www.crdj.in

Saturday, Aug 18th

Last update03:26:48 AM GMT

About Guides FAQs

Font Size

Screen

Profile

Layout

Direction

Menu Style

Apply Reset  
Cpanel

Despicable demonetization debate

By Sidharth Mishra

In the past fortnight, left to following demonetisation news, as nothing else is getting reported, convalescing on the bed, I have started to ponder on what is making the debate deteriorate to a fathomless sinkhole. If I were to best summarise my feelings, it was encapsulated in a WhatsApp group message, which said, “If you are watching Zee News on status of exchanging cash, there is no problem; if you are watching Aaj Tak, there could be some problem, and if NDTV, the chances of catastrophe are very high.” Then the message went on to pun, “Thus, try and stand in the Zee News queue.”
Then there was this clip going viral of NDTV’s Ravish Kumar being questioned by a young man in Haryana, a ‘Jat Bhai’, for trying to do a negative report on demonetisation. Worse, to overcome his frustration at being outwitted, Kumar, who is celebrated by many, went on air saying that ‘Jat Bhai’ was phoning his friends to come and do whatever to him. Now is this dramatisation of news of any consequence as millions battle crisis to run their daily chores.
Add a comment

Read more...

Living with demonetisation

By Sidharth Mishra

Many of us, I am sure, will have a demonetisation story to share. Much more amusing and interesting than those ferreted out by our recalcitrant television medium. Indian TV is much too occupied by the dictum “camera loves sad pictures.” The tragedy of Indian media, especially television, has been its preoccupation with tragedy, playing just on the sadistic elements.
The most hilarious of the sad pictures was former Cabinet Secretary TSR Subramanian pointing out to celebrated anchor Barkha Dutt during her talk show that even he had a swollen ankle and he could not blame it on Modi’s demonetisation policy! A bad pack of lady-fingers purchased from a store, too, gets blamed on Modi, “only if I had cash in hand I would have gone to a roadside vegetable cart.” I wonder if the spunky lady complaining of the lady's fingers would be last person standing when the corporation’s demolition and eviction drive against street vendors happen next.
I underwent the surgeon’s knife last week under, what’s called in medical parlance, a planned surgical intervention at Fortis Escorts Hospital in the national Capital last week .
Add a comment

Read more...

Scripting party’s doom

By Sidharth Mishra

Past fortnight has certainly shown that other than the leading opposition party of the country – the Congress, all the other outfits have chartered out their well-defined roadmaps for the times to come. Let us first take up the case of other parties and then come back to the Congress to show how in the absence of a mature and strong leadership, the nation’s oldest political parties is slowly but surely scripting its own political demise, with the increasing clamour to elevate him as party head.
First, the issue of the command and control the leadership enjoys over the party: Congress is the only party where the leader is perceived to be seen as functioning through advisor and coteries. A cursory glance on the other parties would make the difference very clear.
Add a comment

Read more...

Schizophrenic trends in Indian media

By Sidharth Mishra

At a recent seminar on India-Pakistan relation, a very erudite speaker made a very valid point. He said that we must realise that Pakistan was a drag on our progress and growth and we must learn to be indifferent to matters relating to the terror-sponsoring nation. Now this is easier said than done especially when the North Indian media and Bollywood is so bewitched of happenings in the neighbouring country and matters Pakistan raise such passions across the creative and political quarters.
Therefore I was not really surprised when the leading lights of Indian media, decided to uphold the editorial of Pakistan’s leading daily ‘Dawn’, defending its reporter Cyril Almeida’s report on the differences cropping up between the neighbouring nation’s civil and military establishment following the surgical carried out by the Indian Army commandoes inside Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir, as beacon of a brave press.
The ‘Dawn’ report should not be seen in isolation. The day, Cyril Almeida’s story was carried by ‘Dawn’ delineating civilian leadership’s charge against the military establishment, the rival paper ‘The Nation’, which is seen to be closer to the army, carried a report quoting Pakistan army chief Raheel Sharif saying that through Operation Zarb-e-Azb, Pak army had successfully rooted out terrorist infrastructure and also defeated the residual terrorist elements in the form of facilitators. He was quoted as saying that enemies of Pakistan (meaning India) will make efforts to reverse the gains in the fight against terror, but “their nefarious designs will not be allowed to succeed at any cost.”
It’s also important to note that Cyril Almeida’s report was nothing extraordinary,
Add a comment

Read more...

