Dear editorial colleagues and co-pilgrims,

The Navaratris having begun and Vijaya Dashami will follow in a few days.
Traditionally this is considered to be  a very auspicious time and legends have
it that this was when Lord Rama had invoked goddess Durga before launching
all-out war against Ravana. Vijaya Dashami is the day when Ravana was
vanquished – the occasion is celebrated as the victory of good over evil.

Good and evil are however subjective words and evil could mean to denote not
only our external enemies but also our internal obstacles. In fact most
often than not we are inhibited by obstacles that we place before ourselves,
and victory is to surmount these impediments to go forward on our path and
practice our dharma.

Nightmare

For the last few days I have been disturbed a lot. This followed the by now
widely-publicized row that Bombay Times has had with Deepika Padukone. Our
vagina and tits reference in a story carried in the supplement has
drawn a lot of adverse reference in even international media. I feel shamed and
humiliated by the comments being freely passed about us including in
competing publications.

For me the worst nightmare would be if someone went to the Supreme Court
with a PIL seeking printing of a statutory warning on the masthead of the
paper. The warning is that some of the news carried in this paper is paid
for. This would be a statutory warning like that carried on cigarette
packets:  Smoking cigarettes is injurious to your health.  Somebody could
also file a PIL asking for a definition of what a newspaper is.

This is not an implausible scenario considering that the supplements carried
along with TOI main paper have provisions for medianet. These
supplements ­ though, they have their own editors, and imprint lines ­ are
distributed along with the main paper. Of course, we carry on the masthead a
line called advertorial, entertainment promotion feature, as a safeguard.
But can a court not go beyond this?

A few months ago- in February end- at our brand editorial meeting in Sri
Lanka- the Managing Editor of Bombay Times (the same person with
non-editorial background who has written the vagina and tits story) made a
suggestion that on Sundays probably the Bombay Times could be on top and the
main paper could be wrapped within.  I recollect vividly that the suggestion
was met with a hushed silence and disbelief, till the CEO dismissed it
saying: that’s just an idea (which I read as meaning the idea of the person
suggesting).

Journalism: a lifestyle

Almost all of us came into the sacred profession of journalism by choice. At
the beginning of our career, many of us had other options, but through
affirmative action chose this path. By doing so we forsook many ordinary
pleasures of life. For us, there is no Sunday, no Holi, no Diwali. For us,
there is no watching a movie in a hall in the evening 6-9 show. Thus,
journalism has become a lifestyle for us and this is something that we wear
on our sleeves- very proudly. For us, nothing gives us more kick than a paper
well-brought out, a page well-designed, a story well-written and a picture
well-displayed. Nothing is more dampening to us than spotting errors and
misses in our paper every morning. It spoils our mood. Yet we cannot be
described as living in our own world. We are perpetually on the ball, and I
reckon the fastest decision takers. This is not only regarding news but also
designing strategies to take on competitors. We can cut through clutter and
zero in on problems and devise solutions, faster than the fastest managers.
This is not an empty boast.

The only constant in life is change. Times change and so do realities, but
values that we imbibe remain. We are all aware that a paper that we sell to
our readers for Rs 3 costs us upwards of Rs 20 to produce. The difference is
paid by the advertiser. Considering this, I can affirm and proudly so that
the advertiser has almost no say in the content of our paper. This is something
that is amazing and unbelievable, but so it is. Also, over my long years in
TOI ­- I am now in my 22nd year -I have not been subject to any owner/
senior management pressure on what can be carried in the paper. I have
worked in four different centres of TOI: New Delhi, Bangalore, Ahmedabad and
Hyderabad. In some of my job profiles I have faced external intimidation but
no internal company pressures. For over 14 of these 21 plus years I have
been the editor of an independent edition.

Yet a bias against journalists can be discerned. Though this may not be an
institutional bias, it sometimes does percolate down the line and is not
pleasant to encounter. As an example, two years ago, just before Diwali, I ran
into the director in charge of Management Assurance Services (MAS), a
function which is akin to internal audit. The director who had come visiting
Hyderabad told me (in words to that effect) that all journalists were
corrupt. When I glared back at him, he said at least in Delhi, but withdrew
because I stared at him harder. I wanted to tell him that he had no idea
and clue about the complexities of the job of an editor, but thought it a
waste of time to educate him.

There are many other ways too where these biases show up, but they are too
numerous to be listed. All of you must have discerned this as well.

Once upon a time, TOI was infested with union politics. I remember my early
days in Delhi in the first half of the 1990s when the editorial floor would
be taken by union netas who would climb on the table making incendiary
statements and create gadar all around. I have also seen political netas
(including one who became a minister soon thereafter) throw stones on the
glass door on the ground floor of the TOI office. Thank God we have left
those days long behind. Yet at the same time, the pendulum has swung from one
extreme to another.

Change, but is it all for the good?

The country has also changed a lot in these years and we have to adapt
ourselves to the new changes. Yet some things do not change. One of them is
that good journalism is all about reporting events around you -without
biases and taking sides. It is not about the worship of Mammon. In fact the
worship of Mammon leads nowhere and our recent national history proves this.

Ever since 1991 when the economy was opened, profits have become a sexier
word. But this has been to what effect? When Manmohan Singh became Finance
Minister in 1991, the rupee was around 26 to a US dollar. As I write this on
September 26 2014, the rupee is 61 to a dollar. Our currency has declined
sharply. What was all this liberalization all about, I wonder. If you want
to get a reality check and feel first- hand how disempowered you are,
you have to go abroad. India is actually a nation that lives beyond its
means, which is why imports are higher than exports and our currency is
getting constantly devalued. We not only import oil and coal, but also gold
and even fruits and vegetables. What a sorry state of affairs! Increased
consumption and consumerism may not be bad but only as long as you can
afford it.

Of course it has to be admitted that liberalization also unleashed the
creative urge amongst the entrepreneurially inclined and the importance of
this cannot be underestimated. As a result, our business landscape has
changed and there are tremendous opportunities all round. Yet our
manufacturing remains below par and most of the so-called economic growth is
only real estate boom and pure speculation. This is not growth, but just an
illusion of growth. Creating a monoculture and façade of unappetizing
concrete structures cannot be described as growth; it’s just a pretension of
growth. A huge part of the money created by speculation has entered politics
and led to huge corruption, fall in moral values and resulted in
contractorization of politics. All these are valid concerns, which our
journalism must aim to articulate.

National Interests

All of us have individual interests. Above them we have the interests of our
family, friends and relatives. Above all this are the societal and national
interests. What our societal interests are and what our national interests
should be and ­ could be is a matter of debate. But we cannot forget that there has
to be national interest. When a soldier goes to war we expect him to fight
for the country and even die in national interest. We will not pardon a
soldier who draws his salary but runs away from the battlefield. As
journalists we cannot be say that we can run away from the national
interest, whatever the compulsion is.

Friends, I took the liberty of writing to you because you are my co-travelers and co-pilgrims on this path of progress of this great nation. I write to you because I am extremely troubled and have nowhere to turn to. I hope we will be able to work together and reclaim journalism and give back to society what we take from it. This is what we owe to our great nation. This
is our dharma.

With best wishes for you and your near and dear ones for Vijaya Dashami,
Thank You,
Kingshuk Nag
September 27, 2014.