Views On News July 07, 2016

VIEWSONNEWSJULY 7, 2016 `50
THE CRITICAL EYE
www.viewsonnewsonline.com
AIR:
Voice of India
By Sunil Saxena 18
Needed Urgently:
Women’s Loos
By Inderjit Badhwar 26
Rahul Gandhi is trying
to nurse the demoralized
Congress back to
health, but it is not
going to be easy
By Kalyani Shankar12
Pickingup
BITS
Unreliable
listicles
By Tithi Mukherjee 42
Historic
project
of RSTV
By Meha Mathur 48
Time to
act East
By Shailaja
Paramathma 30
ALSO
Broken

THE WEEK THAT was, was fraught with uncertain-
ties for India and daunting challenges for the Modi
government – some of their own making, others of
commission and short-term thinking. The Brexit
vote and the negative fallout for India from Chinese
intransigence in including India within the elite 48-
member Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) have
caught the government on the back foot.
The two developments are not really directly
connected, but they do pose serious problems for
the prime minister’s international image and glo-
betrotting diplomacy. I do discern, however, a ten-
uous thread. It makes a delicate weave but there
is, indeed, a weave.
Modi’s spin doctors—
supported wholeheartedly
by Modi—have worked as-
siduously to craft an interna-
tional Mr India image for
him. His global peregrina-
tions trumpeting rock-star
statistics about India’s eco-
nomic and cultural achieve-
ment and a seemingly
ineluctable plunge into
modernity and international
competition, have won him
thumping ovations from the
diaspora which has a natural
inclination towards an exag-
gerated sense of identity
with the mother country.
Many of these chest-
thumping NRIs—successful entrepreneurs, local
politicians, heads of IT corporations, exporters,
scientists academics – are politically influential as
voters and opinion-makers in their own countries
and Modi has been quick to capitalize on their pre-
sumptive power to influence the policies of the
governments of their adopted countries in direc-
tions favorable to the interests of Bharat Mata.
There is little doubt that the Indian expat com-
munity has emerged as a successful lobby group.
It showed during the difficult passage through the
US Congress of the Indo-American nuclear deal
on which Manmohan Singh had staked his
premiership.
Whether Modi’s globetrotting and bear-hugging
of world leaders will have a positive outcome on
world-India relations is yet to be seen. Some
green shoots have appeared such as the new ini-
tiatives with Iran on the Chabahar Port, and con-
struction activities in Afghanistan, and strategic
initiatives in the Indian Ocean and ASEAN and BIM-
STEC countries.
But part of Modi’s charisma abroad was a per-
ception among the diaspora as well as potential in-
vestors which also stemmed from him surrounding
himself with world renowned economists like
Raghuram Rajan, the former RBI czar who was
rather rudely ushered out following ad hominem
attacks on his impeccable credentials. In the Amer-
ican and British Indian diasporas, Rajan was re-
spected as a hero, a man who stood for India’s
economic stability in the face of political odds and
pressures. Often, men like Rajan, by the sheer
BREXIT, NSG…
AND RAJAN
EDITOR’SNOTE
4
force of their charisma and personality and the
international respect they command, become, as
did Ben Bernanke, the international face of eco-
nomic confidence.
His exit, along with Brexit, are bad omens for
Modi. Because of the international connectivity of
world economies through FDIs, institutional invest-
ments, WTO arrangements, tariff and non-tariff
barriers, banking stability and health, credible mar-
ket regulation, international exchange rates, IMF
and the World Bank, bankers, investors, entrepre-
neurs, technology partners look for strong, steady-
ing influences and stable tax and financial regimes.
Rajan was respected and revered. More than
ever, a man of his caliber at the helm of the Central
Bank was a necessity because the Indian economy
needed a credible and non-political face with eco-
nomic uncertainties looming in the wake of Brexit.
There are huge investment flows from India into
Europe through Britain. Indo-British collaboration
through EU is a job multiplier for Indians. India des-
perately needs more FDIs as witness the recent lift-
ing of caps on many sectors. But will playing
politics with the careers of top gun professionals
like Rajan help Modi’s image with foreign leaders
and even the diaspora who have been his unofficial
ambassadors? The Indian stock market has al-
ready plunged.
The problem with Modi’s advisors is their in-
sistence on hype and hoop-la. They have projected
him as the giant-killer and the India-seller at the ex-
pense of his advisors. Rajan’s unfortunate down-
fall received publicity at the expense of Modi’s
international image which he so cherishes. Then,
his image-boosters full-throttled his visits to NSG
nations, his flaunting of his personal charisma in
the US Congress and the White House, his (now
infructious) track-2 diplomacy with China, his at-
tempted sidelining of Pakistan.
But what did it all come to? The more the hype,
the grimmer the reality. Remember the adage, na-
tions do not have permanent friends, they have
permanent interests. Rajan, at least for the present,
was a permanent interest for India. Over-hyping the
Modi NSG initiative was certainly not.
Often, men like
[Raghuram]
Rajan, by the
sheer force of
their charisma
and personality
and the
international
respect they
command,
become, as did
Ben Bernanke
(right), the
international
face of economic
confidence.
His exit, along
with Brexit,
are bad omens
for Modi.
5VIEWS ON NEWS July 7, 2016

C O NLEDE
RADIO
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Managing Editor
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Ajith Pillai
Bureau Chiefs
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Principal Correspondent
Harendra Chowdhary, Mathura
Reporters
Alok Singh, Allahabad
Gaurav Sharma, Varanasi
Associate Editors
Meha Mathur, Sucheta Dasgupta
Deputy Editor
Prabir Biswas
Staff Writer
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Senior Sub-Editor
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Sub-Editor
Tithi Mukherjee
Art Director
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All India Radio just marked its 80th anniversary. Over the years, it has left an
indelible imprint in the minds of its listeners. SUNIL SAXENA
Aiming for a MiracleCongress vice-president Rahul Gandhi has the toughest task before him—
nursing a demoralized party back to health—if and when he takes charge.
KALYANI SHANKAR
18
6 VIEWS ON NEWS July 7, 2016
“WeWill Always LoveYou”
Listeners, newsreaders and radio artistes remember growing up with AIR.
VONTEAM
22
T E N T S
R E G U L A R S
Edit..................................................04
Grapevine.......................................08
Quotes.............................................10
Media-Go-Round..........................1 1
TMM.................................................17
As the World Turns........................3 5
Design Review.................................50
Breaking News..............................5 2
Webcrawler......................................54
Cover design: Anthony Lawrence
Knowing
Our States
Rajya Sabha TV has embarked on a
project to create awareness on the role
of our assembles and councils in na-
tion-building. MEHA MATHUR
TV REVIEW
48
VIEWS ON NEWS July 7, 2016 7
SPOTLIGHT
Pointless
Apologies
30
May 2016 was the month of saying
sorry when world leaders owned up
to historical wrongs. But what is the
significance of such statements?
SHAILAJA PARAMATHMA
OPINION
A Scholar’s
Unraveling
38
Why did an aerospace engineer from an
Indian industrial city shoot dead his
PhD research guide in California?
SUCHETA DASGUPTA
Time to Act
East
36
Prime minister Narendra Modi’s
efforts to be in the good books of the
US did not land India a place as its
global strategic and defense partner.
SHAILAJA PARAMATHMA
42
In an age of instant gratification, the
internet is churning out these very
readable but often unreliable articles.
TITHI MUKHERJEE
When toWrite
Listicles
NEW MEDIA
45
A law student’s
drowning was
collectively sen-
sationalized as
caused by her
penchant for tak-
ing selfies. Her
friends caught
out the press.
SUCHETA
DASGUPTA
Media
Exposed
FOCUS
Only 31 percent of
the population in
India has access to
good toilets and
women have even
fewer facilities. India
has a huge task
ahead
Needed,
Women’s Loos
INDERJIT BADHWAR’S
COLUMN
26

Grapevine
According to newly-elected Rajya Sabha MP
Jairam Ramesh: “Rahul Gandhi is a superior
being, far superior than Mr Modi.” Such
fulsome praise has not been heard in a long time.
Folks do express their admiration, but this was
certainly laden with saccharine. Of course,
Puducherry Chief Minister V Narayanasamy,
who became CM despite having never
contested an assembly election, stands out as a
shining example of what rewards can mean if one
is faithful enough.
ThanksgivingTime
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent
speeches before the US Congress bore
striking similarities to those of the then prime
minister, Rajiv Gandhi, when he addressed US
lawmakers. Both spoke on liberty, equality and
the need for technology with ample quotations
from American philosopher Henry David
Thoreau. Were Rajiv’s speeches used as a tem-
plate? It’s clear most of Modi’s speeches were
written by MEA babus with the aid of those in the
PMO. We can take this as a healthy sign that our
leaders are finally learning from each other.
StrikingSimilarities
During the peak of Udta
Punjab’s raging battle with
Censor Board chief Pahlaj Niha-
lani, the latter had one vocal
supporter, “Bhishm Pitamah”
Mukesh Khanna. He said that
censorship, of the kind steered
by Nihalani, was required to
save the youth and the nation,
and if freedom of expression
came in the way, it had to be
blocked. Thankfully, the Bom-
bay HC thought otherwise.
In fact, Khanna and friend
Nihalani should take a tour of
any college in Punjab and
Haryana to find out the ground
reality. Union minister Rajiv
Pratap Rudy, who has also been
saying that there is no such
problem in Punjab, should
check out some of the cam-
puses in Haryana. He would
eat his words.
UdtaSupport
Diplomatic
Consumer
—Illustrations: Uday Shankar
—Compiled by Roshni Seth
The Hindu Sena, on
June 14, celebrated
US presidential candidate
Donald Trump’s birthday
in New Delhi with a col-
orful three-tier birthday
cake. There were cut-outs
of the birthday boy
smeared with cake by the
celebrating Sena mem-
bers, who happily sported
shiny birthday hats. If the
racist Trump had heard
of these celebrations, one
wonders what his views
would have been.
SarkariFundas
On May 31, 2016, the general ad-
ministration department of the
government of Himachal Pradesh
placed ads in prominent newspapers.
The ads sought for quotes for the pur-
chase of two turbans of seven meters
each, the approved rate of which was
`50 per meter. For purchase of only two
turbans worth `700, ads worth thou-
sands were placed. The babus wanted to
follow the correct procedure, or else
there would be “audit objections”.
SkirtsInKonark
ANI’s coverage of Prime
Minister Modi’s
speeches in the US caused a
flutter. The PM is reported
to have said that in the
Konark temple in Odisha,
2000 years ago, artisans
sculpted idols of fashion-
able girls wearing skirts and
carrying purses. He said
this to emphasize that such
fashions were prevalent in
India 2000 years ago. Un-
fortunately, the Konark Sun
Temple did not even exist
that long ago. It was built
in the 13th century, and the
sculptures there are nude.
Who is writing the PM’s
speeches?
BirthdayBash
Karnataka Chief
Minister Siddara-
maiah, who is com-
mitted to the
anti-superstitions Bill,
recently bought a new
car. A crow was spot-
ted sitting on the CM’s
new car for 10 min-
utes, which led to a
live debate on Kar-
nataka TV channels,
on possible “shani
troubles” for the CM.
Sure enough, within
the next week, the
Karnataka
chief minister
purchased another
car. Now people are
wondering what will
happen if a crow sat
on his chair, or
for that matter, on the
CM himself?
CrowWoes
Modipally Venkat
of Bangalore, ha-
rassed customer of a
Samsung refrigerator,
found a novel way of
highlighting his woes.
He addressed his woes
to External Affairs
Minister Sushma
Swaraj through Twit-
ter. Pat came the reply:
“Brother I cannot help
you in the matter of re-
frigerator. I am busy
with human beings in
distress.” Maybe he
thought that he was
distressed enough, or
he wanted the Korean
ambassador hauled up
or he might have
thought that the
external affairs minis-
ter would be able to
sort out his problems
with the foreign
manufacturer.

