Ba-Ba-Black Sheep BJP: Sid Harth
bademiyansubhanallah
BJP defeat is a defeat of BJP brand of journalism
By churumuri
PRITAM SENGUPTA in New Delhi and SHARANYA KANVILKAR in Bombay write:
The stunning defeat of the BJP in the general elections has been
dissected so many times and by so many since May 16 that there is
little that has been left unsaid.
What has been left unsaid is how the BJP’s defeat also marks the
comeuppance of a certain breed of journalists who had chucked all
pretence to non-partisanship and made it their mission to tom-tom the
party, in print and on air, for a decade and more.
The Congress and the Left parties have had more than their share of
sympathetic “left-liberal” journalists, of course. And for longer. But
most were closet supporters unwilling to cross the divide from
journalism into politics, or unwilling to be seen to be doing so.
However, the rise of the “muscular” BJP saw the birth of a “muscular”
breed of journalists who unabashedly batted for the party’s politics
and policies—without revealing their allegiance while enjoying its
fruits “lavishly“—in a manner that would have embarrassed even the
official spokesmen of the “Hindu nationalist party”.
Little wonder, Arun Shourie, the granddad of journalists turned BJP
politicians, alleged at the party’s national executive meeting that
“the BJP was being run by six journalists.” There are different
versions doing the rounds on who the “Gang of Six” were, but some
names are no longer in the realm of speculation.
# Sudheendra Kulkarni an assistant editor at The Sunday Observer and
executive editor at Blitz, rose to be a key aide to both prime
minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and prime minister-in-waiting L.K.
Advani, even drafting the latter’s controversial Jinnah speech.
# Chandan Mitra, an assistant editor at The Times of India, editor of
The Sunday Observer, and executive editor of Hindustan Times, found
himself “mysteriously becoming the proprietor of The Pioneer, without
spending a rupee thanks to the generosity of the BJP and more
particularly that of L.K. Advani“.
# Swapan Dasgupta, the scion of Calcutta Chemicals (which makes Margo
soap), rose to be managing editor of the weekly newsmagazine India
Today, before emerging the unofficial media pointsman of sorts for
Arun Jaitley and through him for Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi.
# Balbir K. Punj, the sugar correspondent of The Financial Express,
who churned out masterly theses on conversions and other sundry
diversions for Outlook magazine, was nominated to the upper house of
Parliament by the BJP like Mitra.
# And then there’s a motley crew of fulltimers and freelancers,
including India Today editor Prabhu Chawla, Pioneer associate editor
Kanchan Gupta, who did a spell in Vajpayee’s PMO, and weighty
political correspondents and editors of The Times of India, The
Economic Times and Dainik Jagran.
“Journo Sena” was what the tribe came to be called, an allusion to the
“Vanara Sena” (army of monkeys) that helped Lord Rama fight the armies
of Ravana in Ramayana.
However, in the unravelling political epic, the “Journo Sena” stands
trapped in the crossfire of a party struggling to come to grips with a
gigantic electoral loss, firing wildly at each other—or are being
fired at by the big guns.
***
First, Sudheendra Kulkarni’s ”candid insider account” in Tehelka, a
magazine whose website was hounded out of business by the Vajpayee
government, came in for searing criticism from Anil Chawla, a
classmate of his at IIT Bombay, for blaming the RSS for the BJP’s
plight.
“The patient is being blamed for all that has gone wrong, without in
any way blaming either the virus or the team of doctors who have
brought the patient to the present critical state,” he wrote in a
widely circulated “open letter”.
Kanchan Gupta, who many believe was eased out of Vajpayee’s PMO by
Kulkarni, took a potshot at his erstwhile colleague.
“Kulkarni who undid the BJP’s election campaign in 2004 with the
‘India Shining’ slogan and fashioned the 2009 campaign which has taken
the BJP to a low of barely-above-100 mark has written an article for
Tehelka, the magazine which tarred the NDA government, causing it
irreparable damage, and is now the favourite perch of those who
inhabit the BJP’s inner courtyard, blaming all and sundry except those
who are to blame,” Gupta wrote on rediff.com.
