Forget Boycott, Engage With Modi Like Raj Kamal Jha Did

If there’s one thing that the Indian media can take away from last evening’s Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Awards, held in New Delhi, it is that resistance is not futile.

Ever since it became known that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was going to be the chief guest and the one handing over RNG Awards to winners, there have been grumbles and rumbles on public platforms like Twitter and in private conversations about The Ramnath Goenka Foundation’s decision to invite the PM. In the English-language media – we tend to forget that non-English media is a thriving and vibrant space in itself and there are RNG Awards for reportage and writing in Hindi and other regional languages —  there were whispers of boycotts and jokes cracked about how one could potentially ambush the Prime Minister in the process of receiving an award. The Caravan’s Hartosh Singh Bal lashed out at the Indian Express for under-reporting the encounter killings of the eight undertrials who broke out of Bhopal Central Jail. He alleged that this was the newspaper appeasing the Prime Minister. 

A few days ago, journalist and author Akshaya Mukul said that he would boycott the RNG Awards. “I cannot live with the idea of Modi and me in the same frame, smiling at the camera even as he hands over the award to me,” Mukul told The Caravan in an interview that was published yesterday while the awards were underway. His comments were part of an article that detailed the Modi administration’s far-from-cordial relations with the media. Mukul works with The Times of India (which is, ironically, not particularly renowned for its journalistic ethics) and had won an RNG Award for his excellent book, Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India. He made it very clear to The Caravan that he wasn’t rejecting the award, but The Ramnath Goenka Foundation’s choice of Chief Guest.

As a result of his decision, Mukul didn’t have the sense of satisfaction that we who didn’t boycott the awards got: of watching Narendra Modi smile and hand out awards to journalists who have had endearments like “sickular” and “libtard” hurled at them by Right-wing trolls (some of whom the PM follows on Twitter).

When Modi delivered the evening’s keynote address, it seemed there was a heavy price to pay for those moments of triumph. Modi bemoaned the lack of an Indian media outlet that isn’t famous internationally (we can only wonder whether Arnab Goswami was watching the live stream and grinning beatifically); cracked a not-so-subtle joke about how much media attention he’s enjoyed (isn’t it great that the statesman can make a joke out of accusations of having allowed a genocide in his state?); and enjoyed some thunderous applause when he made a bizarre and offensive comment about crimes against Dalits.

Modi’s speech starts at 1.08. His comment about a Dalit being run over by a BMW comes in at 1.31.

Listening to the laughter from sections of the audience to Modi smiling and saying, “How would the BMW driver know if the one he’s running over is a Dalit?” was distressing. It underscored the need for criticism of the political establishment that Modi himself had encouraged earlier in his speech. Of course, he followed that sentiment up with a directive that the media should behave responsibly and not “divide” the nation, but that’s a separate problem. At that moment, all of us in the audience who are not in awe of Modi realised just how difficult it is for dissent to be heard when the target is surrounded by fans and applause.

Fortunately, there was someone who could cut through the noise: Raj Kamal Jha, editor of the Indian Express.

When invited on stage to deliver the vote of thanks, Jha gave a speech that made journalists and journalism proud. “We have a generation of journalists who are growing up in an age of retweets and likes,” he said, after thanking Modi. “And they do not know that criticism from a government is a badge of honour.” Describing contemporary reporting as “selfie journalism”, he said, “In this selfie journalism, if you don’t have the facts, it doesn’t matter. You just put a flag in the frame and you hide behind it.”

In sharp contrast to Mukul’s decision to boycott the enemy, Jha chose to engage with the Prime Minister and respond to what had been said in the keynote address. There were no theatrics in Jha’s reaction. It was sophisticated; delivered with a smile and respect, and without deference. In a room that had its share of sycophants, Jha reminded everyone what “journalism of courage” really means. Sadly, his own organisation seems curiously unwilling to cheer for him. Jha’s vote of thanks isn’t available as a separate video and it wasn’t mentioned in the paper. You’ll have to skip to 1.36 in the video embedded above to hear him. The video is entitled “PM Narendra Modi at Ramnath Goenka awards” and doesn’t mention Jha even in the description.

But whether or not the Indian Express can celebrate Jha, all of us from the media who were at RNG Awards certainly did.

Yesterday, we saw two ways of taking the resistance to the establishment. The question isn’t which is better, but rather what is the intention behind one’s idealism. Mukul’s boycott is a brave and angry decision; one that will no doubt inspire a few and earn him the respect of many even though it’s unlikely that the PM or anyone in his office will have registered it. As far as Modi is concerned, Mukul was absent and someone else took the award on his behalf. End of story.

Jha, on the other hand, made himself heard. As was patently obvious from the Prime Minister’s body language as he listened to the vote of thanks, Narendra Modi noticed Jha. Not just that, he listened and absorbed every word that Jha spoke. Jha’s speech may not go viral, but it reached its target. The PM will not forget the name Raj Kamal Jha any time soon.

Bravo!

Transcript of Editor of Indian Express, Raj Kamal Jha’s speech, delivered on November 2, 2016:

Thank you very much Mister Prime Minister Narendra Modiji.

After your speech, we are left speechless. But I need to say a few things as a vote of thanks.

Your being here is a very strong message we hope that good journalism is defined it should be defined by the work we celebrate this evening, done by reporters who report and editors who edit. Not by the selfie journalists we see a lot of these days who are always obsessed by what they think, by their face, by their views, who keep the camera turned towards them. The only thing that matters to them is their voice and their face. All the rest is backdrop, a silly background noise. In this selfie journalism, if you don’t have the facts, it doesn’t matter. You just put a flag in the frame and you hide behind it.
Thank you very much sir for your speech, for your wonderful underlining of the importance of credibility. I think that’s the most important thing that we can take away as journalists from your speech. You also said a few wonderful things about journalists that makes us a little nervous. You may not find it in Wikipedia, but Shri Ramnath Goenka, and it’s a fact and I can say that as the Editor of the Indian Express, he did sack a journalist when he heard that the Chief Minister of a state told him that, “Aapka reporter bahut achchha kaam kar raha hai.” That’s very very important especially in an age, and I turn 50 this year so I can say that, when we have a generation of journalists who are growing up in an age of retweets and likes. And they do not know that criticism from a government is a badge of honour.

So just as they do in smoking scenes in cinemas, I think we should have a ticker tape running whenever we hear praise of a journalist that criticism from a government is wonderful news for journalism. I think that’s very, very important for journalism.

Thank you sir for your speech. You made some wonderful points. I think the most important point was of credibility and I think that is very very important. We cannot blame the government for that, that is our job, we need to look within and we will surely reflect on your remarks.

Thank you to the winners of the Ramnath Goenka Journalism Awards. There are two remarkable facts about this year’s awards, which I want to share with you. We got 562 applications, this is the highest ever we got in the last 11 years, from 128 news organisations. This is also the highest ever and it is very important for me to underline this number because this is a reply to those who say good journalism is dying, that journalists have been bought over by the government. It is not that good journalism is dying, not at all. It is getting better, and it is getting bigger. It is that bad journalism makes a lot more noise than it used to do five years ago. And that is why I think the remote control should get the RNG Award for Excellence in Journalism. And so that is why I would like to request you to lend a hand to all those who have won the award this year.

In the end, thank you to all of you who have come here this evening. There are people from the government, there are people from the Opposition, we know who is who. But when they applauded journalism, it did not matter. You could not make out who is in the government and who is in the opposition. That is the way it should be. Thank you very much.