U O T E S
Narendra Modi,
Prime Minister
I urge citizens of the world to
continue practicingYoga regularly
& makeYoga an integral part of
your lives.The benefits are many.
Hillary Clinton,
Democrat candidate
DonaldTrump says he’s the‘real
friend’of the LGBT community.
Yeah, no.
Taslima Nasrin,
author
OMG!You think women’s lives are
less important than the lives of
their husbands and children?
Virat Kohli, cricketer
How IWish I could wish you in
person on this day.The strongest
person ever. Happy Father’s Day.
Smriti Irani,
HRD minister
@AshokChoudhary mahilaon ko
‘dear’keh ke kab se sambodhit
karne lage Ashokji? (When did you
start addressing women as dear?)
Rahul Gandhi,
Cong vice-president
Prime Minister Narendra Modi
knows everything. He has no need
for experts like Raghuram Rajan.
David Cameron,
British PM
When you vote onThursday, think
how far we've come, how much
more we can achieve, and vote
Remain.
Iyad El-Baghdadi,
Arab Spring activist
If I get emails from India-based
accounts asking how to join ISIS,
who in India do I report them to?
When people say “inflation
is low, you can now turn to
stimulating growth” they
really do not understand
that these are the two sides
of the same coin… we can
never abandon inflation to
focus on growth.
—Raghuram Rajan, RBI Governor
Teresa was part of a conspiracy to
Christianize India.
—Yogi Adityanath, BJP MP
The L-G takes instruction
from Ahmed Patel… I will go
after CM like the way I took
on RBI Governor.
—-Subramanian Swamy, BJP leader
on murder allegation against party
MP Maheish Girri
Modiji, you did not file an FIR
against Robert Vadra, you did not register
an FIR against Sonia Gandhi or in any
scam which you kept recalling time after
time to become PM.
—Arvind Kejriwal, Delhi Chief Minister
EDIA-GO-ROUND
Asting operation, titled Operation Mathura and
conducted by India Today TV, has revealed
that the Akhilesh Yadav-led SP government was
aware that the followers of the little-known Azad
Bharat Vidhik Vaicharik Kranti Satyagrahi cult,
claiming allegiance to Netaji Subhas Chandra
Bose, had been stockpiling arms. The video
shows the chief of the local intelligence unit and
a sub-inspector saying: “We sent 80 reports to
the UP government in Lucknow but they
were ignored.” His revelations belied the
narrative that the clashes were an
“intelligence failure”.
Mathura sting
exposes UP govt
New print
media ads
policy
The government plans to set up a special
media cell to track provocative online con-
tent and to counter negative comments. In a
proposal presented recently, the National Se-
curity Council Secretariat (NSCS) said that a
National Media Analytics Centre (NMAC)
should be created to monitor and analyze
blogs, web portals of TV channels and news-
papers, and social media platforms such as
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.
Increase in demographics and
literacy rates is pushing India’s
entertainment and media sector to
grow steadily. Over the next four
years, it is set to exceed $40,000
million, a report has said.
“The industry is expected to
exceed $40,000 million by 2020,
growing at a compound annual
growth rate of 10.3 percent be-
tween 2016 and 2020,” according
to PricewaterhouseCoopers’
Global Entertainment and Media
Outlook 2016-20. India is currently
the biggest cinema market in the
world, it says. The report high-
lights the growth of new forms of
advertisement. Even the publishing
industry is reporting good growth
in India, it says.
Media sector likely
to exceed $40,000 m by 2020
The struggle for artis-
tic freedom against
the Censor Board con-
tinues for the makers of
Gujarati movie Salagto
Sawaal Anamat (Burn-
ing Question of Reser-
vation). The Central
Board of Film Certifica-
tion has raised ques-
tions over the motive of
the filmmakers in pick-
ing the emotive theme.
It has raised concerns
over the protagonist's
resemblance to quota
activist Hardik Patel,
currently facing sedition
charges. It has sug-
gested 100 cuts to the
film. The film’s co-pro-
ducer, Jaypratapsinh
Chauhan, said he has
filed an appeal.
Gujarati film
under CBFC cloud
The Ministry of Information
and Broadcasting has
framed a policy pertaining to
print media to promote trans-
parency in advertising. It
wants to introduce a “marking
system” to give incentives to
newspapers which have bet-
ter professional standing and
which get their circulation ver-
ified. “For the first time, the
policy introduces a new mark-
ing system to incentivize
newspapers which have a
better professional standing
and get their circulation veri-
fied by the Audit Bureau of
Circulations (ABC) or Regis-
trar of Newspapers for India
(RNI),” the statement said.
—Compiled by Tithi Mukherjee
Big Brother
is watching you

Hoping
for a
Miracle
If and when Rahul Gandhi takes
over as Congress president he has
the task of nursing a demoralized
party back to health.To do so he
will need the help and guidance of
his mother who, in recent times, has
preferred to take the backseat.
BY KALYANI SHANKAR
ILL Congress president
Sonia Gandhi over-
shadow son Rahul
Gandhi if he takes over
the party soon? Will
Rahul be able to deliver? Many give more marks
to Sonia who, despite constraints such as her for-
eign origin, has made a success of her long in-
nings as the party chief while the son is yet to
make his mark.
In many ways, it is an existential question—
who should lead the grand old party—Sonia or
Rahul? Sonia has made no secret of the fact that
W
Lede
Congress Revival
PRINCE UNCROWNED
Can one expect
Rahul Gandhi to
improve the
Congress’s
prospects? Is he
a vote catcher?
There are no clear
answers yet
slipped into Third World politics. She coped with
being the first woman Leader of the Opposition
and learnt how to speak in Parliament and out-
side. She took the initiative in 2004 to reach out
to non-BJP party leaders to build the UPA coali-
tion. Surprisingly, tall leaders like Karunanidhi,
Jyoti Basu and even Pawar accepted her leader-
ship of the UPA.
Sonia once again surprised everyone by reject-
ing the top job in 2004, choosing Manmohan
Singh for it instead. It was a bold decision and her
gamble paid off. When the Office of Profit
controversy broke out in April 2006, she promptly
resigned her Rae Bareli seat only towin it
back with a better margin. The continuation
13
she would like to hand over the baton to her son.
At the same time she is also worried about the
current crisis in the demoralized party. There is
still some suspense about when Rahul will be
elevated. One group within the Congress wants
Sonia to continue for some more time while the
other believes that Rahul should take over imme-
diately so that he will have enough time lead the
party in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. The formal
appointment apart, Rahul has in any case been
the de facto party chief since the run-up to the
2014 polls.
MOTHER AND SON
When it comes to leadership how do the mother
and son compare? The circumstances which led
to their entry into politics are quite different.
Their personalities also differ. But there are sim-
ilarities too: both have the advantage of belonging
to the Nehru-Gandhi family and they came with
a clean slate. Both had no challengers. Sonia, as
the widow of Rajiv Gandhi, declined the crown
soon after her husband’s assassination. She main-
tained a low profile for seven years until she de-
cided to join politics in 1998. Her motivation was
self-preservation and protecting the family legacy
besides keeping the seat secure for her children.
Then the party warmed the opposition
benches and many leaders quit the Congress, dis-
enchanted with the leadership of Sitaram Kesri.
There was a leadership crisis almost akin to the
current scenario. Sonia’s entry stopped the ero-
sion although the Congress continued to remain
in the opposition until 2004.
Sonia has proved her mettle despite facing ups
and downs. When Sharad Pawar, PA Sangma and
Tariq Anwar challenged her on her foreign origin
in 1999, she fought them on her own terms. The
Congress party split and Pawar launched the Na-
tionalist Congress Party.
As a political novice, she learnt on the job. In
spite of lack of experience and political skills, she
worked hard. Despite being European, she
The million-dollar question is, will Sonia
Gandhi become the Queen Mother or
continue to remain the queen? The
feudal mindset of Congressmen is
still hoping for a miracle.

