On Essar suing The Caravan
The nexus between corporates and men in power (politicians and bureaucrats) must be exposed and today’s media should have the capacity and the guts to expose it. The Caravan’s story on Essar exposes wrongdoing by people of influence. Filing lawsuits is an attempt to scare people from telling the truth – and Essar is doing exactly that.
It is important that the larger media organisations support the smaller ones. The problem, however, is that the media market has become so fragmented, so cash-crunched that the smaller players today have to struggle their way into finding a market apart from doing honest journalism as the bigger organisations cater to their business interests. Even though The Times of India and Hindustan Times do not wish to cover the story done by The Caravan, one is happy as a viewer that Newslaundry is carrying forward the story of The Caravan and even supporting it.
On political parties’ refusal to come under the RTI and the media’s scant coverage of it.
One cannot expect large media organisations to cover the RTI debate, as they themselves would have to do a lot of explanation on their sources of funding. It is an important topic, though. One of the reasons for many to trust the Aam Aadmi Party was its source of funding which was considered to be transparent.
In the coming years I see an informed viewer questioning political parties on their source of funding through social media.
On Arnab Goswami and OROP
I am a fan of Arnab Goswami (not that I do not follow Nidhi Razdan, Vishnu Som, Barkha Dutt, Rajdeep Sardesai, Zakka Jacob or Rahul Shivshankar). His biggest achievement is that he has made the experience of watching prime-time news exciting and energetic. More importantly, he has given the citizen that voice to question. Yes, Arnab has his limitations and because of it I do not watch Newshour but making Arnab Goswami believe that he is the sole voice of the nation is a mistake of ours. Suppose, we witness a molestation case happening in Adhchini, Delhi, would we want Arnab Goswami sitting in Parel, Mumbai to be our voice even then?
Currently, my favourite prime-time journalist is Karan Thapar who has been consistent with his OROP coverage, right from the interview of Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar till today.
The media will reflect what is of interest to society. Sadly, the media’s lack of interest in OROP is only a reflection of society, as a visit to Jantar Mantar would confirm
Menstruation as a feminist statement
I agree with Manisha Pande’s views that if a woman running in a marathon without a tampon helps men understand what is a biological truth and accept it with dignity, it will an important chapter in women liberation.
On releasing Census data on religion
I am in favour of releasing census data on caste and religion. With respect to religion, the growth should also be studied along economic parameters to lend more clarity to the data.