“Surgical strike” is the word of the day. From talking heads on television screens to people on the street. Even my autorikshaw driver had a little ditty to contribute, “Bhutto bhuttta bhunega…” (Bhutto will be roasted like corn — a reference to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto who was the president of Pakistan during the 1971 Indo-Pak war).  

Despite being a four-decade-old reference, it was apt. It had been announced yesterday that the Indian army had carried out a military operation bringing down 38 Pakistani militants and two soldiers across the Line of Control and tensions were high.

Yet the one place that seemed immune to the nationalism that was pervading the country was the Press Club of India (PCI) at Raisina Road in New Delhi. The mania there was about the “Press club elections,” to be held on October 1.

Everyone, from wire copy churners to copy editors, all the way to overly-analytic TV anchors, who had spent the entire day verbally or graphically dissected the strike, were interested in just one thing: seeking voters and drunkenly extolling their panel’s merits.

Needless to say the merits boiled down to cheaper alcohol, cheaper and better food – more egg on the egg-on-toast, cheaper “BP” (Blender’s Pride whiskey, the house favourite) and the like. If one listened long enough, occasionally words such as “transparency” and “reforms” were also floated.

“May I take the liberty of taking a few moments of your precious time to request you to vote for our panel?” one elderly journalist campaigning for the Prashant-Shahid panel asked a few unsuspecting journalists who were blissfully shredding their tandoori chicken.

Contesting parties in the PCI do not have names (on purpose, I was told), and therefore sound like something between a lesser-known jazz duo and a desi carpenter shop. The three other panels this year are:

• Bala-Srikrishna-Souvagya-Ajay-Sondeep Panel  
• Habib-PK Panel
• Gautam Lahiri-Vinay Panel

The panels are named after its top guns, with other members running for the posts of President, Vice President, Secretary General, Joint Secretary, Treasurer and for a place in the Managing Committee. The elections are organised by an internally-elected Election Committee.

The elderly journalist made the most of his forced liberty on his impatient audience, describing the link between cuisine and conversation. However a name that popped up, changed the course of the campaigning to a more serious note — Ali Jawed.

The spectre of Jawed haunted the connection between food and politics at the club. On February 12, former Delhi University professor, SAR Geelani was booked for sedition for an event at the PCI marking the anniversary of the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru.

The event occurred at the heels of the antinational fervour following the Jawaharlal Nehru University incident. This led to the termination of Jawed, the PCI member who had booked the club auditorium for Geelani’s event.

“Why was Jawed’s membership terminated? The current panel in power was elected because they were thought to be progressive, but they acted just like any Right wing panel would have in that situation,” one campaigner on condition of anonymity asked.

This had lead to the bifurcation of the current panel in power into the separate Prashant-Shahid and Gautam Lahiri-Vinay panels. The current President, Rahul Jalali is supporting the Bala-Srikrishna-Souvagya-Ajay-Sondeep panel.  

“The fact is that Jawed lied to PCI about the event and the club was about to be shut down. There was no mention of Kashmir or SAR Geelani in his application to book the auditorium. The payment for booking was also done by someone else using a card that was Geelani’s,” Jalali explained. “He accepted his guilt before the Press Club committee,” he added. 

While it is good that election campaigning level had been raised above gastronomy, the bigger question it poses on the matter of freedom of expression, is grave.

“The Ali Jawed issue is an unprecedented one. But it is important,” a member of the Gautam Lahiri – Vinay panel said, before going on to relate it to an incident between Margaret Thatcher and the BBC head with the moral being the importance of the freedom of the press.

The fourth pillar of democracy at the PCI is not untouched by the ongoing discourse on nationalism in the country. Press, with its sole purpose of giving voice to the unheard is being muffled, by killing journalists.

“One of our biggest achievements in PCI is that we have been able to unite various journalists’ organisations to mass protest against atrocities on journalists,” Jalali said, adding that the petty side of politics in the club has restrained him from contesting the elections again.     

Meanwhile, all tables were occupied in the club. Either guzzle your drink on the stairs, or wait for a table to free itself. Campaign or get campaigned.

“The election is day after,” the cashier told me, “you won’t find a place to sit for the next two days.” Who knows, come tomorrow, along with a table, one might also get better food, cheaper liquor and a side of freedom of expression.