How can a stupid V K Singh, who called media as presstitutes, expect the journalists to be kind to him? “I don’t know if I would be dragged to court for calling him stupid in public. But he is a stupid,” said Sanjaya Baru, Media Advisor to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh between 2004 and 2009.
Baru was in a dialogue with Sriram Karri, author of the famous ManBooker long-listed political fiction, An Autobiography of a Mad Nation, and founding member of Hyd Park, a public debate platform, on “Modi & Media” at Saptaparni in Hyderabad.
Baru took umbrage at the coinage of the very word Presstitutes. Describing it as derogatory and uncharitable on the part of a person who served as the Chief of Army Staff, Baru said more than 50 per cent of journalists in print and electronic media consisted of female journalists. The coinage of Singh was irresponsible and ignoble.
Sriram engaged Baru in such a lively discussion that some of his questions and some asides sent the intellectual audience into peels of laughter.
To a query on how much typically a senior journalist working for a reputable publication or a News channel would be paid on a monthly basis by the PMO (Prime Minister’s Office) to “manage”, Baru broke into a broad grin and said: “Not always you can buy people with money. You can win them over with a smile.” Sriram said: “Oh journalists in Delhi can be won over with a smile.”
Baru, during the course of debate, said the success of a Prime Minister depended on what he/she inherited from the previous regimes and what he/she left behind for the next governments.
Analysing the performance of Prime Ministers from India’s independence, the veteran journalist-economist Baru said Rajiv Gandhi was a disaster as Prime Minister. The plummeting of the Congress stock from 400-odd seats in Lok Sabha to less than half the score and the eventual passing on the baton to some one else was nothing but messing up things. His decision to take up Shila Nyas resulted in the Babri Masjid controversy.
Nehru should have stepped down after two terms. He was seen as a role model in the world for the first 10 years. But his mishandling of China had brought him disrepute. He would have been regarded as being hugely successful even with partition and the teething troubles of a just-born nation, had he demitted the office in 1957.
Indira Gandhi and emergency, Rajjv Gandhi’s regime, What PV Narasimha Rao had inherited from his predecessors and how he had to extricate the economy from a shambles proving himself to be a super hit, to Vajpayee’s successful administration, Baru left none guessing.
Had Manmohan Singh quit after first stint, he would have been regarded as the most successful Prime Minister.
Gordon Browns and Barack Obamas were treating Manmohan Singh as the saviour of India from the economic recession.
Baru said Modi required a media strategy and if need be a media manager could be hired. While Vajpayee had coopted people from Nehruvian school of thought, Modi weaned them away from his administration.
On Delhi media, he said Modi’s government was adopting a hostile approach towards some and maligning all bracketing the entire media into one. He dwelt at length on “paid media”, corruption in media, media tilt, and took a few potshots at some media houses.
Baru said India was not electing its governments based on media influences, he said media support was very much required to consolidate the position of power by those elected – within his own political party and outside too.
