PRITAM SENGUPTA writes from New Delhi: Four months after the “nasty jolt” in the 2009 general election (RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat‘s description of the debacle), the BJP continues to be in a flap over the role of “friendly journalists” in its defeat—and after.
Twice the party’s resident intellectual “for all matters requiring an IQ of 60”, Arun Shourie has trained his guns at the “Gang of Six”, once at the party’s national executive meeting and then in his NDTV interview with Indian Express editor Shekhar Gupta .
On top of that, the “accused” journalists have been at each other throats unabashedly.
Now, the BJP’s official party mouthpiece Kamal Sandesh, edited by Prabhat Jha, a former journalist, has weighed in on “‘friendly journalists’, who cannot remain ‘insider’ for too long”, adding that the access and respect the journalists enjoy with senior leaders of the party causes envy among party workers.
An editorial in the journal makes the following points, according to The Pioneer, the Delhi daily edited and owned by Chandan Mitra, a Rajya Sabha member nominated by the BJP:
“There are journalists who wish that BJP should run as per their whims. Any person — journalist included — has a right to offer advice and opinion but how can it be that a political party should follow, without exception, the diktats of some journalists. If that doesn’t happen, the political organisation turns bad in their considered opinion….
“A scenario in which journalists should turn a tool in the hands of an individual politician does not augur well for either of the two. Our effort should be to create a healthy balance in which neither the journalist is a weapon in the hands of a politician nor should the latter have to act as a shield for journalists….
“It is true that it is their duty to report but the questions remains: how, when and where. This is a matter that these wielders of the pen should ponder over. They have to ensure that in the process of the performance this onerous duty to present the ideology to the nation, mutual confidence, faith and respect does not fall a casualty.
“We do understand that journalism cannot be a synonym for bosom friendship between a journalist and a politician. Yet, we have to stand firm at our respective post of duty.”
Read the full article: BJP laments stab by ‘insider journalists’
Also read: Who are the journalists running, ruining BJP?
Don’t laugh: do journalists make good politicians?
The sad and pathetic decline of Arun Shourie
How come no one saw the worm turn?
This is such a mediocre blog. I really wonder why anybody would want to spend time reading it,
This blog is a mouth piece of the congress party and all “secular” people in India. And so there fore, nothing of common sense can be found here.
It speaks for the quality of journalists populating our media that they have to be reminded of their duties and responsibilities, and lectured in public on what they should do and what they shouldn’t, by the organ of a political party.
That said, I wonder if the problem of distance between journalist and his subject is limited to the politics space alone or if it is there in business, sports, cinema, science and other spheres. Since the answer is obvious, why is nobody complaining there?
The BJP is going on and on about the gang of six. Why doesn’t it do a big service to journalism and reveal the names of the six journalists and spare us the agony of having to guess?
:) No!
How come the word ‘secular’ is an anathema to many who appear in these pages?
Is it because all these ‘writers’ come brain washed by the communal, caste and religious schools just like those from across the border?
Initial reaction will be to rejuvenate the party as it was before as an extension of the RSS. May be a couple more drubbings are required before they get enlightened to the real cause for this defeat and start growing as a political with an identity of its own.
And these dubious sympathizers with decadent outlook are not going to be of any help.
( BJP’s official party mouthpiece Kamal Sandesh, edited by Prabhat Jha, a former journalist,……..does it mean that he is not entitled to be known as a journalist for being the editor of the mouth-piece??)
Now it’s indeed a yawn. This masochistic self-flagellation of BJP is no longer engaging news. I have no clue why this ‘Muharram’ kind of whip lashing is being conducted in full public glare. Whatever might be the reason, these shenanigans have outlived their sell-by-date and it would be nice if we heard more on some other topics no?