of Dr Singh as prime minister for the second time
in 2009 indicated her strength and control over
the government and the party.
THINGS CHANGED
But things changed when she anointed her son as
the Congress vice-president as it created a dual
power centre. The problem became worse when
she took a backseat, allowing her son to take im-
portant decisions—some of which were disasters.
He did not have the stature that Sonia enjoyed
among the UPA allies. Because of the tug of war
between the old guard and the Rahul camp, the
former is blocking his elevation.
Since the 2014 defeat, she has been unable to
hold the flock together. The party is confused
about where it stands on issues. There are diverse
opinions on FDI in retail, GST, and economic and
foreign policy. For instance, some believe the
party should be in the forefront of demanding re-
forms in religion and take the issue straight to the
people. On the other hand, there are those who
believe that the party should stay away from re-
ligious issues.
Some also perceive weaknesses in Sonia. She
may have a high degree of self-awareness, disci-
pline and motivation but is lacking in empathy
and social skills. She knows the problems but has
no solutions. Her biggest weakness is her son to
whom she wants to hand over the baton. Second,
she believes in status quo and would rather not
disturb the present setup. That is why organiza-
tional restructuring is taking time.
COTERIE CULTURE
Moreover, Rahul wants a bigger role for the
youth. Then, the coterie culture continues for
mother and son—both are deluding themselves
by believing that all they have to do is to sit tight
and wait for Modi and the BJP to commit mis-
Lede
Congress Revival
Sonia took the initiative in 2004 to reach
out to non-BJP party leaders to build the
UPA coalition. Surprisingly, tall leaders
like M Karunanidhi, Jyoti Basu and even
Sharad Pawar accepted her leadership.
and got everything on a platter for 10 long years.
He has been given a long rope to prove himself.
How does Rahul see himself? As a philoso-
pher king or an angry young man? What is his ac-
tion plan on various issues such as agriculture,
economy, foreign policy, culture and other areas?
How does he plan to attract the youth and women
voters? What is his strategy for party rejuvena-
tion? What kind of team is he planning to build?
Above all, will he be a 24/7 politician? No clear
answers yet.
First of all, Rahul lacks the charisma of the
earlier leaders from the Nehru Gandhi family
and, second, the Congress has lost credibility
while the BJP has grown into a formidable party,
overtaking the former. The 2014 and subsequent
polls proved that Rahul is no match for Modi. He
has not nurtured any effective constituency be
takes. Sonia’s coterie points out the gains the party
made in recent elections—winning Puducherry
and improving its performance in Bengal by
emerging as the second largest party. But this is
indeed cold comfort.
The party is shrinking fast. There is an erosion
of second-rung leaders in many states. Indiscipline
and groupism are on the rise. Demoralization has
set in and also lack of faith in the leadership. The
Congress is also confused about whether it should
fight alone or opt for coalition politics. In Assam,
it contested alone and was defeated. In Tamil
Nadu, it was in the fray as a junior partner of the
DMK-led coalition and that too did not click. Now
it is talking about going it alone in UP. So nothing
seems to work as of now with a leadership crisis
staring at the party.
In such a situation what the Congress needs is
a strong leader with motivation, which is what
Rahul lacks. Can one expect him to improve the
party’s prospects? Is he a vote catcher? He came
into politics when the party returned to power
Rahul Gandhi is a superior human being.
His sense of value is far superior to
that of Mr [Narendra] Modi, who has
a remarkable ability to twist facts,
Jairam Ramesh recently said.
WINNING IS EVERYTHING
Congress workers celebrate
after Harish Rawat wins the
trust vote in Uttarakhand. If
Rahul takes charge, he will
have little time to prepare for
the crucial 2017 polls
15

it the youth, women, minorities or caste groups
in the past 12 years. Many feel that part of his
problem is the coterie of western educated advis-
ers who have no experience of grassroots politics.
The result is that no one, including Rahul, knows
what he stands for. Is he a leftist, rightist or left of
centre? Does he believe in liberal economic re-
forms? What are his views on the social sector or
on foreign policy?
However, even now it is not too late if Rahul
takes over the leadership, strategizes poll plans
and builds the party in a realistic manner. Age is
on his side as also the 130-year-old party. He can
aim for 2024 if he does not make it in 2019. The
only thing is that he should keep the Congress
alive. This is the moment for the party to think of
something radical like reorganizing itself on the
basis of policies, ideas and a vision and not de-
pend on just dynastic politics. If Rahul takes
charge in the coming weeks, he will have limited
time to prepare for the crucial assembly elections
in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Manipur, Goa,
and Punjab due early next year. He must choose
the right man for the right job and go for alliances
as the party is not in good health now.
Sonia has a good track record. She and her son
now have the task of nursing the wounded Con-
gress back to health. For reasons known to her,
she has gone back to the old guard and brought
in people like P Chidambaram, Kapil Sibal, Am-
bika Soni, Kamal Nath and Ghulam Nabi Azad as
her core team. This means the old guard will con-
tinue to play a role. The million-dollar question
is, will Sonia become the Queen Mother or con-
tinue to remain the queen? The feudal mindset of
Congressmen is still hoping for a miracle.
Lede
Congress Revival
P Chidambaram, who
was first elected to the
Lok Sabha in 1984
and has handled home
and finance for the
UPA, is part of Sonia’s
core team.
Former Union
minister Kapil Sibal
became additional
solicitor general of
India in 1989. He has
also been handpicked
by Sonia.
Ambika Soni, who
began her political
career in 1969 as an
Indira Gandhi loyalist
and was a minister in
the UPA-I government,
is also in this team.
Media Monitoring
TMM Survey
Prime Minister Modi’s foreign tour,
Bihar’s fake toppers, the blue bulls
controversy, the Kairana exodus, and
Udta Punjab’s raging battle with the
Censor Board hogged TV media news.
Small Screen, Big Thrills
Aaj Tak ABP
News
India
TV
Times
Now
India
Today
Zee
News
00:00
00:28
00:57
01:26
01:55
02:24
02:52
Kairana exodus
Bihar’s fake topper scamUdta Punjab issue
PM’s 5-nation tour
Aaj Tak ABP
News
India
TV
Times
Now
India
Today
Zee
News
Blue bulls controversy
ABP
News
Aaj
Tak
INDIA
TV
Times
Now
India
Today
Zee
News
PM’s foreign tour Fake toppers issue
Alookatthecomparitivecoverageof
twotopstories ofJune6-18,2016
00:00
00:28
00:57
01:26
01:55
02:24
02:52
Coverageofsomeofthemostpopularstories
betweenJune6-18,2016
TimespentonthePM’stourcoverage
00:00
00:28
00:57
01:26
01:55
02:24
02:52
Minutes/HoursMinutes/Hours
Minutes/Hours

Radio
AIR’s 80th Anniversary
HE newsroom would fall silent.
All eyes would turn towards the
radio. My stomach would knot
as I got ready to list the head-
lines. This was a ritual that I fol-
lowed for almost two years between 1977 and 1979,
every time I was on night shift in The Pioneer.
At that time, The Pioneer was published from
Lucknow only. It did not have a Delhi edition.
The newspaper, which began publishing in 1865
had moved to Lucknow in 1933, and was housed
in a beautiful office on Vidhan Sabha Marg. Its
British editors had introduced several practices,
one of which was to monitor the 9 pm All India
Radio news bulletin religiously.
LEGENDARY NAMES
I would take my place next to the GEC radio re-
ceiver by 8.50 pm. No one knew when that radio
set had been bought. It was old and had wobbly
knobs. I had to be very careful with the fre-
quency knob. It had a mind of its own and was
very erratic. I would turn the knob gently to fix
the frequency, adjust the volume, and wait anx-
T
18
The Nation’s
VoiceThe national broadcaster has, over the decades, left an indelible
imprint on the minds of its listeners. One of them reminiscences
about the magic it spun everyday
BY SUNIL SAXENA
HOUSE HISTORY
Members of an Afghan cultural delegation
witness an AIR program in February, 1954;
Russian experts at the AIR studios
FROMTHE ARCHIVES
Suman Kumari
participating in
Urdu play Alif Laila
se Chand Qadam
ke Fasla par,
broadcast in
August 1958
iously for the bulletin to start.
The voices and the names of the newsreaders
of that time are etched in my mind. Their diction,
their intonation, their deep and resonant voices
left a deep impression on me. Over the years,
these newsreaders—Lotika Ratnam, Moby
Clarke, Melville de Mellow and Surajit Sen—had
become legends. My mind would be mesmerized
as my fingers raced feverishly to note the head-
lines to present to the chief sub editor.
The 9 pm All India Radio news was like a life-
line for the news desk. The chief sub editor would
look at the headlines taken from the radio, and
match it with his Page 1 menu. There would be
commotion if any major story was missing.
Such was the respect that All India Radio
commanded then.
Another magical voice that will always haunt
me is that of Jasdev Singh. I have forgotten which
Olympics it was, but I can still remember the way
he choked, literally broke down, when the Indian
hockey team lost to Pakistan. There was an entire
generation that would be glued to his announce-
ment “Main Jasdev Singh bol raha hoon”, as he de-
scribed the ebb and flow of hockey matches in
which India figured in the Olympics or the
World Cup.
Before the advent of television, there were no
Republic Day celebrations in our home without
the radio conjuring images of the sound and
majesty of army columns marching down Raj-
path. Or us imagining the color and mood of In-
dependence Day festivities as the prime minister
addressed the nation from the ramparts of the
Red Fort. I would get goose bumps when All
India Radio relayed the ceremony that marked
the paying of tributes by the prime minister at
Amar Jawan Jyoti.
CRICKETING LORE
But one moment that I will always cherish is
when the Lucknow station of All India Radio in-
vited me to interview Nari Contractor, the Indian
captain who was felled by a Charlie Griffith
bouncer in the West Indies in 1962. I had only
read about the incident, and the interview gave
me an opportunity to learn what had actually
happened. Nari Contractor was very honest, and
there are two interesting anecdotes that I will al-
ways remember from that interview.
The first was what Frank Worrell, the then
West Indies captain, told Contractor. Worrell, ac-
cording to Contractor, had suggested that it was
better to get out than get hit. Such was the fear
that Griffith evoked. Contractor clearly did not
take the advice seriously. He got hit, had to un-
dergo multiple surgeries, and could not play for
India again.
The second was the change in the fortunes of
Indian cricketers. Contractor recalled that,
19
Another magical voice that will always
haunt me is that of Jasdev Singh. I can
still remember the way he choked, literally
broke down, when the Indian hockey team
lost to Pakistan in the Olympics.

