Vidya Bhushan Rawat: Tribute to Prabhash Joshi

[Frederick Noronha]

Vidya Bhushan Rawat: Tribute to Prabhash Joshi
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Tribute to Prabhash Joshi
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Tribute to An uncompromising media institution: Prabhash Joshi

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat

1980s were the most turbulent days in the history of Independent
India. Indira Gandhi’s return of power after emergency was not great.
Her grip over power was slipping. Sanjay Gandhi had died in a tragic
air crash leaving a vacuum for the youth Congress leaders. The
separatist Khalistan movement was growing in Punjab. Delhi had
probably turn into a unsafe place with bomb blasts in buses, trains
and other places became a regular feature. The issue of Kashmir was
growing and in Assam we had seen he worst ever massacre where
thousands of Muslims were butchered to death in Nellie, with state
just witnessing it helplessly. In between, some happy moments happened
like the Asian Games in Delhi in 1982 which changed the city and the
historic moment of 1983 world cup triumph under Kapil Dev at Lords.
Amidst this was one more happening in the Hindi heartland. It was the
emergence of a new daily ‘ Jansatta’ under Prabhash Joshi. I know
buying a paper was out of reach for me hence I used to sit at a
chai-shop to wait for my turn to read it. The two papers that would
come there was Navbharat Times and Jansatta. And NBT which was the
flagship of Times group under the veteran Rajendra Mathur while
Jansatta was the new beginning made by unstoppable Ramnath Goenka, the
owner of Indian Express group of newspapers.

But with in a very short span of time, Jansatta became the hot issue
itself and it left behind the other papers in the market for its
contents and news items. The lay out was wonderful and the most
important thing was a complete change in the language of journalism.
It was not a language which we all were habitual of listening to All
India Radio and Doordarshan. It was refreshingly a language which we
call ‘vox-populi’ and Prabhash Joshi was a master in it. Whether
writing on cricket or politics, Joshi’s idioms and terms had the
reader wondering and asking for more.

In 1984 Indira Gandhi was assassinated and Delhi witnessed the worst
ever massacre of Sikhs in the street. It was a horrific moment for all
of us who thought whether India as a nation would survive or not. In
far away places, people developed a frenzy against Sikhs and the state
were all supporting it. The newspapers were not able to do justice
except that Indian Express and Jansatta carried stories about these
ghastly murders. In 1984 Rajiv Gandhi came to power with a massive
mandate, unimaginable now. It uprooted many opposition stalwarts and
made him think that nothing is beyond his reach. He started with a
good intention but was highly uncomfortable with uncomfortable
questions. His friendship circle was of charming Doon school friends
which became a problem for him later. Corruption was growing in his
government and VP Singh’s campaign for clean polity was getting wider
support. On the other side, human rights groups were asking for
justice to Sikh families killed in the massacre in Delhi. And in this
Indian Express group provided them the platform. Indian Express
started a series of article to save Kehar Singh and Balwant Singh from
hanging. Efforts were also made by the paper to raise the issue of
Sikhs. On October 31st, 1985, Rajiv addressed the first gathering to
commemorate Indira’s death anniversary saying,’ jab bada ped girta hai
to dharati hilti hai..’ when a big tree falls the earth shakes.

The Indian Express group had launched a campaign for probity in public
life and wholeheartedly supported the Income Tax raids in the
Industrial houses. Soon, V.P.Singh was shunted out of finance ministry
and income tax sleuths raided Indian Express offices all over the
country. Rajiv’s advisers asked him to bring a ‘defamation bill’.
Unlike the unity in emergency, this time only a few editors were
against it. Indian Express, Hindu, the Statesman were some of the
groups which went against it. Most of the other caved in, though the
government had to withdraw the bill. One may remember Rajiv Gandhi’s
famous statement ‘ hamare dushmano ko hum nani yaad kar denge’.

Along with Arun Shourie, Prabhash Joshi spearheaded the campaign
against Rajiv’s government but unlike Arun Shourie, he was not really
ready to write Fatwas guiding the political leaders. In the post
Boforse situation in India, media was used by congress party to the
best of its knowledge for character assassination of the opponent
particular VP Singh who was posing a threat to Rajiv Gandhi. Senior
Journalists like M.J.Akbar, who was editor of Telegraph, Kolkata, were
misused their positions and actually brought ‘breaking news’ of VP
Singh’s account in St Kitts. Notorious Chandraswamy was the henchmen
who brought such information in connivance with country’s top
journalists. It is the peak time to see how Indian media caves in
under government pressure. How news was being created in Delhi with
country’s journalists sitting in the headquarter of Congress party and
writing stories. In fact later the Sangh Parivar used the same tactics
in communalizing the media and today a number of those who could not
find favor with Congress are with the Sangh Parivar.

In 1990, a decision by the National Front government to implement
Mandal Commission report exposed Arun Shourie and his racist ideas.
Arun Shourie became a ring leader of anti mandal forces in the media
and tried his best to scuttle the implementation of the government.
Indian Express became vehicle to support Adwani and his vicious
propaganda with Arun Shourie actively promoting the hate campaign
against Muslims, much against the policy of the group. Soon, when the
Hindutva’s forces started their w(rath) Yatra, Arun Shourie wrote some
of the worst pieces in the Express forcing his expulsion from the
paper.

