Journalism Democratised Through Internet

       Parmanand Pandey 

  As the Gregorian calendar has divided the modern times into parts, that is, BC (Before Christ) and AD (Anno Domini), in the same manner, the journalism also now stands divided into two periods, which is journalism Before Google (BG) and After Google (AG). Internet and Artificial Intelligence, which are inextricably linked to each other, have changed the journalism forever. No one can now think of pursuing journalism as was practised even as late as the end of the twentieth century. The internet has not only changed the methods of journalism, but also people’s perceptions of news media. The shifting balance of power between journalism and its readers and audience has indelibly altered its landscape.

The two largest changes in modern journalism strike at the heart of traditional notions and they are the rise of the blogger and user-based journalism and the nature of the internet has given rise to content aggregators like Google News that no longer rely on individual journalists to provide news, but instead, depending on their ability to gather and collect information into a single location where users can access it. Together they are altering society’s traditional ideas very swiftly regarding journalists and news.

Gigantic Progress of Social media 

  The very existence of the print medium has been extremely squeezed. Newspapers, magazines, and books etc are now available on WhatsApp or on other platforms of the internet. Apart from the Print medium, the scope of the electronic medium has also been shrinking amazingly fast. The galloping space is being increasingly filled by the Web medium or portals. Social Media has made gigantic progress during the just gone- by decade. Facebook. Twitter and WhatsApp have now become the part and parcel of the life of most of the people. It has happened more because of the deep, wide, and comprehensive penetration of the internet.

    It is also noteworthy that Social Media, which is also the form of digital media has made it more democratic than it was at any point in time. Now anybody and everybody have got the full freedom to ventilate his or her feelings and views without any barriers whatsoever. Earlier the publication, telecasting or broadcasting was in the hands of the selected few, who were elites by virtue of the resources that they controlled. Now there are no such barriers.

   However, there are many demerits also in this unhindered freedom. Since there is nobody to check or regulate, it has led to enormous anarchy. It has also resulted in a deep crisis of credibility. Therefore, for ensuring the credulity of journalism, it has become essential that some regulators must be at the threshold to ensure that unverified, vulgar, abusive, perverted, and tendentious contents do not find their way in the media.

Greater-Scope of Creativity in Digital Media

   Digital journalism, as also known as online journalism, is a contemporary form of journalism where editorial content is distributed via the internet, as opposed to publishing or broadcast. The main reasons for its tremendous popularity are extremely low distribution costs and diverse computer networking technologies. It has, as already stated, democratized the flow of information that was previously controlled by traditional media including newspapers, magazines, radio, and television.

 Some experts are of the view that a greater degree of creativity can be exercised with digital journalism when compared to traditional journalism and traditional media. The digital aspect may be central to the journalistic message and remains, to some extent, within the creative control of the writer, editor, and/or publisher. Digital journalism is influencing the uprising of citizen journalism. Because digital journalism takes place online and is contributed mostly by citizens on user-generated content sites, there is competition growing between the two. Citizen’s journalism allows anyone to post anything, and because of that, journalists are being forced by their employers to publish more news content than before, which often means rushing news stories and failing to verify the source of information.

  Disadvantages of Unchecked Internet Media

   There are great advantages to digital journalism and the new blogging evolution that people are becoming accustomed to, but there are disadvantages. For instance, people are used to what they already know and cannot always catch up quickly with the new technologies in the 21st century. The goals of print and digital journalism are the same, although different tools are needed to function. The increased interaction between the writer and consumer is new, which can be credited to digital journalism. There are many ways to get personal thoughts on the Web.

   During the time of Corona pandemic, digital journalism has leapfrogged.  Let us hope that the technology will also provide enough strength to journalists to disseminate the good and valuable news to the people and at the same time the employment to more persons.

Leapfrogging of Digital Journalism in Corona Time

  The limitless growth of Social Media has also brought limitless problems and difficulties for the journalists as hundreds of newspapers, magazines and other media houses have shut their shops rendering thousand od journalists and non-journalists working for them jobless. The basic principles transparency of journalism like transparency, trust and inclusion have also suffered a great deal in the time of Corona. The role and need for journalism will, however, never diminish as people will always have the thirst for information as it has become a need like the food, particularly in modern times.  

