I have been meeting some old timers of journalism, some splendid people who have worked in the era of fountain pens and radios when there was no scope of plagiarism using Google as the tool to search for news and stories. They were searching their stories, the good old way, with their focus on delivering such news and stories that will benefit the people, uncover the truth and counter any anti-democratic forces.
They were therefore imprisoned in the emergency period, and they were adamant to not give in to the demands of the Indira - Sanjay led Congress regime. These journalists rather put up a brave face, fought all adversities and even went underground to publish the journals that were haunting the autocratic regime.
While I was sipping coffee back at my place recalling the meetings with these journalists, who actually fought to uplift the dignity of this noble profession and never compromised with their ideological standpoints and moral values before the aggression of the state and the autocratic rulers even at the cost of their lives, I suddenly remembered Jagendra Singh, a freelance journalist with a Facebook page as his weapon to reach the masses and reveal the truth, also I remembered Sandip Kothari another journalist martyr of the recent times. These people were not associated with any big brand name in the media industry, and I seriously doubt that they had made any huge fortune out of this profession. Yet, they died in the line of their duty, they died protecting the dignity of the profession and while revealing the truth.
There remains a strong connection between these journalists, who lived and worked in a time frame of forty years, yet fought for the same ideals, fought to hold high the dignity of a profession that is called a noble profession. In a similar way, these all journalists of all ages turned victims of the ruling classes that turned their spearhead against them.
Jagendra was burned to death, allegedly by the police, which very soon the forensic 'experts' will turn into a suicide; Sandip's story will be forgotten as soon as a new blockbuster is released in the box office, talks about journalists fighting the tyranny of a system that projects itself as democratic and secular will be off the limits of social media very soon. But the spectre of Jagendra, Sandip and others will continue to haunt our conscience - why we killed them?
It was not the tainted minister Ram Murthy Verma who killed Jagendra, it was not the mining mafia and the political leaders who killed Sandip, it was our apathy towards their cause, their crusade, that killed them. They fought for the cause of the people, to uncover the truth and empower the people with the information that is so vital for us to understand the politics of this nation. Therefore, it is ourselves, that we should blame for their murders because if it was not for us, no Verma or mafia could have harmed these scribes.
Now if we look at the 'professional journalists' attached with the corporate controlled mainstream media, who will leave no stone unturned to prove that they are actually 'impartial' in writing or rather making stories, we can see how they have transformed their lives by selling off their dignity to the multi-national corporations for fat pay cheques, uninstalled any version of progressive or democratic ethos or ideology that ever remained in their mind, and turned themselves into unshackled slaves of monopoly capital. Their only job is to eulogise foreign capital, promote liberalisation of the Indian economy, portray the ruling classes in the brightest colours and ensure that the truth never reaches the people.
It is very evident that such a section of 'professional scribes' will be provoked when the RSS activist minister call them 'hooker' in public. These people, who call themselves scribes, survive on the breadcrumbs thrown at them by foreign monopoly-finance capital that rules the nation through their lackey political forces like the Congress or the BJP. These media houses swings every other day from one headquarter to another of the ruling classes, executes the propaganda campaigns of the feudal landlords, the big capitalists, and the foreign monopoly-finance capital to mould the public mood, especially of the middle classes, to build up a support base for the monstrous policies of the Indian ruling classes.
One can easily comprehend by analysing the inner messages published on the front page up to the editorial pages, of the print media owned somehow by the top most monopoly-finance capital investors of the world, especially from the US and the UK. Their news channels are filled with filthy and nonsense debates on topics that are held only between different sections of the ruling classes. The people of the country and their agony is completely censored in these media houses, while their star anchors only make a fortune by bootlicking the entire brass of Indian capitalism and foreign monopoly capital.
Therefore, these scribes are not of the same school in which those scribes who braved the dark days of emergency belonged to, in which Jagendra and Sandip graduated and many others are still apprentices. Rather these so-called 'professional journalists' of the corporate owned media are the cuckoos of foreign monopoly capital, who were taught by the masters of cunning stereotype and jingoistic journalism to spread lies, slanders and cooked up stories using phrases that can deliver several 'between the line' messages and propagate the policies and agendas of the foreign monopoly-finance capitalists like Rupert Murdoch & Co that owns a major stake in their employer's firm through millions of threads.
This journalist class of India will remain insulated from any sort of attack from the arch-reactionary ruling classes of the country and their lackeys. As they are only propagating their policies and agendas through tricky ways, and the common people are assured by the state that they are living in an environment of utmost peace in a 'democratic' (?) society.
These corporate journalists will not have to face the wrath of the state like those journalists of the emergency era, or even any threat from the likes of Murthy Verma or the mining mafias, as the state and the ruling class will breed this class of journalists and protect them from anything untoward, in return for their unconditional support and activism in favour of the Indian ruling classes.
While keeping the hope alive, as my old journalist friend in his 80's told me, I have to look forward to a new generation of young journalists, unattached to the shackles of the monopoly capital owned media, their urge to know and reveal the truth, their vigour and vitality for changing the world as the only remedy to this problem that threatens the existence of free thought and criticism of the present order.
