A JOURNAL OF THE PRESS INSTITUTE OF INDIA ISSN 0042-5303 October-December 2016 Volume 8 Issue 4 Rs 50 A lifelong commitment to ridding the world of hunger Prof M.S. Swaminathan, a world scientist of rare distinction whose vision it has been to rid the world of hunger and poverty and whose CONTENTS • Declining media interest work has touched the lives of millions at the grassroots in India, in panchayati raj / Bharat spoke about how “a combination of scientific skill, political will Dogra and farmer’s participation in pulses production could help achieve • Uri, and all the media hype / zero hunger”, at a programme focused on pulses for addressing Shreejay Sinha food and nutrition security which was recently conducted at the • Does a journalist merely MS Swaminathan Research Foundation. A few weeks earlier, report or also offer Prof Swaminathan, despite a nagging cough, spoke to Sashi Nair solutions? / Sakuntala about his life and times for the better part of an hour Narasimhan • The sun shines bright on digital platforms / Santosh August 7 is the birthday of Prof M.S. Swaminathan and the Foundation Day of the Kumar Biswal MS Swaminathan Research Foundation in Taramani, Chennai. This year, a selection of • Translation: no two windows important publications related to agriculture, food security and policy were released by can give an identical view / the Foundation on the day. Its founder-chairman called for the setting up of ‘seed villages’ Shoma A. Chatterji to ensure the availability of quality seed with farmers, as well as ‘pulse panchayats’ to • Girls are still denied the ensure commitment of farmers and local bodies. At 90, Prof Swaminathan, who in 1999 chances they deserve / featured in Time Magazine’s list of the ‘20 most influential people of the 20th Century’ Susan Philip (along with Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore), is as sharp as ever. • A national objective for education is a must / Tell me about your early days in Kumbakonam. Your father was a Gandhian J.V. Vill'anillam who influenced you, isn’t it? He ingrained a sense of service early in you? • A focus on challenges in My father came from a place called Monkombu in Kuttanad in Kerala. Once caring for the mentally ill / he got his MBBS from Madras Medical College, his professor Dr Pandalai Shobha Menon said you go to Kumbakonam and practise, there are a lot of diseases such as • AIR News Services Division filariasis, malaria, elephantiasis, etc. When I was young, I remember many moves with the times / individuals used to have big bloated legs there… my father was the only Pulugurta Chandra Sekhar surgeon in Kumbakonam. He then went to Vienna to equip himself first – in • Why I would like to be those days Vienna was one of the top centres for surgeons. He returned and transported back to 1971 / started a hospital with an x-ray institute where he trained his brother too. At the Partab Ramchand time it was the best hospital in Kumbakonam. • Not much luck at the In 1936, my father died very young. He was also at the time a very strong Olympics, ever - but why? / Congressman. He was also part of the Vedaranyam Salt Satyagraha, the temple Partab Ramchand entry movement, etc. Once, he burnt the clothes he had bought from Vienna in a • The challenges of saving bonfire outside our house, for the sake of khadi. He would have been normally India's cinematic heritage / Bishaldeb Halder (Continued on page 3) October-December 2016 VIDURA 1 FROM THE EDITOR Striving to put public interest first is great, but do it with humility As I sit down to write this piece, I submission, but whether you loved as if Indian television has seen the receive a phone call from my aunt. him or hated him, you did spare last of him. The competition must It is almost 9 pm. She is in quite a time to watch him. have squealed in delight when bad way, combating vertigo. But While debating issues, he made no the news broke out but they will that is secondary for her – what is bones about letting viewers know be waiting and watching. There most important is her daily date where his sympathies lay, in certain will also be millions, like my with the News Hour on Times cases pressing the patriotism button aunt, waiting, which is all well Now. She is calling to say she will too many times for comfort. That and good. So, what’s the moral miss Arnab Goswami terribly and really wasn’t healthy journalism of the story? There may be more hopes he will be back on television at all. At the other extreme was than one. Whether it is personal soon. I cannot resist reaching out his chameleon-like change – his or business, both the sides have to for the TV remote and switching it interview with the Indian Prime work to keep a relationship going, on. Goswami is still anchoring the Minister appeared so thoughtfully which, of course, is easier said show, the day reports had appeared choreographed that Twitterati had than done (news about Goswami in all the major newspapers, even described the show as if they were quitting Times Now arrived the on the front pages of some, that “watching a date”. day Gautami announced her split he had quit Times Now. It was Whichever way you may look at with Kamal Haasan, and a few my daughter who sent me news it, most will agree that television’s days after Cyrus Mistry was ousted the previous afternoon about Angry Young Man not only changed as chairman of the Tata Group). Goswami quitting, her WhatsApp the debating style in the television The other thing is, no matter how message providing the link to the studio newsroom but, more big a star you are, it pays to work news report that had appeared on significantly, voiced the feelings with humility, and this is where The News Minute site. By then, the of the common person. Goswami Goswami fell far short, earning news had already gone viral. In vented his ire on the rich and famous, dislike by the loads in the bargain. all my life I haven’t seen a media the film star, the sportsperson, the You may be the No. 1 news channel personality being discussed so diplomat, the religious head and or the first with the breaking news, much, someone who mattered so several others, but, mostly, his but it needn’t be announced from much to competition. seething anger was directed at the rooftops every single day. You There has been a certain drag and politician. It was as if the collective can do much better without such monotony to News Hour the past frustration of a country had finally braggadocio. And when you are in few months with even some of the found an outlet, a worthy outlet the media, you have to be absolutely early faithfuls keeping away but which people in high places just neutral and unbiased, allow people what was it really that made Arnab could not ignore. It was as if India’s to speak and listen to them with Goswami attractive to young and common man had finally found an respect, and at all times be humble. old alike? I have seen youngsters effective, thundering spokesperson. Some of the reasons we have watch his ‘super prime time’ show And much like Amitabh Bachchan another star on the horizon who in what can only be called mute reflected the hopes and aspirations well-meaning journalists now look admiration. Clearly, here was a of Indians in the 1970s, intolerant of up to. His name is Ravish Kumar, man who held people of all ages exploitation and delivering speedy but that’s a story for another day. enthralled, almost like he was a justice, Arnab Goswami came down storyteller unfolding a magical tale. hard on oppressors of varying kinds, Sashi Nair Of course, there were many who not by using his fists but by his sheer [email protected] hated his high-decibel volume, his gift of the gab. constant hectoring tone of voice, Goswami’s innings at Times Now and his elbowing participants into may have come to an end but it isn’t 2 VIDURA October-December 2016 (Continued from page 1) arrested… In a short duration of 20 years or so, he became very prominent. He adopted a two- pronged strategy to eradicate mosquitoes in Kumbakonam — education and social mobilisation. He educated people in every street where malarial/ filarial mosquitoes were breeding. He asked them to fill up breeding grounds if they didn’t want them or spray crude oil emulsion. Within a year, the mosquitoes disappeared. He Photos: MSSRF achieved this purely by making M. S. Swaminathan out in the fields, which have been home to him in a sense people aware. for decades. His work on high-yielding and semi-dwarf varieties of wheat are all For social mobilisation you well documented. should have some authority. So he stood for election as municipal chairman; he was unanimously important – my father would say My younger brother became a elected. The municipality had 5000 be a trustee of your money, not pharmaceutical chemist; therefore, or 1000 rupees, so with that… In the owner. He himself was very I applied to the medical college. 1933-34, Mahatma Gandhi came generous. His greatest achievement But at the time, the famous Bengal to our house and stayed; he used was in getting the Travancore Famine happened as did the Quit to stay in the hospital part of it.