 One of the basic needs in the face of the global spread of the Covid-19 disease is access by as many people as possible to reliable, credible, unbiased, and understandable information on all aspects of such a crisis. The first need is for public service, medical and health information on the virus and how to protect oneself from it. It is a question of informing, but also of countering the disinformation that is spreading faster than the virus. A journalist cannot afford to ‘dip the pen in the wound’ in times of crisis. Striking the right balance, therefore, between emergency information, public service information, constructive information, and uncompromising investigations into the responses of the governments and administrations concerned will continue to be is always valid. 

 

                            Country Remembers NETA JI, Whose Heart Throbbed for India

                            By Parmanand Pandey

     This is 125th birth anniversary year of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose and even after more than 75 years of his death on 18^th August 1945 in a plane crash in Taipei (Taiwan), his death continues to be an enigma, a conundrum shrouded in mystery. Till the early seventies, it was believed by a large section of people that he was still alive although there was no plausible reason for the belief, which was absolutely baseless.   Netaji had caught the imagination of young Indians particularly of those who were against the non-violence Satyagrah of Mahatma Gandhi. He was a legend then and continues to be now as well. Many books have been written on his life, activities, and feats of Netaji. A biographical book of Subhash Chandra Bose and his elder brother Sarat Chandra Bose ‘BROTHERS AGAINST RAJ’ by LEONARD A. GORDON throws dispassionate and detached light on them. This book does not suffer from the vice of hagiography, which is commonly found among most of the Indian biographers, which is natural also, because Indians cannot remain uninvolved with the life and times of the person, who is being written about. It is an incontrovertible fact that Netaji could never have allowed bearing the ignominy of not participating in the celebration of the freedom by not appearing in the public and hiding somewhere by the fear of being arrested by the Britishers. This itself is the solid proof that he was not alive at the time of the independence of the country.

    Those who express doubts over the death of Netaji in a plane crash have obviously been blinded with a passionate attachment to him rather than by reality and logic. A person whose efforts for the freedom of the country from the clutches of the Britishers was next to none of any freedom fighters. His heart was throbbing every moment for the mother India, how could he remain, a silent spectator, when the country attained independence on 15^th August 1947? A patriot like him could never have remained hidden if he were alive on that date.  So, there could not be even a shred of doubt about his death because all the available evidence conclusively prove that he died in the plane crash.

    There were two reasons for the confusion about his death in the plane crash, but they were so feeble that they could be dismissed at the threshold itself. The first reason that was being attributed to why no post-mortem was done to the body of Netaji?  The second was that why no death certificate was issued by the hospital?  But at a time when the whole world was in the throes of war, such discrepancies were not unusual. On the other hand, there was definite evidence of his death including the statements of Habibur Rehman and Lakshmi Swaminathan two of the colleagues of Netaji in the INA (Azad Hind Fauj).

    The life of Netaji and his elder brother Sarat Chandra Bose could fascinate any person. Both were modern in outlook, a patriot to the core, the epitome of sacrifices, highly educated, supporters of women’s empowerment and arch enemies of the British Raj. The elder brother was certainly more religious than his younger and more eminent brother. While Netaji was more carefree, his elder brother was a person with family-responsibilities. He had earned name, fame, and wealth as a legal practitioner of the Calcutta High Court, but Netaji had a single-minded aim to free mother India from the yokes of the bondage of the British Raj.   

   Government of India had set up many committees and commissions to enquire about the death mystery of Netaji but none of them could give an unambiguous report.  The first Committee was set up way back in 1956 under the chairmanship of INA veteran Shah Nawaz Khan, which consisted of Suresh Bose, the elder brother of Netaji and SN Maitra, ICS, a nominee of the Government of West Bengal. Shah Nawaz Khan was also the Member of Parliament at that time. This committee collected information from April to July 1956 in India, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam but never visited Taiwan, which was the site of the plane crash, sating doubts to the truth the report.