In a rejoinder in Tehelka, Swapan Dasgupta welcomed Sudheendra
Kulkarni’s mea culpa calling it “a welcome addition to the ever-
growing literature on the BJP’s 2009 election experience,” but
couldn’t resist himself from sticking the knife in.
“Kulkarni has provided some interesting insights but has also
cluttered the picture with red herrings. This isn’t surprising.
“There are many in the BJP who insist that the problem with Advani was
Kulkarni“.
When former external affairs minister Yashwant Sinha resigned from
party posts, ostensibly miffed at the elevation of Arun Jaitley as
leader of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha despite leading the party
to defeat, Dasgupta rushed to Jaitley’s defence, wondering how the
resignation letter had made its way to NDTV.
“TV editors I have spoken to have indicated that there were two
parallel points of leak. The first was through an associate of Pramod
Mahajan (who hates Jaitley) and the other was was the unlikely figure
of a cerebral Rajya Sabha MP.
“I gather that the follow-up was done by a disagreeable journalist
(one who signed the 20-points during the Emergency) whose nomination
to the Rajya Sabha has been blocked by Jaitley on two separate
occasions,” he wrote on his blog.
At the BJP’s national executive meeting, the “cerebral Rajya Sabha MP”
Arun Shourie—Magsaysay Award-winning former investigative journalist
and author who became a minister in the Vajpayee government—”blamed
six unnamed journalists who, he said, were responsible for articles
damaging the [BJP] party interest.”
Whether the journalists were all members of the BJP or merely
sympathetic to it, Shourie didn’t make clear.
In drawing attention to the journalists in specific, the former
journalist may only have been indulging in the nation’s favourite
sport of shooting the messenger but he was also underlining the role
his compatriots were playing in the BJP’s affairs.
In his column in the media magazine Impact, Sandeep Bamzai writes:
“Arun Jaitley and his band of journalists-turned-politicocs misread
the ground realities and the tea leaves completely. Buoyed by several
wins in key States, this core team thought that the mood in the States
would be mirrored at the Centre when the general hustings came along.
“Price spikes, terror threats and fulminations against a decent PM
Manmohan Singh were the new imperatives crafted by Jaitley and his
journo boys.
“The entire strategy fell flat on its face and all the journos who
hogged prime time on new telly in the run up to the elections turned
into disillusioned critics immediately after the results.”
In the India Today cover story on the BJP’s travails, Swapan
Dasgupta’s former boss, Prabhu Chawla, seen to be close to incumbent
BJP president Rajnath Singh, found fault with Singh’s bete noire Arun
Jaitley for being spotted at Lord’s, applauding a boundary by Kevin
Pietersen during the India-England Twenty20 match:
“Jaitley, a hardcore cricket buff, was in London with his family on
holiday while his party back home was imploding, just like the Indian
team.”
On a yahoogroup called “Hindu Thought”, the former Century Mills
public relations officer turned columnist Arvind Lavakare, attacked
Swapan Dasgupta, presumably for urging the BJP to junk the “ugly
Hindu” image engendered by its commitment to Hindutva.
“After quitting a salaried job in a reputed English magazine a few
years ago, Swapan’s livelihood may well be depending on his writings
being published in a wide range of prosperous English newspapers which
are anti-Hindu and therefore anti-BJP. If that is indeed so, Swapan
simply cannot afford to project and push the Hindu line beyond the
Laxman rekha. Poor dear,” wrote Lavakare.
The comment would perhaps have gone unnoticed, but Dasgupta gave it
some oxygen by responding in kind in a post-script on his blog:
“I have no intention of affirming my credentials. To do so would be to
dignify Lavakare’s personal attacks as a substitute for an informed
debate on ideas.
“I merely hope that the attacks on where I write, who went to college
with me and who are my friends are not in any way an expression of
envy. It is a matter of satisfaction for me that I get a platform in
the mass media (cutting across editorial positions).
