those of the govt, she is also on the board of Consumer Education & Research Centre in Ahmedabad. In the crowd of many unscrupulous financial and stock market journalists, in print and on TV, she stands out like a beacon. One hopes future aspirants in this domain will look to her for inspiration.

 4. M. J. Akbar – There isn’t much that I need to write about MJ Akbar that people don’t already know. From a Trainee in TOI to launch of major journals like TheSunday and Telegraph and to also being a member of parliament there isn’t much that MJA hasn’t achieved. One of the senior most journalists of India he has also authored many books. In particular, his analyses of Indo-Pak relations are easily among the best anyone can get to read. His recent launch, the online SundayGuardian, has acquired a fair bit of popularity with the internet news readers. SundayGuardian is as hard-hitting a news magazine as you can get. He is currently the Editorial Director of IndiaToday and their TV channel HeadlinesToday. That he retains a high level of popularity after four decades in journalism says everything about why he is still rated as one of the best.

 3. Kanchan Gupta – He is most famous for his association with The Pioneer and even more so as an advisor in the PMO for Atal Behari Vajpayee. Apart from writing on politics and current affairs you could fairly call him a reasonable expert on middle-east affairs owing to his work in that region. He can be subtle, wry and sarcastic but don’t expect him to make you fall off your chair laughing. Straight-talking, blunt and sometimes provocative, his writings do not spin facts. That’s the reason he is very popular with the right wing and not so popular in the mainstream media. Often appears on TV shows but gets shouted down very easily. That is not so much because he doesn’t have a booming voice but because he stops when asked by the moderator and cares to listen to others. In a country where journalism and media is dominated by communists and being ‘right-wing’ is almost criminal, his success stands out for his brilliant, insightful and honest writing. Has been another one to quickly learn the future of media is online and has now started his own venture called Niti Digital.

2. Swapan Dasgupta – Quite easily the best and most popular of contemporary journalists around. That should be a surprise because he too is a ‘right-wing’ journalist. Not just that, he also happens to be the most sought after TV panellist. I refuse to call him an ‘intellectual’ as many do since I consider that term reserved for ‘Nobeler’ souls. Let’s see, I would call Amartya Sen or Dileep Padgaonkar an intellectual. Which is why it is dismaying to find him debating ‘intellectuals’ like Mani Shankar Aiyar. SD is simply blessed with an extraordinary abundance of simple common sense. That’s what makes his writings a delight to read. The number of journals he writes for is too long to be listed here. Sharp observations, deep insights and simple honesty are key features of his writings. Like Sachin Tendulkar he is not gifted with great vocal chords but he makes up for that with his solid batting. If he is on a TV debate you are assured of a decent one without the usual cacophony that passes for debates. Whatever one’s ideology he is clearly a role model for budding journalists.

1. Arun Shourie – This is quite a surprise. I say that in a nice way because Arun Shourie hasn’t been a very active journalist for quite some time. That he remains the best journalist with voters is a tribute to his standing and accomplishments. He is the first of India’s true investigative journalists who led to the fall of a Chief Minister in Maharashtra in the eighties. His most reputed tenure is that as the Executive Editor of Indian Express. At one point the Congress govt had nothing less than 300 cases slapped against the IE after the Bofors episode. Author of many books, MP and was also a minister under the NDA govt. It’s distressing for many that since the days of Shourie the fiercely independent IE has more or less become a ‘handler’ of the govt’s agenda. He had also strongly opposed Pratibha Patil for president and it’s not so hard now to see why. Every article and book written by Shourie is perhaps better researched, more thoughtful and provocative than any of the ones by many modern day journalists. Not surprisingly, he was he named as one of the International Press Institute's 50 World Press Freedom Heroes of the past 50 years in 2000 apart from being honoured with the Magsaysay award. The likes of Shourie and the others on this list keep the flame of hope for good journalism floating.

So there it is; India’s Best Journalists and I expect they will remain so for quite some time. In an age where skin colour, lipstick, make-up, laundering and brokering skills determine the prominence and influence of a journalist, it is not very difficult for them to stand out. I believe they would have stood out anyway. If most of the media crooks are a danger to democracy and freedom then there are some who strongly protect it too. And those are 10 good reasons to cheer.

PS: The candidates in the poll who did not make it to the Top-10 have nothing to worry. They are in great company and are sure to find their place in the sun for sure in the future.

 

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