   There were three survivors in the plane crash, they were severely injured, but did not succumb to their injuries as they had not sustained the third-degree burns.  Even Suresh Bose, the brother of Netaji had signed on the report of Shah Nawaz Khan Committee but later he retracted and wrote his Dissentient Report, which he published in 1956 itself claiming that the Shahnawaz Committee did shoddy and dishonest work. He said that Committee was directed from the start to find that Subhas Bose had died in a plane crash.  The role of the Committee, as he wrote, was to gather evidence supporting this hypothesis and to ignore other evidence. He indicated that the direction was from the top, that is, from Prime Minister Nehru. After the findings of the Shah Nawaz Committee was published, the rumours about the survival of Subhas Bose did not diminish but, in fact, it got increased. The tale of Shaulmari sadhu was widely propagated saying that the sadhu was no one else but the Subhas Bose himself.

     Other stories were spread that Netaji was in Russia or China. From 1963 to 1965 many rallies were announced at which Netaji was supposed to appear and identify himself, but Netaji could never have appeared because he was not alive.   It was also rumoured that Netaji was seen in the funeral of Pandit Nehru. So much so, even a photograph of a monk with a shaved head, resembling plump and elderly Netaji was published in Bengali newspapers thickening the rumour of his being alive. In 1970 the Government of India set up a second enquiry Committee to investigate the disappearance of Subhash Bose and it consisted of only one man namely, G.D. Khosla, the retired Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court, He started his work in 1970 itself but submitted his report in 1974.

    Justice Khosla’s report was mainly based on the hue and cry made by Professor Samar Guha, who was the Member of Parliament at the time and who always insisted that Netaji was still alive. As a matter of fact, Shri Guha also wrote a book- Netaji Dead or Alive in March 1978 but the book did not contain any credible evidence to suggest that he was alive. It was all figment of his imaginations.

    There was also a story that is sadhu at Ayodhya, who was looking like Netaji was living in an Ashram. A news magazine carried a series of articles trying to establish that the sadhu was Netaji but there was no truth in it. This was really an example of irresponsible journalism. Netaji was a genius. He declined to join the coveted ICS because his heat was throbbing for Mother India. He lived for the motherland and died for it. Even during his lifetime, the communalism of Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Suhrawardy was at peak but both brothers were always opposed to the vivisection of the country on communal lines. His greatest contribution to the unity of the country was that he had made Hindi be compulsorily used in all walks of life.

  Although he had serious differences with Mahatma Gandhi, who was the supreme leader of the Congress Party and yet he could become the President of the Party defeating Pattabhi Sitaramayya, who obviously had the support of Gandhiji, showed his immense popularity even among diehard Congresspersons. However, Netaji realised that without the support of Gandhiji nobody could have run the organisation, so he resigned and decided to pursue the path of armed struggle. In this process, he met the fascists and Nazis.

     His slogan was ‘give me your blood and I will give you freedom’.  He used to say that ‘seeds of freedom are sown from the blood of martyrs. That is how Netaji lives in the historical imagination of the countrymen. Netaji and brother Sarat Chandra Bose were bound by love and common cause, they struggled against imperialism with great perseverance and courage. They had their successes and failures, but their central concern was complete independence from the British Raj. We must, therefore, remember to both of them for the zeal and devotion they gave to their country as they tried to fulfil India’s destiny.

 

 Asali Kisan cannot be Free to Participate in Dharna

December and January is the terribly busy and hectic season for the farmers. A Kisan cannot afford to be away from his/her farms for weeks together to participate in any Morcha for a long period of time. This is the time to irrigate their crops and look after them. This is also the season of the sugarcane crushing. All genuine farmers are busy in supplying the sugar canes to sugar mills for it is the main cash crop, which helps to make purchases of necessary items for round the year.

Therefore, one is amazed as to how a few thousand farmers can keep themselves away from their farms to join in a dharna and demonstration on the Delhi- Haryana border. Obviously, most of them are fake farmers and nothing to do with farming and have been brought on payment by the wealthy agents, who have been desperate to get the new Farm laws repealed. Is it not surprising that farmers are not worried about their crops for the sake of abrogation of three farm laws? These laws, in all fairness, should have been brought at least four decades ago. Small and medium farmers have their own set of daily problems, it is less than only two per cent big farmers, who are worried about new laws because it is they, who have been getting benefits or pocketing the profits of the Minimum Support Prices and the Mandi Samitis.