down by All India Radio was when it chose to stay
silent on the gunning down of Prime Minister In-
dira Gandhi. At that time, I worked for The Times
Of India in Lucknow. You can imagine the confu-
sion in the newsroom when the BBC, and not the
Indian broadcaster, informed the world at 1 pm
that Mrs Gandhi had been shot dead. We were all
on tenterhooks, hoping that, for once, the BBC
would be proved wrong. It was only late in the
evening that a colleague of mine told me that All
India Radio had finally broken the news. Mrs
Gandhi was dead. Why so late, I wondered.
I hardly listen to All India Radio now. The
9 pm bulletin, which was such an important
source of news at one time, seems to be caught in
a time warp. There are new news readers, whose
names and voices I hardly recognize. But what
hurts me most is the failure of All India Radio to
adapt itself to the news realities of today. It con-
tinues to live in the 20th century.
The writer is Dean, School of
Communication, GD Goenka University.
when India played in Kanpur, the Indian crick-
eters were paid their professional fees in coins.
The coins, which came from the gate collections,
were stuffed in a thaili (cotton bag) and handed
over to the cricketers. A Test fee at that time was
`1,100 or so, I remember Contractor telling me.
The stories left me dumbfounded.
VIVIDH BHARTI
But my best memories of All India Radio stem
from Vividh Bharti. There was no way I could
miss Jaimala, the one-hour music program. Bhule
Bisre Geet was another memorable one. So was
Hawa Mahal. I could never figure out why a pro-
gram that broadcast light-hearted skits was
called Hawa Mahal. What was the connection?
Incidentally, I also hated the commercial breaks.
When they were introduced in 1967, I was too
young to understand why they were introduced.
But how I wished that Vividh Bharti would do
away with them.
However, the one time that I felt terribly let
20
Melville de
Mellow was a
highly versatile
broadcaster
remembered
for his reports
on various
landmark events.
Radio
Legendary
cricketer Nari
Contractor once
regaled listeners
with rare
anecdotes in
an All India
Radio interview.
Jasdev Singh
was India’s voice
at the Olympics.
He kept a whole
generation
glued to his
hockey
broadcasts.
Journalist and
newsreader
Surajit Sen fasci-
nated listeners
with his deep
baritone and was
a role model for
a generation.
ONLY THE STORIES
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2^]cPRc)4=2^d]XRPcX^]b?ec;cS0(BTRc^a%'6PdcP1dSSW=PVPa=830D?! (
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JusticeShivaKirtiSingh JusticeDipakMisra

Radio, We Still
Listeners, newsreaders and artistes remember growing up with AIR
BY VON TEAM
Radio
Those Wonder Years
One of my earliest memories of
listening to the radio is that
of a feeling of bewilderment. I
would always wonder as to how so
many people could become so
small that they could fit inside a
radio set. It was much later in
childhood that I arrived at an
understanding of how the
radio works.
In my growing years, my fa-
vorite programs were Hawa
Mahal, Geetmala, Fauji Bhaiyon
Ke Liye and Geeton Bhari Kahani.
In news, it was Devki Nandan
Pandey and Indu Wahi. Be it Re-
public Day or a cricket match,
radio was the only means to catch
up on what was happening. Any-
where in the country, you could
spot people cycling to their desti-
nations with a transistor dangling
on the handle.
Newsreaders and other anchors
of AIR enjoyed the celebrity status
which film stars enjoy today. One
of my sisters started doing a pro-
gram on Yuvavani and she became
a celebrity in the locality. The
funny thing was that the news-
readers spoke in the same tone
even when they were off air. We
would wonder whether they ever
spoke normally. Many eminent lit-
erary figures used to read their
works on radio and this also helped
in the popularization of literature.
Sanjay Chauhan, screenwriter of
Paan Singh Tomar and I am Kalam
Gift of Brevity
My association with AIR dates to my student
days in LSR, when my plays were published
in the college magazine. One day, the
principal received a call from AIR. They had
liked one of my plays in the college magazine
and wanted to broadcast it. I was called to AIR to
be present while the rehearsals were underway.
They took my approval for whatever changes
they wanted in the script. After that, I also wrote
scripts for the Dilli Darpan program of Yuvavani.
I also learnt how to express my views in fewer
words. This was important because in my field—
Hindi literature—people tend to get carried away
and talk in detail. There’s a Hindi phrase, gaagar
mein saagar, and radio taught me that.
Dr Madhuri Subodh, retired LSR professor,
playwright and theater director
Love You!
Riddles and Life Hacks
For me, Sunday mornings meant huddling
around the radio set with my sisters and lis-
tening intently to Galpo Dadur Ashar. Clever rid-
dles and folktales would mesmerize those who
grew up knowing the radio as the only means of
entertainment. We were a family of movie buffs
and as we grew up, shows like Geetmala that
played Hindi film songs and Anurodher Ashar
that played a bouquet of Bengali song requests
were highly cherished. As life went on and we got
married, radio shows remained our constant com-
panion at times of leisure. The children’s stories
gave way to Mahila Mahal where we learnt tips
about how to manage our new households and Be-
ladi, whose recipes I follow even today. I have
copies of her recipe books that she later published.
Susmita Ghoshal, housewife
Challenging and Exciting
My family’s association with
AIR has been long. My fa-
ther—Krishna Chandra Sharma
Bhikkhu, a Hindi litterateur—
joined AIR as program executive
and went on to become director-
general. Thanks to the transfers,
we had a great childhood. So many
literary figures walked into AIR
offices—Amrita Pritam, Amrit Lal
Nagar, Dharamvir Bharati, Kam-
leshwar, Rajendra Yadav. We got
to see them at close quarters.
I was a lecturer of ancient In-
dian history in Patna. When I
moved to Delhi, I didn’t get a col-
lege job here. I then applied for a
vacancy as a casual newsreader.
It has been a challenging and
exciting experience. There have
been so many instances worth re-
counting. Once, for the 8am bul-
letin, the approval of the DG had
not come even by 7.57. Even after
the approval came, the matter
would have to be translated into
Hindi. There was total commotion.
As I was rushing to the recording
studio, I fell, fracturing my leg.
On another occasion, I pre-
pared a bulletin with just about 45
lines for senior newsreader Ra-
manuj Prasad Singh, because his
pace was slow. At the last moment
he got busy with a phone call and
asked me to read the bulletin in-
stead. That day, I had to read
extra slow.
I got a big pat on my back with
The Statesman’s Listening Post,
which our officers used to take
very seriously back then, praising
me. The comment I got was: “Good
script and read very nicely by a
new voice called Shubhra.
Shubhra Sharma, retired news-
reader. Her blog is called Radionamaa

Special money order
Like any other Bengali, I have
fond memories connected
to AIR. Having a knack for Indian
classical music, I especially looked
forward to Sangeet Shikshar
Asar, a music training program
conducted by Pankaj Kumar
Mallik. It was the late 1950s. I
was 11 years old when I was
given an opportunity to play the
sitar on the popular kids’ show,
Galpo Dadur Ashar. My tutor,
Gopal Gangopadhyay, a staff
artiste at AIR, encouraged me to
audition. I was invited to play
twice and the remuneration was
`5, a huge amount for a child. It
was sent by money order.
One other thing about AIR
which I must mention is that
there is this one program that,
ever since its inception in the
1970s, has never been missed by
anyone in our family. It is Biren-
dra Krishna Bhadra’s Chandi-
paath during Mahalaya. At the
break of dawn, his scintillating
voice would awake us all. Even
today, the entire family tunes into
AIR every Mahalaya.
Mukut Ghoshal, sitar player
My Sunny
Moment
Iwork as a production assis-
tant at AIR now but my first
contact with it took place when
I was chosen for a children’s
show, Balsang, in 1999. I was
always interested in theater and
we heard that even radio of-
fered an opportunity. Manjul
Kishor Verma from NSD had
conducted a workshop which I
was part of. I went to the audi-
tions and got selected for
Balsang, where I was a drama
artiste for years. My favorite
show was Hawa Mahal though.
I found the essence of theater in
those 15 minutes that Hawa
Mahal was aired.
Vinay Srivastava, drama artiste
The Delhi station of the Indian
State Broadcasting service began
transmission on January 1, 1936. The
first news bulletin was broadcasted
on January 19.
The All India Radio (AIR) was a
witness to many historical events that
were pivotal turning points for the
world. The formal declaration of the
Second World War was made on Sep-
tember 3, 1939.
On October 24, 1941, AIR came
under the department of information
and broadcasting. On June 3, 1947,
there were broadcasts by Lord
Mountbatten, MA Jinnah, Jawaharlal
Nehru and Baldev Singh regarding
the Partition of India.
The library of the sound archives
of AIR is now housed near the Broad-
casting House (Studio) annexe. It
has 147 tapes of Mahatma Gandhi’s
voice and 3,676 tapes of Jawaharlal
Nehru’s speeches.
AIR first broadcast Gandhiji’s
voice when he addressed the Asian
Relations Conference held in Delhi in
April 1947. In May 1947, when he
went to Bengal, the Calcutta station
sought permission, which was readily
given, to record his post-prayer ad-
dresses at Sodepur Ashram for subse-
quent broadcast.
Akashvani archives also have a
document in English of an exclusive
interview which Gandhiji gave to a
representative of AIR. It was given in
Gujarati but translated into English
for use.
On April 1 1976, Doordarshan
(TV) separated from AIR.
By Tithi Mukherjee
Steeped
in History
Source: Indian Broadcasting by HR Luthra, Publications
Division, Government of India (1986), Special Edition:
Saakshi, Infinity Design Studio, New Delhi (2003)
Radio
Authentic and
Mesmerizing
Even with changing times, AIR has
remained the one constant in the
50 autumns that I have seen till now.
We have grown up with AIR. It kept us
insulated from the rigmarole of con-
sumerism. Many of its programs like
Binaca Geet Mala, Vividh Bharati and
FM mesmerize us even today. Some of
these programs brought us in touch
with the most authentic, melodious and
pristine music, justifying the adage,
old is gold.
Rajesh Kumar, senior marketing professional
Yesterday
Once More
The radio was part
our existence at a
time when the television
was yet to pose a chal-
lenge. We grew up with
AIR News, Vividh
Bharati and evergreen
programs like Bhule
Bisre Geet, Hawa Mahal
and Binaca Geetmala.
Today, radio is more
fast-paced with its
avalanche of FM chan-
nels. Commercialization
is pervasive. But I miss
the romanticism con-
nected with the radio.
Subrata Dasgupta,
housewife
Bonding over
Bournvita Quiz
From my childhood till my
college days, AIR was our
gateway to the world through
news broadcasts, national and
international sports coverage,
public awareness programs
and numerous cultural events,
both during normal times and
amidst exigencies, such as the
Bangladesh War of 1971. The
day would start with the signa-
ture tune of AIR as my father
late Moni Gopal Ghosh, a pro-
gram executive officer at the
music section of AIR Calcutta,
would switch on Akashvani
Delhi, Calcutta A or Calcutta B,
to monitor items. At night, he
often listened to the
Panchrangi Karyakram. My
adolescence was marked with
songs from Aap Ki Farrmaish
on Vividh Bharati.
Sunday afternoons were a
get-together at the lunch table
in the company of Bournvita
Quiz Contest and other quality
programs. The hallmark of AIR
was its authenticity, accuracy
and timely presentation of infor-
mation.
Dr. Partha Pratim Ghosh, Associ-
ate Professor, St Xavier’s College,
Source of
infotainment
When we were young, there was no
other source of entertainment
and information. Binaca Geetmala and
Hawa Mahal were programs that the
entire family eagerly waited for. The
late Devki Nandan Pandey used to
present the news in a crisp and sharp
manner. He was one of the first news-
readers of AIR.
Ganga Bhandari, housewife

