Fatal Contact

Take George Fernandes and Jaya Jaitly. They are enormously gifted and successful people but for someone attached to the media, getting close to them is severely dangerous. They see the world exclusively in black and white terms; you are either for them or against them. If you are against them, or perceived to be so, then you must be part of a conspiracy, part of an adversary's agenda. It could be the Pope or Sonia Gandhi or Laloo Yadav or Ramakrishna Hegde or L.K. Advani. If you are for them, you must show your loyalty by attacking their enemies, whose numbers, alas, are legion. These are the terms of the relationship, professional or personal. The fact that you disagree with their politics, and the manner in which they practice it, is considered irrelevant.

I have, perhaps unfairly, singled out George and Jaya as examples (many others are readily available) of how the conspiracy theory has come to dominate much of our public life, including journalism. Increasingly, these days when I run into a politician who has been critically treated in Outlook, he/she seldom complains about the merits of the story, the possible factual inaccuracies, the lack of balance, the absence of adequate verification, etc. Instead, the grilling concentrates on who planted it on me and on whose behalf I printed it. All of which confirms my belief that in India politicians and journalists can never be friends.