In the mean while Jansatta continued to be the voice of
intelligentsia. Prabhash Joshi was writing on politics, cricket and
all the major issues. Unlike Arun Shourie and his highly self
promoting individualistic style, Prabhash created a team of
youngsters. Though Joshi himself was anti mandal once upon a time, he
had the courage to publish article in support of Mandal as a majority
of writers in Jansatta came from socialist leaning. I still remember
his series of article against it. A large number of readers wrote
angry mail to him condemning his position yet he got them published in
the form of an article named as ‘ jaat pe naa jao meri baat pe aao’. I
read that piece and got annoyed since I felt Joshi was making a
debating issue with young readers and in any news paper it is the
editor’s word which are final so what is new if Prabhash Joshi
criticize his readers who criticized his position. I wrote a letter to
him criticizing his position and his inability to listen to criticism.
It was quite surprised that after a few days, I got a neatly hand
written letter asking me to meet him and telling me that we should
speak on the issues and not on individual’s identity. He said when he
was raising the issue of Devi Lal or V.P.Singh, nobody said whose
caste they were ? After all, they were not Brahmins.

Prabhash Joshi was actually a die hard Brahmin, who was very proud of
his association with Vinoba, JP and Ramnath Goyanka. We all know his
peculiar views on Sati after Rupkunwar was forced to commit Sati, he
supported. Perhaps getting influence by the argument of Vijaya Raje
Scindia who had openly supported Sati as the best tradition of
sacrifice of Bharatiya Naari i.e Indian woman.

But Joshi’s finest hours in the journalism came after 1992. Actually,
in 1983 when Jansatta was launched and after which the whole campaign
against government and Ambani brothers, it was Arun Shourie who was
leading the campaign. Joshi remain a pale shadow that time. Yet, after
the demolition of Babari Mosque on December 6th, 1992, Jansatta was
perhaps the only paper which became the biggest voices of the secular
forces apart from Vinod Mehta’s Pioneer. Most of the other news papers
including Indian Express had turned saffron as they might have seen
the change in the wind and growth of Hindutva in India. Editors were
singing praise of Advani and Atal Bihari Vajpayee but Prabhash Joshi
became more vocal. He wrote against Sangh Parivar and all those
journalists who went to the brigade for green pasture. None had the
capacity to call those who demolished the Babari Mosque as
‘terrorists’.

One may disagree with his arguments as coming from a Gandhian view
point, he felt that RSS and other members of the Parivar do not
represent the Hindu view of life. He wrote ‘ Hindu hone ka dard’ which
many of the media friends describe as one of the finest book in recent
years on the growth of Hindu fundamentalism and what should we do. He
got numerous hate mail from the Hindutva’s professional letter writers
but Joshi was powerful enough to respond them in their own language.

In the recent year, Prabhash Joshi was more and more interacting with
communities. He had closely associated with late prime minister VP
Singh and social movements against WTO, SEZs, land acquisitions and
media manipulations by the industrial houses. He had been travelling a
lot and his voice mattered a lot in these matters. Among the current
day journalists he was the only one who could write with authority on
the issue of land acquisition. In fact, despite Jansatta’s shrinking
market, it never compromised with quality of contents in it while its
counterpart Indian Express was busy in glorification of business
interest and open loot of the land.

As I wrote earlier, Prabhash Joshi considered himself a puritan
Brahmin who was concerned about the growing communal situation in the
country and continuous assault on our natural resources. You may
disagree with his view. I never liked his preaching of Sanatan dharma
and boasting of ‘Hindu’ ‘liberal’ values which I felt imposing the
brahmanical values on us but definitely as an editor he was
extraordinary. In his thoughts he did not come close to his
contemporary Rajendra Mathur who was highly talented and much stronger
on ideological side yet Prabhash Joshi was far more ahead in
interaction with people and making a people friendly Jansatta. He was
a journalist with a mission. Many of his contemporaries adjusted with
those in power, never speak of people ( Arun Shourie is best example
who talk of Hindutva yet never really raised people’s issues,
supported disinvestment and globalization, went to Ambanis and forgot
his vicious campaign against the brothers in 1985 and never ever
promoted any youngster in the organisation). While Shourie’s hatred
grew against Dalits, Christians and Muslims, Prabhash Joshi never used
such vulgar language and that is why the Hindustan’s high priests
found it difficult to counter him.

In his last important intervention, Prabhash Joshi wrote against
selling of space in media. He has been touring all over the country.
He would always write his column in Jansatta and every Sunday people
would wait for his column. And definitely he changed how cricket was
reported. His narration of cricket matches were the finest as the
description had the sweet fragrance of ‘Malwa’. He was always in touch
with his roots and felt proud of it. Whether you subscribe to his
views, I dare to say that the biggest contribution of Prabhash Joshi
to Indian media is its secular character, its freedom of ideas,
creation of a few professionals who are now everywhere in media and
developing a language which changed the spectrum of Hindi media and
forced those in power to give respect to vernacular view points and
most importantly in the age of marketing where everything is a product
fixed by the market, Prabhash Joshi remained an unpurchaseable brand
of Indian media.

--
Frederick Noronha :: +91-832-2409490
Writing, editing, alt.publishing, photography, journalism
Books from Goa: http://tiny.cc/goabooks