April-June 2015 Volume 7 Issue 2 Rs 50 Democracy on Trial, So Is Freedom of Expression
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A JOURNAL OF THE PRESS INSTITUTE OF INDIA ISSN 0042-5303 April-June 2015 Volume 7 Issue 2 Rs 50 Democracy on trial, so is freedom of expression Though the largest democracy in the world, the attitude of the authorities in India remains feudal and authoritarian, says New Delhi-based veteran journalist M.B. Lal. Fortunately, CONTENTS in what will certainly go down as a historic judgement, the • The death of Section 66A / Indian Supreme Court has just struck down Section 66A of J.V. Vil’anilam the Information Technology Act as being "unconstitutional", • How the media fared, and which stated that anyone who wrote anything repugnant the larger picture / Sakuntala to authority or any important person faced three years in Narasimhan jail, he adds. Lal wonders whether we are entering an age M.B. Lal • Would an Indian filmmaker where everyone is free to upload any information he wants have gained similar access? on his mobile, or whether we are entering an Orwellian Era where Big Brother is / Shoma A. Chatterjee breathing down our necks • Secure public spaces: a rally for change / Shwetha George n December 1955, we visited Jaipur as tourists and stayed in Hind Hotel, opposite the City Palace in the heart of the city, where I saw an unforgettable • Can legal rights change sex Ispectacle. From the window of my room I could see the cavalcade of Soviet workers’ lives? / Taru Bahl leaders Nikita Khurschev and Nicholai Bulganin sitting in an open car and • What price for a housewife’s waving to a throng of thousands of people lined on both sides of the streets work? / Shoma A. Chatterji up to house tops. I witnessed a similar show in Delhi when in 1959 President • How effective are helplines? Eisenhower of America came on a visit to India. Jawaharlal Nehru was sitting / Pamela Philipose by the side of the US President who was standing in an open car to greet lakhs • What it is to be an expatriate of people lined up on both sides of the road from the airport to Rashtrapati journalist in China / Shastri Bhavan through a circuitous route via Connaught Place so that the pageant Ramachandaran could be witnessed by more people, many of whom had come from places • So, does the reader as far away as Jaipur, Chandigarh and Lucknow. Similar scenes were seen in really matter? / Sakuntala Delhi during the visit of Marshal Tito in 1955. Khrushchev and Bulganin even Narasimhan visited rural areas and freely mixed with the people there. One village in Tamil • Nadu is still called Bulganin Thottam. Print and electronic media: Who has the winning edge? Contrast this with the visit of Barack Obama, President of America to India in / Som Nath Sapru January 2015. For the world’s media, the security arrangement in Delhi made the main news of his visit. Reuters said Delhi had been turned into a fortress. • Wanted: A law to safeguard The Daily Mail of London did some research on the subject and said that journalists on duty / Nava Thakuria the US President was preceded by six aircrafts carrying his security staff, a • Remembering R.K. Laxman / Rajinder Puri / Vinod Mehta (Continued on page 3) April-June 2015 VIDURA 1 FROM THE EDITOR You needn’t show yourself to be too bold to grab attention So, tweeting can land you V.K. Singh’s recent “presstitute” backing from her staff (she won in trouble. That is, if you are tweet was disgusting to say the least. their majority support in a ballot), not careful. Writer Shobhaa De It put in the shade all the good work 44-year-old Viner has her task cut learned it the hard way after she, he had apparently done in bringing out. Peter Preston writing for The in a series of tweets, poked fun at back stranded Indians from Yemen. Guardian, says: There’s a popular the Maharashtra Government’s Twitter may well be a private will to make this new page of decision to make multiplexes com- platform but what you put out there history work. And The Guardian she pulsorily screen Marathi films is what you want the world to know. inherits, like the one Rusbridger during prime time. One of her So, balance, restraint and dignity inherited, is hugely changed and tweets equated the chief minister helps enormously. And, of course, hugely challenging…” and his administration with humility. We all talk about freedom dadagiri or hooliganism. Now, De of expression and there’s nothing Viner joins a club populated may be a proud Maharashtrian wrong defending it with all your by not many. Ariana Huffington, love Marathi films but the might, but we must understand that co-founder and editor-in-chief moral of the story is you have there is a responsibility attached to of the Huffington Post is a name to be sensitive when castigating such freedom. Amitabh