The Indian Express, the daily we grew up to revere as the reporter's newspaper, doesn't seem to be so any more. The more you see its reportage on the Tatas, the more it seems to belong to the latter. We ought to have seen it coming when Shekhar Gupta recently walked less and talked more with Ratan Tata.
The Tata group is in the thick of the 2G scam, but Gupta came across as one who had decided that they indeed were not and tagged along with Ratan Tata in the NDTV show, Walk the Talk. All through, it was obvious that Gupta wanted to provide the Tatas a forum to voice their opinion.
Gupta, a man who we once looked up to as the journalist-to-emulate, of course, now does little hardhitting journalism, and is more keen on pandering to celebrities. Times have changed — Gupta has walked with the times, while some of us old-fashioned scribes still believe in journalism.
Some excerpts from the interview:
Shekhar Gupta: Having this conversation with you is always such a privilege because besides everything else one learns so much.
Ratan Tata: Thank you.Shekhar Gupta: Always inspirational talking to you.
Ratan Tata: Let me just tell you that you come to be somebody that I really respect because of the fact that you stand for, what you believe in and I have enjoyed every moment we have been able to share together, I hope that friendship will grow as we go forward.Shekhar Gupta: Insha’allah. Thank you so much.
Ratan Tata: It’s something I’ll cherish. Thank you.
No tough questions were asked; all were tailor-made for the industrialist to suit his case. Quite another type of Counterpoint it was. The mutual admiration club extended from one between an editor-in-chief and a group chairman, to an advance warming system of sorts.
Tata moved the Supreme Court on November 29 seeking action against persons responsible for the leakage and “unauthorised” publication of tapes of his conversation with corporate lobbyist Nira Radia, alleging that it was sheer violation of his right to privacy. That's what the newspaper reported.
The Sans Serif blog was quick to catch The Indian Express on the wrong foot. It would have been fine had the story been filed after Tata had moved the court. But the screenshot of the newspaper's site tells us that it was uploaded more than seven hours before the Supreme Court opened for the day. The Indian Express, obviously knows before hand what's going to happen. That's what The Almighty are like these days. Let's not ask what the sources was; sources these days have a bad name.
And on Thursday, the newspaper also described Tata as the group's supremo. Supremo, did they write?
The battlelines in the 2G scam are drawn. You have Congress (and allies) and the Tatas (and other beneficiaries) on one side, and the rest on the other. The lopsided, linguistically slanted reportage of The Indian Express shows which side it is on.
Ram Nath Goenka must be turning in his grave.