“Engaging with the wider world is daunting but much more meaningful
than gloating inside a sectarian ghetto. I strong recommend Lavakare
also tries earning a livelihood out of writing for “a range of
prosperous English newspapers”. It could be a humbling experience.”
Among the few journalists to have spotted the travails of the “Journo
Sena”, or at least among the few to have had the courage of conviction
to put it on paper, is Faraz Ahmed.
He writes in The Tribune, Chandigarh:
“When the BJP lost power in 2004, all the branded BJP editors—Kanchan,
Swapan, A. Surya Prakash and Udayan Namboodri—were pensioned off to
Chandan Mitra’s Pioneer. Today, however, each one of them is finding
fault with Advani, the BJP and some even with the Sangh.
“These are ominous signs of the demise of a political party and
reminds one of the slow and painful death of Janata Dal in the early
’90s when the ‘Dalam’ was dying and BJP was on the upswing and
everyone was joining it or identifying with it because that was the
most happening party.
“To be fair to these people who naturally represent the rising middle
class, they waited patiently for five years in a hope that the UPA
government would be a one-election wonder and would die a natural
death in the next round. So much for their political understanding.”
Obviously, everybody loves a winning horse and doubtless the antics of
the “Journo Sena” would have made for more pleasant viewing had the
election verdict been the other way round.
Still, their antics in the aftermath of defeat raise some fundamental
questions about their grand-standing in the run-up to the elections:
Are all-seeing, all-knowing journalists cut out for politics? Do they
have the thick skin, large stamina, and the diplomatic skills required
for the rough and tumble?
From the embarrassment they have caused and are causing to their party
of choice, it is clear that there is an element of truth to BJP
president Rajnath Singh’s statement that he can “neither swallow nor
spew out” the journalists.
Then again, L.K. Advani started his career as a journalist.
Also read: How come no one saw the worm turn?
The sad and pathetic decline of Arun Shourie
How Chandan Mitra has his halwa and hogs it too
Advani: Prime minister maybe, but not a good sub
...and I am Sid Harth
bademiyansubhanallah
bademiyansubhanallah
Sid Harth
Updated :
HYDERABAD: There is no need for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to
change its ideology or rethink on its relationship with the Rashtriya
Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) following the electoral setback, observed BJP
national vice president and MP M Venkaiah Naidu.
Speaking to mediapersons here today, the former BJP national president
described the BJP’s relation with the RSS as eternal. “Our
relationship is eternal and, therefore, no question of any discussion
on that. Similarly, the party’s ideology will not change.The BJP is a
party firmly rooted to its ideology. Electoral reverses are common in
a democracy.
The results should have no bearing on the ideology,” Venkaiah Naidu
said.
Dismissing media reports about an internal crisis in the BJP, he said
election results were quite disappointing to the party leaders and
cadre.
“It’s only a disappointment but not despair. Within the party, leaders
express views on the results. The party’s national leadership will
introspect and analyse the outcome to find out the reasons for the
setback,” he said.
The party’s national executive would meet for three days from June 20
to discuss the matter.
Venkaiah Naidu clarified that there was no gag order on the party
leaders as mentioned in a section of the press.
The leadership only felt that it would be better if the issues were
discussed within the party fora before going to public.
Despite electoral reverses, the BJP was still the only alternative to
the Congress at the Centre and the main opposition party, he said.
On the reports that the party lacked young leaders, Venkaiah Naidu
shot back, “Do you take into account only young leaders who come from
political families? In politics, dynasty is nasty.
Unfortunately, a section of the media highlight only the young leaders
who come from political families.” He cited the examples of
Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh, Gujarat Chief Minister
Narender Modi and several others, including himself, who joined the
party as youngsters without any political lineage.
Venkaiah Naidu was confident that the BJP could withstand any adverse
conditions and bounce back. In 1984, following Indira Gandhi’s
assassination, the BJP could get only two Lok Sabha seats. Yet, in
1999, it got the majority and formed the government at the Centre, he
said.