The front page reporting in your papers can still have character. In its own humble way, it can illuminate the exercise of news dissemination in this age of information deluge. If you don’t know him for his work A Free Man or didn’t read his review of Katherine Boo’s work Behind The Beautiful Forevers, you should not miss Aman Sethi reporting from Chhattisgarh for The Hindu. His report (It’s A Catch-22 Situation For High-ranking Officials In Maoist Areas,The Hindu, April 23, 2012) is an informing chronicle of the times.

Besides The Hindu, the follow up to the Sukma Collector, Alex Paul Menon’sabduction by the Maoists in Chhattisgarh was a common story on the front pages of The Indian Express, The Times of India, The Hindustan Times, The Statesman and The Asian Age.IE chose to have an editorial comment on the upsurge in such abductions (Shrinking State, IE, April 23, 2012) as it remarked:“Maoists abduct Sukma collector, withhold MLA’s release in Orissa – because they can. The abduction in Chhattisgarh and the protracted hostage drama in Orissa indicate the firming up of a pattern: the resort by Maoists to headline-grabbing kidnappings, reinforced and encouraged by a weak-kneed state response to pressure… People like Hikaka, Krishna and Menon who stand for a responsive, welfare-oriented state, undermine the Maoist narrative.”

However, if the issue is Naxalismin Central India, how can you not have sociologist Nandini Sundar’s take? She matters not only for her academic research on the issue but as someone who has been campaigning for peace talks between the government and Maoists since 2005. HT had an opinion piece by her (Take A Different Route, HT, April 24 2012), in which she suggests: “As against the government’s two pronged strategy of security and development, therefore, I would suggest a three pronged strategy – peace talks, reparations and genuine devolution of control over resources. Only then will our collective bitterness begin to thaw. Under the ice, there is always clear water.” She begins with an attempt to put the latest abduction in perspective, as she writes: “Bitterness. When I started receiving calls that Alex Paul Menon, the collector of Sukma, had been kidnapped, that was my over-riding feeling. Bitterness and a cold anger. Menon is one of the best collectors I have met, and doing what he could to make life better for the people of his district, even in the face of an overall counter-insurgency policy designed for the opposite.”

The Presidential poll race gaining momentum, sleaze CD-hit Abhishek Manu Singhvi resigning as Congress Spokesperson and Chairperson of Parliamentary Committee, Bhattacharya kids handed over to uncle by Norway Court, speculations regarding reshuffle in UPA government after budget session of Parliament, Congress and BJP locking horns over retired Swedish police chief interview regarding the Bofors case, and Standard and Poor’s (S&P) lowering India’s credit rating to negative were some stories that found coverage in different proportions on the front pages of major national dailies. The Statesman, HT and The Hindu reported on the emerging contours of the politicisation of the Presidential race, while the IE leadstory quoted “a senior BJP leader” (too senior to be named by the paper?) as saying: “Rashtrapati race is run-up to 2014, so need contest” (April 25, 2012).

Interestingly, the French Presidential elections also found space on front pages, as The Hindu reported that early exit polls put Socialist candidate Francois Hollande ahead. TOI set alarm bells ringing for the market liberals in Europe, as it commented in its edit (Napoleon’s Last Stand?, April 25, 2012): “If Sarkozy falls, there could be a deep impact on the Eurozone”.

The Abhishek Manu Singhvi episode did evoke commentary in the edit pages. In times when sleaze is often reduced to elements of voyeuristic sensationalism or scoring righteous brownie points, PratapBhanu Mehta sought to put things in perspective in his incisive piece (Age Of Sleaze, IE, April 25, 2012), as he observed: “The Age of Sleaze is upon us. Then there is the undoubted slipperiness of the social media that makes any form of control virtually impossible without a high price being paid in terms of freedom. There is also a kind of ruthlessness in social media that really abstracts away from the complexities of real life, reducing people to punching bags, as if there are no human beings with their complex vulnerabilities. The more mainstream media fell silent on the story, the more insurgent social media became. There is also the paradoxical fact that cultures which supposedly move towards more individual freedom have more interest in the lives of others. Will the new age of freedom and access, of knowledge and individuality simply produce a culture of selfishness, crudeness and fatuity or a culture of integrity, sophistication and discrimination? We often test this on the lives of the powerful.”

If you are interested in bilateral dynamics, former Foreign Secretary Salman Haider’s piece in The Statesman (Peace On The Glaciers, April 24, 2012) could be an insightful read.For the multilaterally minded, with a penchant for bashing Uncle Sam, Jorge Heine provides ample ammunition in his piece for The Hindu (A Tale Of Two Very Different Summits, April 24, 2012). But then, could Uncle Sam expect anything else in The Hindu for himself except a No Mercy Zone?

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