There are some people who try to become innocents and ask ridiculous questions that when farmers did not demand the new laws, then why should the government have enacted these laws? Can there be any more idiotic questions than this? Need it to be told to these perverts that the government is elected by the people and it is the bounden duty of the government to think of the betterment of the people of the country. There is no need that e demands should be made by the people before laws are enacted. These people are either naive or knaves. They cannot be so naive, so, they are clearly the knaves of the worst orders.

Even otherwise also the demand for the new farm laws has been coming for very long. It is because of the defective policies that hundreds of Kisans have been committing suicides. The system had kept them tied in the endless trap of debts, leaving no choice but to end their lives. Any sensible government cannot allow such a flawed system to go on and hence the decision of this government to enact these three new laws are to be appreciated.

Records say that Uttar Pradesh is the biggest producer of the wheat but it sells less wheat than Punjab because the coterie of the agents purchases it at a cheaper price to sell them in Punjab by manoeuvering Mandis at the MSP thereby they pocket the unlawful profits. Therefore, any government worth name would refuse to buckle under the pressure of a few thousand farmers and sacrifice the interests of the crores of others. The government will do well to ensure that a few thousands, who are funded from vested interests and who have their own axes to grind, do not take the people of the country to ransom.

 Farcical agitation is bound to fizzle out on its own

The so-called farmers’ movement that is going at Singhu border of Delhi is a total farce. It has neither farmers nor any element of agitation. It looks like a picnic organised by some wealthy and rich forces, which are out to make a hay while the sun shines. The other day while watching a TV channel, whose anchor is a rabid anti- Modi, one is amazed to find that the agitation is nothing but a big hoax. The anchor was trying to show that farmers would not move from the site till all three farm laws were abrogated, although he was unwittingly exposing the puppet farmers and their handlers. He interviewed some of them, who claimed to be farmers. Some of them were old, some were young but most of them were labourers, who were brought from various districts of Punjab.  

    During his reporting, he asked some of them to show how much preparation has been done by them to sustain the protest. Then the anchor asked his cameraman to pan the Gym, where the elaborate arrangements for foot massages have been made. Physiotherapy facility is available at the place of the protest. Doctors are in attendance. There is no dearth of bottled water in the campsite. There are two or three stores have been set up, where plenty of warmers are available, anybody could come and take anything of his or her choice. There is one gentleman on the other corner of the place of dharna who is tattooing mainly to the youngsters.  Comfortable beds and heaters under the carpeted tents have been installed to make the winter enjoyable.  These conveniences are available absolutely free of cost. 

    Modern and automatic roti-making machines have been put up in the kitchen. A lot of vegetables, gas cylinders are lying in the corner. Those willing to have the taste of chats and golegappas can get them as much as their palate needs. Some people are engaged in working in the kitchen. It is being said that there is a one- or two-kilometres long line of tractors with trolleys, which are laden with all essentials like flours, vegetable, mustard oil, ghee and spices etc. Last month when they were marching towards Delhi, their Godfathers were claiming that they were prepared for a long haul to sit on dharna, which is no less than a picnic for the participants. There are many of them who are very candidly saying that they have been getting support from NRIs, this speaks of the interests of supporters of the agitation in creating trouble for the government.

    There is not even an iota of doubt that the so-called protest to Fam laws is manipulated and orchestrated one.  Some frustrated people and politicians in Delhi and elsewhere are extending their support to this counterfeit agitation because of their impotence and effeteness as they know that cannot start any agitation of their own.  So, they think that it is better to hide behind this fake agitation.

    The so-called Kisan leaders have not been able to convince anybody with the drawbacks, demerits, or shortcomings of the Farm laws. Whenever it is asked why the Farm laws should be repealed, they will speak like a tutored parrot that these laws are against the interests of farmers but how and in what way- then they have no reply.  It will be irony and a big joke for the parliamentary form of the government if the laws, which have been enacted by the Parliament after threadbare consideration by the various committees are repealed.  This will not only send a bad message to people but also be a big joke with them. 

   It is also clear from the various reports in the newspaper and visuals of the Television channels that 95 per cent of the crowd assembled at the protest the site has nothing to do with this spurious agitation. This is all being managed by the agents, middlemen and intermediaries.  Therefore, they should be dealt with an iron hand for the larger benefit of the public and the peasantry.  

