On October 26, the New Delhi edition of The Statesman carried a news report in relation to the Ramjanmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute which once again exposed the limitations under which commentators and journalists often function. These limitations should persuade even the boldest among them to be more modest in their self-perception than they have tended to be in recent years. The report showed that they often lack access to, or have inadequate knowledge of, critical information.
The report quotes from a memorandum of understanding which the Rajiv Gandhi government had drafted in cooperation with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the All-India Shia Conference for shifting the ‘superstructure’ of the controversial building so that the proposed Ram temple could be built there.
And what is perhaps even more significant, the Shia conference had obtained a ‘fatwa’ in favour of the move by a highly respected figure in Shia Islam based in the holy (for the Shias) city of Najaf in Iraq.
The memorandum could not be signed because of opposition by the Babri Masjid Action Committee and the Babri Masjid Coordination Committee. This too is not an insignificant point in view of the history of the dispute. In 1856 too some agitators had prevented implementation of the report by a three-man committee set up Wazid Ali Shah.
One more of the many other instances of a similar lack, or inadequacy, of information on the part of critics may be cited. The Rajiv Gandhi government’s decision to buy the Westland helicopter came in for a lot of adverse comment. A payoff was more or less openly insinuated in respect of this deal as in that of the Bofors gun. But as it happened, the decision was part of a quiet multi-faceted deal with the British government.
India’s vital interests would have suffered in the absence of support by Mrs Thatcher and she was not ready to budge on the helicopter issue. Incidentally, some of Indian purchases in France have also been influenced by similar considerations of French help in fields such as nuclear power and space research.
There can, of course, still be differences of opinion on the worthwhileness or otherwise of a deal. But that cannot entitle the critics to accuse the decision-makers of disregarding the national interest and cast themselves in the role of exclusive guardians of it. It is this claim to monopoly of patriotism and concern for the public interest that 1 have found objectionable.
Even in retrospect when the returns are in, it is perhaps unfair to expect Galahads of the Indian press to engage in self-introspection and ask themselves the question whether they served the national interest by projecting Mr VP Singh (or for that matter Mr Jayaprakash Narayan) as a redeemer and in the process undermining the Congress. For, journalists are, as a rule, not given to such exercises.
In terms of the shop-worn cliche, journalism is defined as literature in a hurry. It can perhaps more appropriately be described as an ego trip. We are all on an ego trip. Only the sizes of the egos differ. Some are truly monster size.
The tragedy, however, is that even when we are not burdened with an outsize ego we are in a trap, in fact a double trap. For one thing, we have often to comment on subjects we know little about. Indeed, rarely do we have an opportunity to write on subjects we have studied properly. For another, we have to be seen to be on the side of ‘right’ (public morality and human rights) in order to be credible.
Woe to the journalist-commentator who gives precedence to the requirements of order and stability. In journalism, as in many other fields, we are imitators. Watergate is the benchmark for us as for American journalists who carry even a bigger load of self-righteousness. But that is a different matter.
The Indian press is what someone has called an ‘independent herd’. We are all independent-minded but most of us hunt in packs. It will be interesting to find out how many of us have ever rowed against the current, to change the metaphor. Genuine dissent remains rare in Indian journalism.
Economic Times, 30 October 1992