financially viable superpower.
We can speak boldly about the lack of sheets
and pillows and blankets, but somehow find it
difficult to bring ourselves to mention toilets.
That is a subject we are not supposed to mention,
it's not done. It is considered improper, unbecom-
ing. Sharam aathi hai (we feel ashamed). –a
woman from UP travelling by bus.
“Sharam” (shame) is what being a woman is
all about, “even if it means attending to perfectly
natural and normal functions. And that continues
to be so, even today, in spite of all the advances
that the female half of the population has chalked
up in various fields in India”, wrote Sakuntala
Narisimhan in India Together, more than a
decade ago.
Nothing seems to have changed. This situa-
tion is probably shoddier today even though the
theory of gender parity is protected in the Indian
constitution in its Preamble, Fundamental Rights,
Fundamental Duties and Directive Principles.
The constitution not only grants egalitarianism
HAVE used big holes dug from the
ground or dig one myself, to taking
a shower across an overflowing
poopoo holes, to tripping and
falling into a poopy sewage...”
“Generally it is very difficult to find public toi-
lets for women. Men have the last ditch option of
peeing against walls. Better empty your bladder
before you head out, and be within reach of a de-
cent restaurant or hotel or movie theatre etc.”
“…Used one outside a temple in south India.
It was just an open drain that flowed through
each of the cubicles. After that experience, I al-
ways used the ones in restaurants!”
The above quotes from tourist blogs on the in-
ternet sum up many of the common experiences
of both foreign and domestic tourists in India.
This pathetic situation is particularly worri-
some and in need of swift amelioration not only
because of the gender issues involved but also be-
cause it also smudges the reflection of a country
that likes to represent itself as an budding world
I
Inderjit Badhwar
Shame
onusThe abysmal lack of toilet facilities for
women is a blot on this country’s image
“
to women, but also empowers the State to imple-
ment procedures of affirmative discrimination in
support of women.
India’s constitution states that special
attention will be given to the needs of women in
the provision of safe drinking water, sewage dis-
posal, toilet facilities and sanitation within acces-
sible reach. Women’s participation will be ensured
in the planning, delivery and maintenance of
such services.
The United Nations estimates that 600 million
people or 55 percent of Indians still defecate
outside, more than 60 years after the
scrupulously clean independence leader, Ma-
hatma Gandhi, first talked of the responsible dis-
posal of human waste.
The same article quoted a pathetic finding
from that year’s latest Human Development Re-
port. It estimated that only 31 percent of the pop-
ulation in India has adequate sanitation facilities
as against 73 percent in Vietnam and 68 percent
in Zimbabwe, for instance. Among migrant
workers, however, this percentage becomes even
lower, because a temporary shelter is rarely seen
as more than a room with a roof. Studies show
that even if one were to consider demographics
alone, worldwide the majority of toilet-users are
women. Yet, women have fewer facilities than
men, said the report.
India has a huge task ahead to improve sani-
tation, not just because of its impact on health
and the spread of diseases like diarrhea, which
UNICEF says kills 1,000 Indian children aged
under five every day but also because of the mas-
sively unequal burden it places on women.
To demonstrate how little progress has been
made, it is shameful to note that on World Toilet
Day in 2009 the world’s leading dailies and web-
sites carried this story on India: “Embarrassment
caused by lack of toilet facilities means women
and girls often wait all day until it is dark to go to
the toilet, increasing their chances of infections
and exposing them to violence or even snake bites
as they seek out remote places.”
NOWHERETO GO
In the absence of
toilets, women
typically walk longer
distances and seek
remoter spots to
answer nature’s call

on the other hand will ask your opinion on what
the bathroom was like before they use the wash-
room. They will also offer their own detailed de-
scription of the facility when they are done,” a
report observes.
It adds: “Given the existent cultural con-
straints on women, women do not relieve them-
selves in public the way men do. Their dignity is
at stake. Educated and well-dressed men will get
out of a car and urinate by the roadside without
feeling abashed—a state of mind few women, rich
or poor, young or old can reach. Women tend to
hold on, control and force their bodies into pun-
ishing (and often harmful) restraints because that
is what socio-cultural norms decree.”
The earning from tourism is not negligible ei-
ther, both in the domestic sector and interna-
tional sector. By 2020, tourism could contribute
`8,50,000 crore to the GDP, says World Travel
and Tourism Council (WTTC), a global forum
for business leaders in the travel and tourism in-
dustry. Tourism is the largest service industry in
India with a contribution of 6.23 percent to the
national GDP and 8.78 percent of the total em-
ployment in India.
WTTC has also named India along
with China as one of the fastest growing
tourism industries for the next 10 to 15
years, saying “India will be a tourism
hotspot from 2009-2018”.
But poor sanitary facilities may sim-
ply reverse this situation.
Here are some reality checks from
various credible news and websites and
tourist accounts:
* Kolkata’s Victoria Memorial lacks
restrooms. The only one available for the
tourists is outside the main gate and in
the scorching heat it was a long walk.
* During a trip to the Mysore Palace,
a mother from Lucknow was horrified
as her nine-year-old daughter Shalini
had to go to the toilet barefoot. “You
Poor sanitation and the illnesses it causes
cost the Indian economy `12 billion (US $255
million dollars) a year, according to the health
ministry.
Medical research shows that, due to a number
of gynecological factors, women tend to urinate
more frequently than men (Office of Research on
Women’s Health, 1991, National Institutes of
Health, Washington DC). Women also take twice
as long to urinate as men, a consequence of
anatomical differences and clothing. As a result,
women need more toilets for more reasons. And
yet they have fewer, inadequate facilities. Recent
studies show that women’s toilets, where they do
exist, have only half as many fixtures as men's do.
In extreme instances, there are no women’s toilets
at all.
“When it comes to using non-western and
often, sub-standard bathroom facilities, men are
far less concerned and they get things done a lot
faster than women. Men use the outdoors with-
out the onus of “shame.” They are less squeamish
than women about wet seats, messy floors and
foul smells. They go in, use the “loo,” come out
and rarely comment on their experience. Women,
India has a
huge task
ahead to
improve
sanitation.
Poor
sanitation
and the
illnesses it
causes cost
the Indian
economy
`12 billion
a year,
according to
the health
ministry.
Inderjit Badhwar
Column
CLEANUP ACT
PM Narendra Modi
launches the Swacch
Bharat Mission
have to walk through the palace without any
footwear and the toilets are inside. The toilets
were unclean and flooded with dirty water and
trash,” the mother reported.
* Pilgrimage tourists to Bodhgaya, Shirdi and
Mcleodgunj, unanimously agree that the situation
has been worsening every year, with heaps of
garbage, overflowing drains and lack of toilet fa-
cilities for women.
*Strange but true: The Tribune reported in
2010 that Amritsar city, despite being a great pil-
grimage and commercial hub, does not have a
single public toilet or urinal for women or per-
sons with disabilities, provided by the municipal
authorities. This shocking reality was exposed
following a submission under the RTI Act with
the local government.
Is this the real meaning of the “Incredible
India” brand? Or as one observer remarked: “Is
the only solution for women affected by the lim-
ited access to toilet facilities to reduce as far as
possible their need to use a toilet by urging them
not to drink water even when they are thirsty?
This in turn means that their health suffers, be-
cause denying the body sufficient fluid intake can
result in kidney problems and other illnesses,
some of them serious.”
What riveted my attention on this subject is a
petition by Vasudeva Sharma of Bengaluru now
doing the social media rounds on Change.org. I
will reproduce a relevant portion of it because I
support it with all my heart and soul:
“The Government needs to fix this huge prob-
lem with the Indian transport system. What is the
point of futuristic highways and smart cities if
women can’t use these highways? Men have never
had a problem because they just go behind the
nearest tree and relieve themselves. Women are
left with unhygienic or outright dangerous op-
tions like going into the nearby bushes, with
strange men lurking around. Once in a while
there might be paid toilets. Even here, the hygiene
is horrible. What is worse is that men can do their
business for 1 or 2 rupees. Women and children
too are charged 5 to 15 rupees. Isn’t this sheer dis-
crimination? We pay lots of taxes and cesses these
days. It is our right as Indian citizens to have de-
cent and safe infrastructure, especially for travel.
Let’s raise our voices so that Indian women can
travel knowing that they don’t have to suffer with-
out a bathroom stop for hours on end. Sign and
share this petition with everyone you know. If all
of us get together and speak up, we can get Min-
ister of Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari,
to pay attention and prioritize a solution to this
problem.”
Given the exis-
tent cultural
constraints on
women, they
do not relieve
themselves
in public.
Educated and
well-dressed
men will
urinate by
the roadside
without feeling
abashed—a
state of mind
few women
can reach.
LOUD AND CLEAR
A popular ad promoting
the building and use
of toilets aired by the
health ministry