 

Government's  Ambivalent Population Policy is Disappointing

By Parmanand Pandey

 

   The affidavit filed by the Union Government in the Supreme- Court in response to a petition filed by an Advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay that it cannot adopt the policy of coercion in family planning by implementing two-child norm has been disappointing, to say the least. The logic of the government is that the Total Fertility Rate (TFR) is declining, and any coercion will be counterproductive is fallacious logic. It is difficult to understand how the two-child norm policy will amount to coercion?

    The burgeoning population of the country has created innumerable problems for the country. The land-area is fast shrinking because houses, factories, offices, hospitals, schools, colleges, institutes, roads, and other infrastructures need to be built to meet the requirements. The population, on the other hand, is not stabilising. It is increasing with every passing year. 

There are many people, who consider it their duty to defy the population control policy. They say that if God has given us one stomach, then 'He' has given two hands, two legs and other organs to work and feed the family. So, they do not believe in family planning. There is an apocryphal story that when Benazir Bhutto was the Prime Minister of Pakistan, a journalist asked about her views on population control, which she vigorously supported. But when asked whether she ever used contraceptives, she put her fingers on the mouth and told the lady journalist that if she replied in affirmative, Mullas would bay for her blood. Here in India also most of the Islamists consider it as an insult to their religion if they adopt the two-child norm policy. However, to be fair, the educated section of the Muslim community has realised the importance of the two-child norm.

 National Population Policy was adopted some twenty years ago but it is still a voluntary programme. The government appears to be living in the constant fear of the emergency days forgetting the fact it was because of the family programme of the emergency that the population of India is still 135 crores otherwise; by now it would have been at least one and half times more than China, which is at least two times bigger in area than India.

    The Government’s affidavit has also forgotten what the Prime Minister said in his Independence Day speech last year that ‘those who choose to have small families contribute to the development of the nation and that it was a form of patriotism’. If it is an act of patriotism, why no population policy is framed to keep it under check?

India is one of the first few countries of the world which adopted the family planning programme, but it has never been given the force of the law. There is, no doubt, that there is a serious shortcoming in the two-child norm policy in a patriarchal society like India, where the desire for sons is so overpowering that people hardly have any regret in going for female foeticide. But this social problem must be handled by social awakening as well by strict implementation of laws.

I was appalled to find some people, who claimed to be very God-fearing and cannot even think of even killing a rat, but they took recourse to female foeticides many times over in their insatiable desire of getting a son. Strangely, they never regretted their criminal acts.

Therefore, a two-pronged strategy has to be adopted (a) persuasion along with (b) legal persecution for effectively controlling the population of the country.  

 Not Farmers but Middlemen are Fidgety with Farm laws

 Parmanand Pandey

There is no limit of perversion among Dalals and intermediaries, who have been misleading a section of farmers from Punjab to continue their siege of the Singhu border at Delhi-Haryana border in this biting cold despite the assurances from the government to discuss all issues of the farmers.  The problem is not with farmers as they have not joined the so-called agitation, it is being orchestrated by the forces, which have nothing to do with farmers but they want to keep the issue simmering for their own interests.  They have no sympathy for the farmers either otherwise; they would have educated them about the deleterious effects of paddy stubble burning, overuse of chemical fertilisers and pesticides and for changing patterns of crops to save the depleting water table.

  These three farm laws are revolutionary by any stretch of consideration. Only brokers and self-styled Kisan leaders are opposed to it because they have nothing to do with agriculture. They are the exploiters of farmers. As a matter fact, Mandis should have been dispensed with long back in the interests of farmers but they continued to remain as the tools of exploitation mainly due to rogue politicians.

  The government is also shirking its responsibility, otherwise, it should have swung into action by now to politely ask them to clear the roads by using the bare minimum force. No government worth its name could afford to allow the Shaheen Baugh model of protests in any part of the country causing huge inconveniences to a large section of society for days and weeks together. Selfish politicians and intermediaries claiming themselves as the Kisan leaders should have been sternly dealt with for the sake of real farmers and the general public.  

  These fork-tongued leaders have not been able to point out even one demerit in these farm laws, which should have been brought in half a century ago and then by now, the agriculture would have been free from the unbearable burden that it has on itself and it would be more remunerative as well.