Political chinwag as foreign policy tenet

By Sidharth Mishra

Last week your reporter had the chance to participate in a seminar on India-Pakistan relations. Held at Delhi University’s fast rising institution Maharaja Agrasen College, the discussions veered from Indus Waters Treaty to the Role of Media in the ongoing crisis in the relation between the two nations.

The audience, which largely constituted of undergraduate students of the political science department of the college and their teachers, sounded more perplexed at the ongoing war within the media than the escalating conflict between the two neighbouring countries. In his very scholarly delineation on the finer points of water treaties, Uttam Kumar Sinha, who is a long-time fellow at the prestigious IDSA and also edits their journal Strategic Analysis, showed that diplomacy over rivers was not as easy as opening or closing water taps.

His advice to the young crowd was to not get carried away by media reports but do their own research and draw conclusions accordingly. In the course of the discussion, a piercing question was shot at your reporter, on the media’s propagandist role and when media had the freedom to act “waywardly” why not the politicians especially with the reference to episodes involving Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi.
Add a comment

Read more...

Mutilated, moth-eaten Pakistan

By Sidharth Mishra

The headline is inspired by the famous words of the founder of Pakistan, Quaid-e-Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah. In 1944, as the world war neared its end, the famous talks between Mahatma Gandhi and Jinnah began on the way forward to Independence. Though Gandhi, in principle, never believed that the Hindus and the Muslims formed two separate nations, as the Muslim League espoused, he agreed to push his close aide C Rajagopalachari’s proposal to “have plebiscite in the districts perceived to be Muslim majority” whether partition was called for.
Rejecting the formula, Jinnah said, “It (the formula) was grossest travesty, a ridiculous proposal, offering a shadow and a husk – a maimed, mutilated, and moth-eaten Pakistan.” Jinnah rejected the formula out of the fear that it would lead to division of Bengal and Punjab.
Ironically a few years later Jinnah was forced to accept “a mutilated, moth-eaten Pakistan,” as the British proposal divided the two states into East and West Punjab and East and West Bengal through the line drawn by Cyril Radcliffe, chairman of the Border Commission. Today Radcliffe Line forms India’s international border with two nations – Pakistan and Bangladesh.
This is extraordinary irony as Pakistan, which continues to “stand by the people of Kashmir”, has been unable to hold onto and govern the territories which India agreed to part with following the notification of the Radcliffe Line on August 17, 1947. In less than quarter of a century, East Pakistan declared Independence.
Add a comment

Read more...

Attempting a new narrative

By Sidharth Mishra

In journalism, there is one thing for sure, that no reporter is ever Mr Know All. His or her knowledge depends on the desire of his sources, to the quantum and quality of information they would want to share. A reporter’s ability comes into play in authenticating the source’s information on the whetstone of his understanding developed over the years through reporting on a particular subject.
There is another thing for sure that the television anchors, howsoever, urbane or garrulous, have seldom done the requisite legwork to develop that “instinct” which comes from years of spending time in the field and not lecturing in the studio. About a decade ago, in an essay published in an anthology brought out by the Oxford University Press, your reporter had mentioned that the best person to report during the elections are not those trained in political reportage but those who have worked on mundane city beats like crime, sewer, water supply, etc. These city reporters understand the mundane but basic issues and have their finger on the pulse of the voter.
Thus, in the name of reportage on Kashmir, what we are witnessing today across media forums is the dissemination of information as per the desire of the source; and of course on television, each channel playing to their respective galleries. Newspapers, unfortunately, too, are falling prey to “biased” reporting. Today Srinagar has locally bred Kashmiris working as correspondents for the national dailies. This has become one of the biggest stumbling blocks in “fair reporting” on the Kashmir issue.
Add a comment

Read more...

End disparity for Paralympians

By Sidharth Mishra
Let me begin with the disclaimer that this week’s Notebook doesn’t intend to be a thesis on the able-bodied and disabled sportspersons of the country. A sportsperson plays for the team and the flag s/he represents. Inside the sporting arena, they are like the soldiers in the battlefield, giving their sweat and blood for their flag and their paltan (team).
 
The difference between them is perpetuated by those who look for commerce from the sports; be it in the name of increasing brand equity of a product or of a personality. Last week I received an interesting comment from a university contemporary, now on a senior position in the bureaucracy.
Add a comment

Read more...

Follow us

Contact us

  • Add: 1304 Satpura Appt.
    Kaushambi, Delhi NCR, INDIA
  • Tel: (+844) 456 789 101
You are here: Home