What is the
significance of an
apology without
repentance? What can
it atone for when it is
100 years too late? And
what about those who
refuse to perform even
this lip service?
BY SHAILAJA PARAMATHMA
OU could say May 2016 was
the month of apologies when
we witnessed world leaders
owning up the dark chapters
in the history of their coun-
tries. Canadian Prime Minis-
ter Justin Trudeau delivered an apology in the
House of Commons on May 18 for an incident
that took place over a century ago. Trudeau said:
“Today, while knowing that no words can fully
erase the pain and suffering experienced by the
Y
Spotlight
Expressing Remorse
RHETORIC
AND REALITY
US President
Barack Obama
(right) and Japan-
ese Prime Minister
Shinzo Abe at
Hiroshima Peace
Memorial Park in
Hiroshima, Japan
Belated apologies
and symbolisms
in his speech. Interestingly, Obama is the first US
President to visit Hiroshima while in office.
For events where no justice is no longer pos-
sible, when an apology surfaces, it might provide
closure for perpetrators and victims alike. But as
Julian Baggini, the British philosopher, said in an
article in The Guardian: “In law, forgiveness can
only supplement justice, it cannot supplant it.”
Justice and accountability for a wrong done must
go hand in hand.
Psychologist Dr Bhavna Chadha, Head, cor-
porate relations and business alliances at Delhi’s
Pearl Academy, echoes this viewpoint: “Of course
justice is what defines acknowledgement of
wrong and existence of a social order but in my
understanding justice and apology are two differ-
ent things. Apology is asking for an unconditional
acceptance of the wrong done with a strong un-
dercurrent of forgiveness and forgetting. On
passengers—I offer a sincere apology on behalf of
the government for the laws in force at the time
that allowed Canada to be indifferent to the plight
of the passengers of the Komagata Maru.”
His reference was to the Japanese ship Koma-
gata Maru that carried 376 Indians in 1914 to
Canada. The voyage turned into a nightmare for
the passengers, among them 340 Sikhs, who were
seeking immigration into Canada. They were un-
ceremoniously refused entry after a grueling wait
of two months in Vancouver.
BETTER LATE THAN NEVER?
Are such belated apologies of any significance?
Many say these are public acknowledgements by
a nation which seeks pardon for acts of injustice
in the past. Says Professor Ajay Darshan Behera
at the Academy of International Studies, Jamia
Millia Islamia, New Delhi, of the Canadian apol-
ogy which came 102 years after the Komagata
Maru incident : “Acceptance of a past crime and
apology for it is a public declaration that such an
act will not be committed in the future.”
Jaskaran Sandhu, who is a member of the
World Sikh Organization, agrees that this apology
had “a lot of symbolic value for everyone”. He said
on a Canadian news channel: “I think the com-
munity was pleasantly surprised; I don’t think
anyone saw this coming, to be honest.”
Around two weeks later, on May 27, US Pres-
ident Barack Obama, during his visit to the Hi-
roshima Peace Memorial, made apologetic
overtures such as these: “The memory of August
6, 1945, must never fade…. It fuels our moral
imagination. It allows us to change.” And, “Hi-
roshima and Nagasaki are known not as the dawn
of atomic warfare but as the start of our own
moral awakening.”
However, answering questions from various
American media houses, he said that he will not
apologize for the atomic bombing of Hiroshima
and Nagasaki which ended World War II and
carefully avoided the use of the word “apology”
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
delivered a formal apology in the
House of Commons on May 18 for
an incident that took place more
than a century ago.
INTHEIR SHOES
Canadian Prime
Minister Justin
Trudeau talks to a
citizen during the
Baisakhi festival at
Parliament Hill in
Ottawa, Canada

the other hand, justice is based on reprimanding
so as to understand the others’ loss.” She adds that
the two taken together complete the picture.
INDIAN CONNECTION
Back home, there are those who have steadfastly
denied being in the wrong, thereby depriving the
victims of a sense of closure.
According to Prof Behera, when the issue is
culpability, as long as it is not proven, an apology
falls in a grey area, but when proven, “the law of
the land should take over. It is difficult to hold
government or the regimes in power culpable for
riots and collective violence. Generally, apologies
are offered by leaders in positions of responsibil-
ity who cannot be held directly accountable for
the act. Apologies would only follow, first, an ac-
ceptance of the fact that a crime against humanity
has been committed and, second, it would be ac-
companied by some remorse. In the case of the
1984 and 2002 riots, we still have to indict the
guilty. I don’t think apologies will follow as that
would mean acceptance of guilt and the possibil-
ities of conviction under the law of the land.”
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been
asked innumerable times about the communal vi-
olence that left thousands dead in Gujarat in 2002
when he was the Chief Minister of the state. In an
interview to ANI in 2014, he defiantly rebuffed
the demand for an apology, saying: “If he (Modi)
has really committed a crime, he should not be
pardoned. What is the system of pardoning peo-
ple through apology? There should be no apol-
ogy. Modi should never be pardoned.”
Professor Shiv Visvanathan, School of Law,
OP Jindal Global University, wrote in The Hindu
in April 2016, “…after nearly two years in office
as Prime Minister, Mr Modi does not have the
makings of a Willy Brandt. Truth and healing are
still remote to the politics of the majoritarian
Bharatiya Janata Party. The very act of apologiz-
ing and forgiveness reiterates the importance of
memory and the vitality of the community as a
link between past, present and future. It raises the
question of responsibility for the past and its in-
justices. Somehow, for many politicians, the past
is a different country for which they have no
responsibility.”
The Gujarat riots of 2002, described as a
pogrom by many, claimed thousands of lives and
changed several more for the worse. The first im-
ages that its mention conjures up are those of
Qutubuddin Ansari, wearing a shirt streaked with
blood, pleading for mercy with folded hands, his
eyes brimming with tears, juxtaposed with that of
Ashok Bhavanbhai Parmar a.k.a. Ashok Mochi,
sporting a black beard and saffron-colored Ba-
jrang Dal bandana, standing with both arms aloft,
holding an iron rod in one.
Twelve years later, in 2014 journalist-activist
CHILLING STORIES
(Below, left) File
photos of the
anti-Sikh riots
of 1984
The then prime minister
Dr Manmohan Singh (below, right)
apologized in Parliament, saying:
“I have no hesitation in apologizing
to the Sikh community.”
Spotlight
Expressing Remorse
often come and apologize to us for the Gujarat vi-
olence. But we tell them, as you would have, that
it is not they who must feel guilty.”
In early June, when the verdict on the Gulbarg
Society massacre came out, a dejected Zakia Jafri,
widow of the ex-Congress leader, was quoted by
the media as saying: “We prayed thinking the ver-
dict would be in our favor. But when I watched
on TV that 36 had been acquitted and 24 con-
victed, my heart broke. We are all unhappy
Kaleem Siddiqui brought them together in a sem-
inar titled “A Decade of Genocide”, organized by
the Communist Party of India in Kerala. Speak-
ing at the seminar, Mochi apologized to Ansari
and to the entire Muslim community for the
killings of 2002. Mochi, who has been trying to
improve his “image of a communal zealot”, was
acquitted by the lower courts for lack of evidence.
Ansari said: “Mochi is far better than Narendra
Modi because while Mochi has apologized openly
at the seminar, Modi is still to apologize for the
killing of innocent Muslims.”
Nishrin Jafri, daughter of ex-Congress MP
Ahsan Jafri, who was one of the 69 people mur-
dered in the bloodbath that took place in the Gul-
barg Society in Ahmedabad, wrote in the blog,
“Bless us, Abba!”: “It was hard for me even to be-
lieve that he is no more, that he was taken away
so untimely and with such cruelty and brutality.
As he was burnt and we did not find his body,
there is no closure for me on his death. …I still
fail to control my emotions while thinking about
the sword that ripped him, the fire that burnt
him, the people who killed him… Most of our
Hindu friends express regret and shame over
what a few misguided radicals who believed they
were Hindus did to you and to the thousands of
other innocent people in Gulbarg Society and in
Gujarat. Bearing a feeling of guilt, these friends
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been
asked innumerable times about the
communal violence that left hundreds
dead in Gujarat in 2002 when he was
the chief minister of the state.
LONG ROADTO JUSTICE
(Clockwise from top
left) Prime Minister
Narendra Modi;
‘Face’ of the Gujarat
riots, tailor Qutubud-
din Ansari; Zakia
Jafri, widow of
ex-Congress MP
Ahsan Jafri, who was
killed in the
bloodbath in
Ahmedabad

