One often wonders that
why there is so much brouhaha by a section of pseudo-intellectuals over the sale
of NDTV by a crafty capitalist duo, claiming to be the espousers of public
interest to a proclaimed industrialist. This duo made a huge amount of money by
adopting all the tricks of the trade, which could be unbecoming of any ethical
and intellectual person. But by their intellectual posturing both accumulated
stinking amounts of wealth. They are said to have assets worth thousands
of crores, that too, within a span of two/ three decades. It is said they were
living in a Barsati of a house but in a very little time, they made hundreds of
crores, mostly because of their connections with powers that be. They are,
thus, classic examples of crony capitalism.
There was an Income
Tax Officer, some Srivastav, who used to publicly say that husband and wife duo-
Pranoy Roy and Radhika Roy owned a ramp consisting of hundreds of acres of land
in an African country. So, NDTV was like any other business for them and there
is nothing wrong with it. But they played the victim card to get
the milage of sympathies from the gullible public was indeed
condemnable. After all owners of big media houses, be it Print or Electronic do
their business, not for any social service but to make profits. In fact, it has
been seen that media owners indulge in far more unethical practices than
businesspersons of other varieties. Therefore, those shedding tears for the Roy
couple are thoroughly mistaken about their so-called altruistic deeds.
There is no dearth of
such people who are shedding tears over the drama of the resignation of a journalist,
who has been associated with the Channel for a long time and is known for
spearheading a campaign against a certain political party and a leader. These
people possibly do not know the fact that power consists of the ‘ruling party
as well as who is in opposition. Hence, those who are in opposition also fall
within the realm of the ‘Power’. Therefore, this journalist, who was part of
the NDTV was also part of the power structure.
Here it is a larger
question arises whether this journalist and the NDTV owner’s duo were in
any way different from other exploiting capitalists. In fact, when a
person claiming to be against exploitation becomes an integral part of the
exploitative machinery then his/ her exploitation becomes more intense and
tortuous than other capitalists. Only a few years ago nearly 350 employees of
the NDTV were very unceremoniously thrown out of their jobs but the entire
class of progressive journalists and intellectuals kept mum as if they were
hamstrung by paralysis. When we approached the Labour Commissioner of Delhi to
help those hapless workers, he said that victimised employees must themselves
approach the Labour department. We talked to many employees, but they did not
come forward to complain about it for fear of being branded as the embedded agents
of the government.
What was most
astonishing was that a few days after the termination of workers the
owners of NDTV organised a meeting in the Press Club of India, which was
addressed by a whole lot of anti-workers ranging from reactionaries like Arun
Shourie, and Fali Nariman to many shameless and rank opportunists, who did not
say even a word against the unfair labour practices of the NDTV owners. The
stony silence of this sermonising and preachy journalist (his name need not be
mentioned here) over the termination of hundreds of workers was painful to the
core.
I am sure that workers
will now have more freedom in the NDTV to raise their voices against
exploitation than they had in the regime of Roys, who were marauders
masquerading as being pro-people businesspersons. They must be exposed, who
have been worse than the enemies of the workers.
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