It is really awful to be treated the same way you treat everybody else. It is outrageous.

So, Jignesh Mevani refused to carry on with what appeared to be a press meet in Chennai unless Republic TV’s microphone was removed. In solidarity, a few of the journalists present told him he could not demand that and Mevani decided to walk off with his condition not met.

The questions to be answered are: was Jignesh correct in demanding that the reporter from Republic TV leave and should the rest of the media support Republic TV in the face of Arnab Goswami’s overwhelming contempt and noisy rants against what he calls the “Lutyens” media?

Two letters: one to Jignesh Mevani and one to Arnab Goswami.

Dear Mr Mevani,

If you can’t take the heat, get out of the boiling pot and go back to the kitchen. It is the job of the media to observe, analyse and critique politicians’ statements, behaviour, policies, rallies and yes, even clothes (refer to Arvind Kejriwal’s ubiquitous muffler and Narendra Modi’s name embroidered suit). The media’s job is not that of an admiring fan. Your mistakes will be amplified. Your speeches could be mocked. Your forlorn rallies will be highlighted. You will even be misquoted and misrepresented. Yet, they will also show massive turnouts if it happens, as they did with Anna Hazare and Arvind Kejriwal.

You are positioning yourself as a new entrant in the old world of politics. The fact that you can even do so is because India is a democracy. Yes, it is a chaotic, insane, problematic, always a work-in-progress democracy, but a perennial democracy nevertheless, hopefully immarcescible. The fact that the media is showing an interest in you and waiting for you to report your statements is by itself a statement of our democratic principles and the role media plays in it. The media does not always only highlight the powerful and successful. Often it does highlight those who challenge the powerful and successful. You are one such candidate. The worst the media could do to you is to ignore you completely. No coverage of your statements, speeches, rallies, would be the end of your political career even before it begins. Word of mouth or messages sent with pigeons will hardly gain you any supporters or voters. You need the media.

Yes, in today’s media, there are many who do not follow the basic tenets of journalism. They can be rude, unreasonable and callously vicious. When untruths are floated about you, ignoring them could only damage you. They become established truths unless you refute them. For that, you need to engage with whom you perceive as the enemy. Regardless of your view of any news channel, it is against the tenets of democratic principles for you to demand the exclusion of a journalist. In fact, it was a gift handed to you to speak out against their coverage that offended you. You missed that opportunity and handed them the gift of victimhood.

Lyndon B. Johnson, (President of US from 1963 to 1969) was not popular and he lamented:

“Our most tragic error may have been our inability to establish a rapport and a confidence with the press and television with the communication media. I don’t think the press has understood me.”

Mr Mevani, it is up to your ability to communicate to make sure the press understands you. In conclusion, do not ever single out a news organisation and ask them to leave.

That is the strategic bit. Even conceptually, with no strategic advantage, it would be wrong of you to make the demand you did in a democratic country.

To understand why, you might want to continue reading the letter to your bête noir below.

Sincerely,

Madhu Trehan

Dear Arnab,

I was one of your earliest supporters when you created a new genre of television in Times Now. I defended you against critics and lauded the fact that you stepped up to change the dull journalistic landscape. I still believe that your interviews in Frankly Speaking showed a good journalist at work. You captured those who had refused interviews to everybody else and you kept a strong spine with your tough questions.

This is personal. Journalism is something I feel strongly about and it has been my life. I do have an uncontrollable, intrinsic empathy for all journalists, even though there are moments when I cringe in shame for them or feel dismay at slanted, agenda-driven stories. But, the empathy remains. Much like in a family, when your husband, wife or child may do something terribly wrong.

I watched you when you were with NDTV and I believed you were the best of the lot. I watched you on Times Now when you did not leave your desk for hours, maybe the whole day and night, when you covered the Mumbai siege in 2008. I was riveted by your professionalism. It started unravelling when I watched in dismay as you, in my assessment of the case, went completely off the pursuit of truth when you launched attacks on Arushi Talwar’s parents, judging them to be guilty of their daughter’s murder obviously from information handed out to you by the second, newly appointed self-serving team of the CBI. You were dead wrong. But, undoubtedly, you influenced the first order that landed them in jail for four long, terrible years.

You launched Republic TV on May 6, 2017 with a recycled old story on Lalu Prasad Yadav. You followed with another recycled old story on Sunanda Tharoor. And then followed by another recycled old story on Bofors. Even the most unintelligent can figure out your choice of stories exposes Republic TV’s agenda.

Now, I can’t bear to watch you.

Your latest skirmish with Jignesh Mevani leads me to believe you have fallen off the rails from the basic tenets of journalism. In your show on January 5, 2018, #CongSponsorsJignesh, based on your camera team catching Alankar Sawai, aide of Rahul Gandhi, at Mevani’s press conference, you conclude that the Congress party is sponsoring Mevani. You said, “Administrative arrangements for the death toll politics advocate are being done by Rahul Gandhi – sent his man to organise things for him. What does this prove? This proves that the violence in Mumbai and Maharashtra was being indirectly sponsored by Rahul Gandhi. Jignesh is his pawn and Congress party is the real sponsor of the violence which we suspected”. You further added, “Rahul Gandhi’s man runs like he’s seen a ghost. Finally you see Rahul Gandhi’s man in absolute panic jumping into an auto rickshaw and running straight to Tughlak Road to report to his boss that he has been caught. I personally am delighted. Like you (hain?), I would like to see these people who do death toll politics be exposed. Jignesh is a gun on hire. He’s available to the highest bidder which at this time seems to be the Congress party. Houses have been burnt. Hundreds of buses destroyed. More than a thousand crores of people and property demolished. A 16-year old boy has been killed. And this coward Jignesh held the mic and assaulted Aditya Raj Kaul, that too at the Press Club of India”.

Altnews.in investigated this and found in fact Raza Haider, a freelance journalist and a member of the Press Club, had booked the Press Club.

You did not have a dot of proof that the Congress party was involved in the violence in Maharashtra. It was conjecture at best. You also mentioned that Sawai jumped into an auto rickshaw to go to Tughlak Road to report to Rahul Gandhi. How could you possibly know where he was going? So your story, though juicy, sensational and compelling was not based on verified facts. And now that has become a standard format in your shows which most watch for its entertainment value and not news.

You have now become a verbal wrestling channel instead of a news channel and present debates that are as staged as wrestling matches are.