with this judgment. There might have been some-
thing wanting in the police investigations.”
A discussion on the topic of apology for the
Gujarat killings inevitably leads to the anti-Sikh
riots that followed Prime Minister Indira
Gandhi’s assassination in 1984. In 2005, the then
prime minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, apologized
in Parliament, saying: “I have no hesitation in
apologizing to the Sikh community. I apologize
not only to the Sikh community, but to the whole
Indian nation because what took place in 1984 is
the negation of the concept of nationhood en-
shrined in our Constitution.” Dr Singh’s action
was hailed by some as a “singular act of political
courage… almost Gandhian” in nature.
When talking of apology, a repentance accom-
panying it is of cardinal significance. Dr Chadha
explains: “Apology could just be a tool for some-
one to sort out the conflict but without repen-
tance it’s only at the surface level that things
change. You can only touch lives and relieve them
from anguish when through repentance you are
able to reach the core. They are both independent
of each other but only make sense when they
come together. Otherwise both are emotions that
are capable of standing alone in your psyche.”
Greek philosopher Plato said: “The difficulty,
my friends, is not to avoid death, but to avoid un-
righteousness; for that runs faster than death.”
And that brings us to the Nellie massacre. Thirty-
three years ago, on February 18, 1983, within the
span of a day, more than 2,000 Muslims were
killed in Nellie and the surrounding villages in
Assam. People’s homes were burnt down and
their fields destroyed. The incident is only on the
margins of India’s public history, making the need
to set right the wrongs done, greater.
Filmmaker Subasri Krishnan’s documentary
film on the massacre—“What the Fields
Remember”—attempts to describe why this
episode seems to hold little significance in public
memory today. In an article in The Caravan, she
writes: “The answer may lie at the nexus of ques-
tionable political decisions, an ineffective legal
system, an indifferent media and the lack of po-
litical representation for Bengali Muslims in
Assam. Our collective memories have conve-
niently forgotten it, because to revisit what hap-
pened on 18 February 1983 makes us accountable
too, not just for what happened in Nellie and
those thirteen villages, but for all other places and
people whose histories we have willfully chosen
to forget.”
Filmmaker Subasri Krishnan (above)
has made a documentary film on the
Nellie massacre of February 1983, in
which over 2,000 Muslims were
killed within the span of a day.
Facebook
Spotlight
Expressing Remorse
S THE WORLD TURNS
Monirul Islam, the chief of
Bangladesh police’s
counter-terrorism unit, revealed
in an interview to The New York
Times the names of two radical
Islamist groups, Ansar al-Islam
and Jama’atul Mujahedeen
Bangladesh, in relation with the
murders of bloggers, atheists and
gay rights campaigners in the
country since 2013. The top cop
was dismissive of claims of re-
sponsibility made by Al-Qaeda
and IS for these killings.
Meanwhile, a teenager has
died in police custody in
Bangladesh just days after he
and two others allegedly
wounded a math teacher.
Golam Faizullah Fahim, 19,
was suspected of being a
member of the Hizb ut-Tahrir.
Bangladesh police chief
zeroes in on terror outfits
Reynaldo Gonzalez, father of a young woman
killed in the Paris massacre that took place
last November, is suing Google, Facebook and
Twitter. He claims that, in violation of the law,
these companies provided “material support” to
extremists. ABC News reported that the suit
states that the companies “knowingly permit-
ted” the Islamic state group, referred to in the
complaint as “IS”, to recruit members, raise
money and spread “extremist propaganda” via
their social media services. In statements,
Facebook and Twitter said that the Gonzalez
lawsuit is without merit. The companies also
stated that they were against extremism.
Fox News, a right-wing media
house, has joined a media
coalition asking for the release and
full access to the depositions Re-
publican presidential nominee
Donald Trump gave in a class-ac-
tion lawsuit over his Trump Univer-
sity real estate seminar program.
Lawyers for the media coalition ar-
gued in favor of the release, say-
ing: “The strong public interest in
this case, which involves serious
allegations of fraud that have be-
come a prominent issue in the
2016 presidential campaign,
weighs in favor of public disclo-
sure of materials produced in the
course of the litigation.”
Media houses close
ranks to get Trump papers
—Compiled by Shailaja Paramathma
Paris massacre:
Father sues social media
David Gilkey (right, in the photo),
an American photographer and
videographer for National Public
Radio, was killed along with his
Afghan translator, Zabihullah Tamanna
(left), in a Taliban ambush in southern
Afghanistan, as confirmed by the
Afghan military and later by NPR,
reports The New York Times. Gilkey
was an award-winning journalist who
had extensive experience covering
conflicts in Gaza, South Africa, Iraq,
the Balkans and Afghanistan. It is
reported that the journalists were in a
five-vehicle special forces convoy
driving on the main road from Lashkar
Gah, the capital of Helmand Province,
to Marja when Taliban insurgents fired
at the convoy.
Award-winning journalist,
translator killed in Afghanistan

Modi’s US appeasing did not land India a
place as global strategic and defense partner
BY SHAILAJA PARAMATHMA
arendra Modi’s aspiration
of making India a “global
strategic and defence part-
ner” of the US were dashed
on June 15 when the US
senate failed to recognize India as a partner. Since
Modi became prime minister a lot has been said
about the unrivalled revival of Indo-US relation-
ship and during his latest and third visit to the
US, much was expected. Also, Modi and his PR
team have never lost an opportunity to stress on
building conviviality between Modi and Obama.
Modi’s desire to be in the good books of the
US made him begin his latest visit by a stop at the
Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. There
he paid homage to the Tomb of the Unknowns,
where the remains of unidentified American sol-
diers who fought in Vietnam are interred.
This seeming endorsement of the barbarities
of the Vietnam War naturally made some question
N
Opinion
Diplomacy
India
Must
Look East
and also
Act East
if Modi actually believed that wars translate into
inhuman savagery carried out by the army to-
wards civilians. However, the larger consensus was
that laying wreaths on tombs of those accused of
war crimes was not just insensitive but also a case
of misplaced priorities, especially as Vietnam is
geographically and ideologically closer to us than
the US. However, not a big deal was made out of
it as the US then was on the verge of recognizing
India as a major defense partner.
Now when that anxiety has been put to rest,
India needs to remember that we are a status quo
power, which, since Independence, has only been
to war a handful of times. Juxtapose this with
what Kris Roman, director of geopolitical re-
search center Euro-Rus, said about America’s
stand on war: “The whole (US) economy is built
on the military theme: to maintain its economic
growth, the US needs a war every four years, oth-
erwise the economic growth slows down.”
LOOK EAST
Instead of tirelessly serenading the US, it would
be better suited to India’s growth to try and
make our rapprochement easier but developing
meaningful links with this region is what India
has tended to ignore time and again.
There is a lot to be achieved from this coming
together, from trade to economics to better secu-
rity of the region. This region also presents an op-
portunity for ambitious India, geographically and
politically, to emerge as a regional power by
mounting a credible challenge to China.
Aggressive wooing of the US did not work in
our favor this time; Modi should learn his lesson
that in matters of the state, personal friendships
do not have any place. India should first try
and become a responsible regional power
before dreaming of being inducted into the global
power club.
strengthen ties with South and South East Asia;
where despite being the largest nation of the re-
gion, it does not garner the maximum respect.
According to ex-prime minister Dr Manmo-
han Singh, India and the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations (ASEAN), “constitute a commu-
nity of 1.8 billion people, representing one-fourth
of humanity, with a combined GDP of $3.8 tril-
lion” and therefore “it is only natural that
India should attach the highest priority to its re-
lationship with ASEAN.” In 2010, Manmohan
Singh prioritized the Look East Policy over a visit
to New York to attend the United Nations Gen-
eral Assembly.
The “Look East Policy”, recently rechristened
“Act East” by the Modi government, was devel-
oped and enacted during PV Narasimha Rao’s
tenure and was rigorously pursued by the succes-
sive administrations of Atal Bihari Vajpayee and
Manmohan Singh. Its aim is to forge close eco-
nomic and commercial ties in the region and in-
crease strategic and security cooperation between
the countries.
Our historical and cultural likeness should
The Look East Policy, rechristened Act East
by the Modi government, aims to forge
close economic and commercial ties in the
region and increase strategic and security
cooperation between the countries.

What made an Indian engineer in a
university in California shoot his
PhD research guide
BY SUCHETA DASGUPTA
n June 1, a student of the
University of California, Los
Angeles, shot his professor in
his department before com-
mitting suicide. Once looked
upon as the last recourse of
disgruntled corporate employees in the West—
and a form of urban suicide—more and more
mass shootings are now taking place inside
Opinion
UCLA Shooting
American universities. This time, the school
shooter was a doctoral student from an eastern
Indian industrial city, an aerospace engineer by
the name of Mainak Sarkar who had been trying
to complete his degree at UCLA for the past 10
years. Sarkar had prepared a kill list of three and
ended up shooting his research guide, William
Klug, whom he had accused of stealing his code
to help another student. A day earlier, he had also
fatally shot Ashley Hasti, a US medical student
who was his estranged wife.
SOCIAL MEDIA DEBATE
Not surprisingly, the news generated a storm in
WARM AND WELCOMING
The UCLA campus, as on
their admissions brochure.
Inset: Mainak Sarkar
Unraveling Mainak
O
Kota, Rajasthan. Kriti Tripathi performed exceed-
ingly well in her XIIth standard exam and cleared
the IIT entrance which is like the holy grail of In-
dian studenthood. Middle class urban Indians are
frequently seen pushing their children into aca-
demics and discourage them from taking up
sports or art. In academics, science is preferred
over humanities, especially for boys, and after
completing their XIIth, one is expected to go for
engineering or medical studies. MBAs and IT are
hot postgraduate career choices. Whether it’s
Kota or Durgapur, this is the ideal pedagogical
progression. Both cities are, in fact, brutally ca-
reer-driven.
Anyway, Kriti wanted to study pure sciences
while her parents’ dream was for her to become
an engineer. Unable to do what she wanted or
social media. Besides the routine as well as gen-
uine concern and outrage, there were plenty of
told-you-so’s by xenophobes who issued warnings
against “letting in third-worlders”. “Please trump
clean the usa of this human filth (sic),” wrote a
user with the handle @realdonldatrump. “People
call for immigration control minutes after shoot-
ing on UCLA’s campus,” tweeted another. Some
even argued over whether India, as a nation,
should apologize for Sarkar’s crime.
While the 38-year-old Sarkar’s actions were
those of an individual and there is no question of
an apology, the very fact that it was raised points
to white supremacism on the internet and our
oversensitivity to it. Sarkar’s predecessors in the
US, people who have travelled there from his city
(Durgapur, West Bengal) and country for work
and study, have gone on to gain distinction, mak-
ing valuable contributions to their respective
fields and humanity. But at the same time, as a so-
ciety, we are witnessing brain drain. We do de-
pend on the US for infrastructure, expertise and
research environment when it comes to higher
learning and, we are, perhaps, in a small measure,
culpable for the making of Mainak Sarkar. Which
explains why we reacted to those racist comments
with much vehemence.
For, the same social machinery that gives rise
to our superior general knowledge compared to
western youngsters and our prowess in IT and en-
gineering is the one that usually puts a lopsided
focus on academics, what are seen as safe career
options and upward mobility. Indeed, India is
home to the phenomenon of an alarmingly large
and ever-increasing number of students and
youth, including overachievers, killing themselves
as a consequence of academic pressure over the
past 20 years. Sarkar’s crime may, in fact, be seen
through this lens.
BIRTH OF A BOOKWORM
The last student suicide by an Indian in public re-
call before Sarkar’s is that of a 17-year-old girl in
ILL-FATED ALLIANCES
Left: Sarkar and Hasti
in better times.
Below: Klug, Sarkar’s
guide, whom he
accused of stealing
his code