  In fact, if the government wants the peasants and other farmers to make them strong and self-reliant it will have to do away also with MSP. Why should others be given the responsibility of deciding the prices of our (farmers) products? Nobody wants that the prices of the products of a detergent company, a biscuit company, a textile company or a furniture company should be decided by any outsiders, then why the prices of the farmers' products should be asked to fix them by any outside agency? The crux of MS Swaminathan’s Committee report is that the farmers must get the value of their products, at least one and half times more than their inputs but that is not possible without open competition.

  At present, the farmers do not have much retention capacity, they sell their products at throwaway prices when there is a glut of their products. This retention capacity can be increased only by making them strong by devising the crop insurance and freeing them from the trap of Mandis and MSPs. It is good that the Prime Minister himself has made it clear the Mandis and MSPs will be retained but they will have to be competitive because the farmers will then be free to sell their products to anyone, who offers more prices to their products. This is yet another reason for their being fidgety.   

Hemant Tiwari's Description Brought Memories Alive

 

   My good friend Hemant Tiwari, a senior journalist, a well-versed communicator and a convincing debater on many TV channels, has written a brief but a very touching post on his Facebook about his recent a whirlwind visit to his Nanihal (maternal home), near Singramau in Jaunpur district. His Nanihal is situated on the banks of river Gomti, so is my own Nanihal, which incidentally is also situated on the banks of river  Gomti in Pratapgarh district.  Most of us have been inculcated with faith that all perennial rivers are pious and they are like the Ganges and that is the reason that they are revered and worshipped. A famous pilgrimage ‘Dhopap’ is also situated on the banks of Gomti and when I visited this place in my childhood on my way to Nanihal, I was told that 'whosoever has bathed even once in Dhopap his/her all sins are washed away'. As they say that ‘faith can move mountains’, people throng to wash their sins in the sacred river of Gomati at Dhopap. It is an altogether different matter that it has become a highly contaminated river at Lucknow because of the callousness of the people and the administration. 

  However, what I wanted to say is that only three-paragraph word-sketch by Hemant Tiwari has been so powerful that it has made many like us to be nostalgic about our childhood. I would like to associate with him on the issue of rice-eating (bhaat as we say colloquially). One of my two sisters was married to an area, which is known for rice production and the eldest sister was married to a place which was situated on the riverbank, where rice was considered to be a luxury. My both sisters were eldest among all our siblings. Things have now completely changed as the rice and the wheat is produced in equal measures, thanks to the new varieties of wheat, paddy and the new technology.

  Increased production of wheat and paddy has, however, driven away the coarse grains like Sanwa, Kodon and Bajra (all are roughly translated as millets of different types). My mother herself preferred to eat Bhaat of Makka (maize or corn) to rice. I also love to eat these coarse grains in many ways. The crops of these grains have fast disappeared because their yield is much less than those of wheat and paddy. Now, these are sown in a very limited area as they are necessary for certain purposes. Even barley is not sown in our area because of the low yield and lesser remuneration.

  Hemant is bang on the head in his description of the scene of Bidai from Nanihal. Every Bhanja, Bhanji, Nati or Natin was entitled to get something from Nani or Mami. It could be from a few Annas to a few rupees some four or five decades ago but they were no less than treasures. A Bhanja or Nati was invariably excused for his mischiefs in Nanihal because nobody could punish him. It was generally believed that 'anybody who beats or slaps his Nati or Bhanja will suffer at the old age as his hands will tremble or shiver. This was one of the reasons that boys were not allowed to live for longer periods in Nanihal because chances of their being undisciplined were more as compared to their father’s house.

  This is equally true that most boys used to learn many good lessons from their Nana, Nani, Mama and Mami. These lessons helped to grow in life. Guardians in Nanihal were more concerned about the future and well being of their wards. I have seen umpteen number of people who have done much better in their lives as they lived for more time in their Nanihals.

  Technology and the mode of communication and transportation has completely changed life everywhere, be it rural or urban areas. The intensity of relations has also vanished. However, it is always soothing and sweet to remember the old memories. I have requested Hemant to write a regional (aanchlik) novelette on this theme. It may not be very relevant for today, but that will certainly help others to revive the memories and the new generation can learn a lot about the situation that was prevailing some half a century ago particularly in eastern Uttar Pradesh.