I n d i a M a h e s h

Perceptions are strange; very strange, actually. Consider those perceptions people have about “journalists” and “gossip mongers”. What’s the difference between the two? Both have strange similarities; both have an astute appetite for “information”. While one terms it “news” and the other calls it “gossip”. The medium is different; difference(s) ends then and there. Yeah, journalists are “supposed” to be “ethical”.  But what happens when the said “ethics” diluted?

What’s happening in Indian journalism today is nothing “strange” but a sheer hypocrisy. For years now our “eminent journalists”, including the NDTV’s poster-girl Barkha and Hindustan Times’ blue-eyed-boy Vir Sanghvi, have sought to assume charge of a “judge” than as a humble journalist. In their decree they were worse than those “kangaroo courts”. When they “went out of their way” they actually trespassed into the territory of judiciary.

Is it prudent to issue decrees all by oneself and “brand” people the way one wants it when they are supposed to report “AS IS” basis?  Barkha and Vir, while at pinnacle of their profession they consider themselves not as the “guardians of the fourth-estate” but as “custodians of law” and that too without any accountability! They misused and even abused their powers beyond comprehension; they gave no chance – whatsoever – to the parties whom they sought to defame and/or ridicule.

Today, those who kept both of them in high-regard stand disillusioned; even betrayed. People have brought them to heels; they have lost their faces. And if they are of the belief that they haven’t, it would just be a matter of time before they actually come to know of it.

A piece of fraternal advice to Barkha and Vir: “Be not be deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth; that shall he also reap.” You have misused as well as abused your power in ridiculing people beyond comprehension and are justly facing consequences of your actions. It’s not – at all – easy… you have no choice but to endure all this. May light of wisdom dawn upon you; may you realize the power of truth.