to make herself understood—perhaps fearing loss
of her parents’ love should she strike out on her
own—she chose to end it all.
Whether out of choice or compulsion or lack
of imagination, Sarkar seems to have taken the
career path that Kriti did not. After finishing his
graduation in IIT, he landed a job in Infosys. He
then went to Stanford to do an MS. Neighbours
say it was at this time that he cut off all contact
with his parents, who grew depressed due to this
strange behavior. Several years ago, they passed
away. His sister and only sibling now lives
in Kolkata.
NOT GOOD ENOUGH
It is now known that Sarkar did not impress in
UCLA and even back in IIT where he has been de-
scribed as “unmemorable” by one of his professors.
In California, he is said to have been high-handed
and adversarial in his behavior with his teachers—
rude and insular during classroom exchanges.
Sarkar ignored the only other Bengali Amer-
ican (and Indian American) teacher on campus,
never greeting him once when he passed him in
the corridors or even acknowledging his pres-
ence. Though he has been described as “brilliant”
by his childhood classmates—who also said he
was too introverted and studious to be a pal—it
becomes clear that when faced with competition
on a national and later international level, he fell
short and proved to be not good enough. He
couldn’t countenance that fact.
Police have also found that Klug, his 39-year-
old thesis guide and victim, with whom he was
friendly in the initial stages of their association
but whom he later vilified on social media, did
not steal his code as he had accused him of doing.
It was all a product of his imagination—a con-
spiracy theory! It is a different matter that, even
if Klug had committed the theft, his murder, like
that of Hasti, is unconscionable. His marriage
with the 31-year-old had broken down several
years ago and it seems particularly mean-spirited
of him to target her as well.
In all fairness, though, one might like to raise
a question—did Sarkar have a very limited point
in accusing Klug of bias if not in suspecting him
of sabotage? Admittedly, too, his thesis was not of
very high quality, going by the opinion of at least
two other teachers. While Sarkar engaged in so-
cial media rants about his situation, he certainly
did not show the gumption to request the varsity
for a change of guide. Even so, his work, perhaps,
just about merited a pass grade? Did cultural mis-
understanding, teacher-student competition and
a bit of regular, old-fashioned, racism cloud Klug’s
view of it and lead to it being sidelined? That,
however, might now never be known given the
sympathy wave in Klug’s favour and the desire of
those concerned to stay on the politically con-
formist side of the discussions surrounding the
matter.
Opinion
UCLA Shooting
It is now known that Mainak did not
impress in UCLA. In all fairness,
though, did Mainak have a very limited
point in accusing Klug of bias if
not in suspecting him of sabotage?
TRANSFORMED CAMPUS
A gathering of UCLA stu-
dents mourning the killings
VIEWSONNEWSJUNE 22, 2016 `50
THE CRITICAL EYE
www.viewsonnewsonline.com
UdtaPunjaband the
politics of censorship 40
India’s free speech
report card 24
Videos of cops
mercilessly beating
up men and women in
public show the
brutality and
insensitivity of men
in uniform
By Bikram Vohra12
BruteReality
US Prez race
hots up20
A smart
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Bhavan36
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woes 44
ALSO
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New Media
Web Stories
N June 11, David Trinko,
managing editor of The
Lima News wrote an arti-
cle named, “Five times
‘top 10’ lists oversimpli-
fied the world”. In the ar-
ticle, he addresses the lure of clickbaits that is
going viral all over the World Wide Web, and en-
dorses the officially trending term for it: “listicles”.
“There’s something intellectually comforting
about someone breaking the facts into little
blocks for you. Reading long-form journalism
can be more challenging,” he writes in the article.
Thus, a new genre of writing has taken over
the web called the listicle. It is meant to grab the
attention of the lazy reader or those who have lit-
tle time between work and home.
A listicle can be defined as a short-form of
writing and is often written in point form. It can
be fleshed out with sufficient copy to be pub-
lished as an article. The topics listicles touch upon
can be anything under the sun, be it health, fit-
ness, sports, books, cooking and even sea mon-
ster sightings. The only criterion is that it should
be written in an interesting way.
O
Listicles:
Hooking the
Lazy ReaderIn an age of instant gratification, the web has also caught on and is churning
out articles which are easy to read but are very often unreliable.
BY TITHI MUKHERJEE
TARGET AUDIENCE
Some of these are helpful for the generally clumsy
individual or the young working professional liv-
ing on his own. So if you come home after a tiring
day, why not dig into this listicle—“10 Ways to
Eliminate Stress At Work”? Or “25 Unexpectedly
Genius Household Hacks You’ll Wish
You’d Thought Of First” which will make you stop
and stare.
The top-most priority for listicles is their
headings which often have numbers and interest-
ing topics such as “30 of the Most Powerful Im-
ages Ever” or “8 Most Disturbing Body Parts after
Plastic Surgery”. For a patient reader, “75 Easy
Chocolate Recipes” can be satisfying, whereas “8
Quick Makeup Hacks For Busy Moms” may in-
terest the harried mom who hasn’t had time to
apply her MAC lipstick in months.
These quick articles fit in perfectly with our
haphazard and hurried lives made up of half-
bites and missed calls. With little time to stand
and stare, there obviously is no time to sit and
read either.
Listicles are also meant for lazy, underutilized
brains that mechanically gaze at computer
screens. And the format of listicles is
ideally suited for such readers. The bold numbers
catch their fleeting attention spans before they
race through the bullet points and go to the
next article.
FLEETING ADVANTAGES
Somak Ghoshal, managing editor, Harper-
Collins publishers has a differing opinion regard-
ing listicles.
“Often it's easier to grab the dwindling atten-
tion span of online readers through succinct and
entertaining listicles than long form articles.
Given the brevity and the instant effect of listicles,
chances of them going viral are also higher.” For
readers used to reading quickly on screens, listi-
cles could be very convenient for assimilating
ideas and information.
Having worked at Livemint, he is not averse to
using this new age form of writing. He further
says that journalistic practice must adapt to the
exigencies of the digital age. In certain situations,
listicles may be able to convey information to, or
provoke questions in, or simply entertain, readers
smartly. So there's nothing inherently odd about
this format or its coexistence with more seri-
Listicles are quickie articles which fit in
perfectly with our haphazard lives made
up of half-bites and missed calls. With
little time to stand and stare, there
obviously is no time to sit and read either.

reading health tips and using them when you
could be suffering from a chronic disease that
needs to be properly investigated. Listicles are
often accompanied by pretty pictures. But the vi-
sual delight overshadows whatever meaning they
want to impart.
Soumyadip further says that listicles some-
times force journalists to break up their ideas into
individual independent points. That is sometimes
not the ideal way to tell a story, as there are often
many interconnections that lose their meaning
when separated into different points. “Even from
the readers' point of view, listicles don't have the
gravitas that is sometimes necessary in journal-
ism. For example think of how you would react
to an editorial that is put across as a listicle?” He
says that listicles are just another form of telling
the story and is not necessarily the best way of
doing so.
In 2009, Italian novelist Umberto Eco made a
rather startling statement to German news website
Spiegel: “We like lists because we don’t want to die”.
On the utility of lists, he says: “Yes, in the case of
Google, both things do converge. Google makes a
list, but the minute I look at my Google-generated
list, it has already changed. These lists can be dan-
gerous—not for old people like me, who have ac-
quired their knowledge in another way, but for
young people, for whom Google is a tragedy.”
That’s not all. Listicles can turn a good writer
into a lazy one as one needs just an hour to collate
it. Stephen King, in his famous novel, On Writing,
rightly said: “If you want to be a writer, you must
do two things above all others: read a lot and
write a lot.”
And that is what Gen Next needs to keep in
mind. The power of articulation should never be
underestimated. Just because Twitter is trendy
with its 140 characters, do people stop reading
Gabriel Garcia Marquez? One must not forget the
effect of a beautifully crafted first line in a
novel. This is what grabs the reader and keeps
him hooked.
ous and sustained pieces of reportage.
Soumyadip Choudhury, technology editor
and product manager, News18, Network18, says
that in an age where technology is making things
easier for us, we end up attempting to do more
things than ever before, leaving very little time to
spare for individual activities. This is true for
reading as well. Lists and listicles make it easier
and quicker to read and also sometimes make
otherwise mundane topics appear interesting. In
that way listicles do have an advantage.
SERIOUSLY FLAWED
However, it would be silly and dangerous to take
these listicles seriously. These lists are pretentious
and superficial, merely grazing the surface of an
issue and offering half-baked solutions. Imagine
If you want to be a
writer, you must do
two things above all
others: read a lot
and write a lot.
There’s no way
around these things
that I’m aware of...
no shortcut.
—Stephen King
These lists can be
dangerous—not for
old people like me,
who have acquired
their knowledge in
another way, but
for young people,
for whom Google is
a tragedy.
—Umberto Eco
New Media
Web Stories
Media
Checkmated!It collectively fictionalized the drowning accident of a law student.The report
was written with little regard to fact and scant respect for the deceased
BY SUCHETA DASGUPTA
T took a group of young lawyers and
spunky law students to get the media
to see the light after it collectively mis-
reported a sea-front death.
Pranita Mehta, a 21-year-old stu-
dent from NLU Jodhpur, was on Kumta Beach in
Gokarna, Karnataka, with her friends on May 29
when she was swept away by a giant wave. The
youngsters were seated on rocks, some 10-15 feet
high. Pranita and two others were swept out to the
sea. While the other two made it back, she didn’t.
I
Focus
Misreporting
WHAT TRANSPIRED
Strangely or not, newspapers and TV channels
got it all wrong. In a “collective fictionalizing” of
the news, as described by media monitor The
Hoot, they reported that Pranita had drowned in
the sea after falling from the top of a 300 feet high
lighthouse which she had climbed in attempt to
capture a “daredevil selfie” or the “perfect selfie”.
Over 55 media outlets including The Times Of
India, Hindustan Times, NewsX, Aaj Tak and The
Indian Express carried this story.
HAPPY-GO-LUCKY
Pranita (center)
with friends from
NLU Jodhpur

Views On News July 07, 2016

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