Journalists are meant to be independent ‘pontificators’, objective observers of governance and a key part of the accountability process. They are not meant to cross over into party politics with all the vile distortions (spin doctoring) which accompany contemporary adversarial games. But Indian politics is replete with examples of journaliststaking a chance in politics.

The issue of journalists crossing over into politics is worth thinking about. Is it a good idea given the role of the Fourth Estate in a democracy?

ChandanMitra is a prime example of such a journalist.After a very successful stint with The Statesman he switched over to edit The Pioneer and then plunged into politics as a BJP MP. I have looked at Chandan’s articles before and after he donned the mantle as a politician and do not find any major qualitative shift in his position vis-à-vis his own political leanings. ArunShourie, another journalist who had made his political leanings well-known before his foray into politics, remained politically consistent with his views.

Which is not what I can say for Rajeev Shukla.Shukla used to be a columnist with the Sundayand was perhaps one of the more balanced columnists, at times scathingly critical of the party in power -Congress.I vividly remember reading how he castigated KalpanathRai, a Cabinet minister, for his usage of un-parliamentary language, and berated his party for not taking him to task. I also recall how as an interviewer he discomfited Mani Shankar Aiyar. One is left wondering what has happened to that journalist now that he has moved into active politics. The fact that he has switched multiple parties before becoming the present government’s Goebells has not added to his stature. In fact, I have stopped treating his articles with any seriousness.

ShahidSiddiqui always makes it a point to flaunt his journalistic credentials, but because his political ambitions have always taken a higher priority over his journalistic obligations, by and large he is not taken seriously.Apart from these there are other journalists like HK Dua who moved into politics at the fag end of their careers, but their primary identity remains that of a journalist. Then there are others like BG Verghese who unsuccessfully attempted a lateral entry to politics.

Journalists, particularly political journalists,know about the viciousness of politics in India. They know about vested interest influence-peddling. They know about factionalism, tribalism, smear campaigns, character-assassination and zealotry. They know about media management and focus group rhetorical and policy manipulations which pervert honest engagement with the electorate.

The ‘Fourth Estate’ has come to be defined as the ‘press’ or ‘journalism’. The term though, is rapidly disappearing from use and has effectively been replaced by the amorphous term ‘the media’. Now, ‘the media’ can best be defined as mass circulation print, magazine, radio and TV outlets and online news and blog sites.

It is important to separate and emphasise the term ‘journalism’ from ‘media’, particularly in this age of spin and entertainment masquerading as journalism with commercially exploitable sensationalism, paparazzi celebrity and voyeurism. Journalists should think hard before they leverage their profiles into party politics, particularly given its pathetic current practices.
The concept of the Fourth Estate has inspired some to think of journalism as one of the most honourable of professions. At its heart it seeks out the truth and, necessarily, confronts the other estates and the polity with its findings.

Of course, in practising their profession some journalists, in all good faith, may become impassioned about an inequity or cause and commit themselves to going beyond journalism directly to advocacy by standing for and winning elected office. There is no rule prohibiting the crossover from the Fourth Estate. Nor should there be in a free country. Nigel Lawson is a shining example of a full-time journalist who moved into politics and had a successful career in both.
Political parties have been recruiting their elected MPs from the ranks of lawyers, farmers and trade union officials. But journalists bob up from time-to-time and usually attract some notoriety because of their already-raised public profiles. Maybe it is their writing and communication skills which equip them best for the task.

One of our prime ministers, AtalBehari Vajpayee worked at least for a time as a journalist.L.K. Advani worked as an editor, although of a political organ. Alfred Deakin, Australia’s second PM was a protectionist and co-founder of the then Commonwealth Liberal Party. He was a barrister who later became an editor and leader writer for Melbourne Age before embarking on a political career.More recently, Gordon Brown was a full-time journalist before moving into politics.Michael Foot edited The Evening Standard before plunging into politics permanently. And to that list I should also like to add the medium distance Olympic runner-turned-journalist, Christopher Chataway who later became a distinguished member of the House of Lords.

So it seems that joining journalism as a full-time career in itself in recent decades has kept many noses to the grindstones of the Fourth Estate. There are no available calculations or studies though, on the number of journalists elected to state legislatures and municipal councils.

The contribution journalism can make to politics should go beyond the narrow objectives of a socialist left or a capitalist right. Journalism’s role is to inform, decode, decipher, and expose hidden agendas and the abuse of power. Yet, all journalists have been influenced by the peer pressure and supports arising from the code.

In the Indian context,perhaps the most celebrated instance is that of Nikhil Chakrabartione of the most respected journalists of his time and editor ofMainstream for over 20 years.He never made any secret of his communist leanings,but was scrupulously fair and impartial whenever he donned the mantle of a journalist.After all, who can forget his principled opposition to the Communist Party of India when they had decided to support Indira Gandhi during the infamous Emergency.

The case of Khushwant Singh makes a striking contrast.He was editing the periodical with the widest circulation in India in the Seventies.While it can be argued that he never stifled contributors holding views contrary to his from making a contribution,it cannot be denied that he allowed his respected periodical to become a mouthpiece for the party then in power, and went to extraordinary lengths to ingratiate himself to the powers that be. By the time the Emergency had been lifted he had lost almost all credibility as a serious journalist and since then has restricted himself to writing polemic columns and non-serious books.And old habits die hard, and I did note that in his column about 10 days ago he described Rahul Gandhi as the “only true inheritor of Gandhian legacy”.

As I have indicated, I have no problems with journalists wandering into the political minefield any more than I would have problems with medics and engineers taking this plunge.My discomfiture would surface when these neo-politicians expect to be taken as serious journalists.I would contend that being a full-time politician in India does compromise the requisite objectivity needed to function as a serious journalist.

It would also be important to view the other angle.There have been instances of politicians who have gravitated into journalism.Connor Cruise O’Brien is a shining example.When his government lost the Ireland elections in 1975,he gave up politics and took over as the Editor-in-Chief of the respected Observer and successfully guided the paper through very turbulent times, even speaking out against his own country on several occasions. Brian Walden was a Labour Party MP in the UK, but after becoming a journalist he was described by Maggie Thatcher as her favourite interviewer. Who can forget that the doyens of British journalism,Robin Day and Ludovic Kennedy were card-carrying Liberal parliamentary candidates?

The only instance that I can recapitulate of a politician moving freely between politics and journalism and being outstandingly successful in both is Winston Churchill. But perhaps he was an exception.

Ruefully, in this context the Indian experience is not very encouraging. Mani Shankar Aiyar still has strong journalistic pretences although his objectivity or total absence of it is there for everyone to see.

Journalism the way I look at it is the noblest profession in a free society.And maybe it is better for journalists to stay outside the political fray and use their journalistic expertise to critique and comment on politics, much like Walter Cronkite in the US and Knowlton Nash in Canada.Is it too much to expect that our journalistic community would throw up a Cronkite or a Nash? I wonder.