Bachchan, that instantly comes to mind. anybody in public. De had crowds India’s tallest celebrity who has Malini Parthasarathy has the outside her residence protesting. millions following his blogs and rare distinction of becoming the It was not a first. Her tweets (over his tweets, has shown how freedom first woman editor of The Hindu. Gopinath Munde’s death and of expression can be exercised When Shobhana Bhartia joined the formation of Telangana) have responsibly. Hindustan Times in 1986, she evoked strong sentiments before. became the first woman chief She, on her part, has often said ************************** executive of a national newspaper. she is the recipient of unnecessary In Chennai, Lakshmi Natarajan is and misdirected ire. She may have Katherine Viner taking over from managing director at Bharathan had a court case slapped against Alan Rusbridger as the first editor- Publications, publishers of Kalki, her in this instance if it wasn’t in-chief of The Guardian was news. Mangayar Malar and Gokulam. for the Supreme Court repealing Viner has said she would pursue An article in Scroll.in says some Section 66A of the Information “ambitious journalism, ideas and of India’s top book publishers/ Technology Act. Whatever it is, do events, setting the agenda and editors are women – Urvashi you need to perform deeds (even reaching out to readers all around the Butalia of Zubaan, Ritu Menon if it be tweeting) of derring-do to world” and that two of the essentials of Women Unlimited, Chiki grab attention? De certainly doesn’t that would guide her priorities Sarkar of Penguin Random need to. She is a celebrity writer would include the two basics of House India, Diya Kar Hazra of and commentator. modern-day journalism The Guardian Bloomsbury India, Karthika VK of has followed with considerable HarperCollins India, Sayoni Basu We all know how Shashi Tharoor success: “Be instinctively digital,” of Duckbill Books, and Poulomi skirted controversy time and and “Cherish print, but don't let it Chatterjee of Hachette India. Any again with his tweets. It became hold us back.” It appears that there particular reason? Kar Hazra quite serious and ballooned out of was considerable head-hunting and sums it pretty well in the article, control after tweets flowed from advertising for the top post but, saying, “Publishing involves a lot his account during the unsavoury eventually, the choice came from of nurturing. Women make good Sunanda Pushkar-Mehr Tarar within. Her selection is an inspiration midwives.” episode, although it was reported for all young women working in that his Twitter account was news publishing houses across the Sashi Nair allegedly hacked. Union minister world. For all her experience and [email protected] 2 VIDURA April-June 2015 (Continued from page 1) were installed to look for terrorists or gathered to hear him. He also visited suspicious movements. Indian and Village Daulatpur-Naseerabad near cavalcade of 30 cars including American police and paramilitary Gurgaon, freely mixed with the The Beast, the President’s heavily forces deployed to guard the residents and informally walked armoured personal car and one president numbered 45000. It was into many homes. The village has marine helicopter. The President also reported in the world press that since been renamed Carterpuri to was to travel in Air Force One, all 438 rooms in Maurya Sheratan commemorate Carter’s visit. which is safe even from nuclear Hotel where Obama stayed had Socially, too, the world is attacks. Newspapers also reported been booked in advance. The list of changing. India being a hot tropical that about 80 sharp-shooters were precautions taken to keep Obama country, all main entry doors posted on top of towers adjoining safe from terrorists is unending. of houses, right from sprawling the hotel and other places which Right up to 1978 when then US bungalows in Lutyen’s Delhi to the Obama was to visit. Air space President Jimmy Carter visited humblest hamlet in a small village, around 400 kilometres of Delhi India and stayed in Rashtrapati were kept open from morning till was sealed during the hours the Bhavan, American presidents were evening. During British Rule, from US President was to fly in and treated like any other head of state the road you could peep into the out of Delhi and also during his and needed no special security. goings-on in the drawing rooms two-hour presence at the Republic Carter addressed a public meeting of British ICS officers, across large Day function. The Economic Times at Ramlila Grounds where an verandahs even as you could reported that 15000 CCTV cameras audience of 200000 people had witness what was happening in Illustration: Arun Ramkumar April-June 2015 VIDURA 3 the homes and shops of ordinary are today 40 million guns in India, good things of life.