Making Cat Calls
Mohammad bin Tughlaq had ruled over vast stretches and tracts of land that today constitute India. He was a great ruler who left behind a legacy. A legacy that is today most identifiable as an adjectival derivative of his name – Tughlaqesque. The word is too complex to have an exact synonym. Tughlaqesque would mean exotic, Quixotic, far-fetched, well-meaning, ill-conceived, arrogant, grandiose, all at the same time. It is also a word that can be routinely associated with India’s later-day rulers. Especially, the ones who have lorded over us since Independence.
There is one Tughlaqesque idea that is doing the rounds these days and the gullible Indian media has fallen flat for it – that of reintroducing the cheetah in India.
Seeing the cheetah in the Indian wild is any Indian wildlifer’s wet dream. It is something that sets our hearts aflutter. But let’s get real and see what this dream is all about.
The minister and his words
Of militants, and tackling militancy
It's the kind of news item that tends to get buried under others of heavier national importance; for it hardly has any news value that any journalist worth one's salt would ascribe to it. This particular news item one read was about 36 former militants being appointed on Saturday as constables in the Jammu and Kashmir police. No big deal, that. In any case, nothing new about such a measure either.
It is not the news item in itself that is a cause for worry – reading between its lines is, and also by going beyond the straightjacket, desultory headline.
The Times of Burial
• Sections:
The Times of India has issued an apology.
That's good news.
The bad news is that the apology has been buried in the 20th page of Sunday's edition. The info comes to me courtesy Utpal.
Here's what the paper had to say:
"An article in TimesLife ('Spa With a Difference', March 2) had an inadvertent mention that has upset our friends from the northeast. We clarify here that we have the utmost regard for them and their contribution to the country. We apologise for upsetting any feelings and wish to state that there was no intention to hurt any sentiments."
The Times of Insensitivity
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Those of us who have more than a soft corner for the Northeast have been crying wolf since the day we stepped into journalism. We have been crying ourselves hoarse over the stepmotherly attitude of the Centre towards the region. And we have also been mincing no words about what we think of how the news media itself has been handling the Northeast.
Over the last few years the news media has shown some interest in the region. For whatever reason. Maybe people have matured. Maybe they have inculcated a sense of sensitivity over time. Maybe political correctness has rubbed on to the journalistic fraternity in the metropolitcan cities from the scores from the region who are now working in the big media. Or perhaps it is a reason I am not aware of.
Just when one thought that things were getting better, comes a slur. Oh, quite a slur it is.
Sonia's Outlook
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Outlook has completed 10 years. That's good news of course, considering that its editor Vinod Mehta did not quit the race midway through, as he was always allegedly wont to. Outlook is also known for its oft-brought out collectors' issues. Its 10th anniversary could not have provided an exception. It is a collector's piece all right, together with a section on the media. Outlook, of course, is a journo's magazine, and the media section took all the potshots it takes at those who are dumbing down news.
Outlook always gave away its Speak Out awards at the Page 3 party. Quite befitting the occasion, really. Outlook is known to speak out. And what better a guest could it have been than the tacit Ms Sonia Gandhi. Considering the number of times the magazine has featured her on the cover implicitly or explicitly, it ought to have been a foregone conclusion – quite a faith accompli, in fact.