As an ardent lover of Urdu, practitioner of journalism and a great admirer of Prof Wasey sahab, I read his article with great interest. There are valuable suggestions which the community would do well to heed.
No one can deny that the young generation of Muslims should be motivated and properly trained to make a career in journalism. They should be encouraged to join the mainstream media and make a difference with their presence in the newsrooms of national dailies and big channels. Those who come up with even a little support of the community are expected to have at least a little love for the community. The consciousness that they have a responsibility towards the community what Saiyid Hamid would call “Milli Shaoor” will go a long way in detoxifying the atmosphere. For the media houses too it is an advantage if they have Muslim reporters who take interest in and keeps eyes on community affairs.
However, at times the same presence of Muslim reporters or anchors in the newsrooms can be turned into a disadvantage too. I don’t want to name anyone but some Muslim anchors are so despised in many Muslim homes that they don’t want to hear their names. Why? Because these “Muslims” often seem to be working at somebody else’s behest. They become party to the mentality which doesn’t want to present a positive picture of the community ever. They dance or are made to dance to the tunes of the owners who go with the wind. Nida Fazli would say: Apni marzi se kahan apne safar ke hum hain/Rukh hawaon ka jidhar ka hai udhar ke hum hain.
I beg to differ with Prof Wasey and Prof Faizan Mustafa. For the latter too I have great regard not just because he is among India’s leading legal eagles and one of immensely articulate writers on legal affairs but also because he was someone whom I admiringly looked up to during my brief stay at AMU. I also differ with Mr M A Siraj whom too I hold in esteem and know for years.
My difference with them is on one count. For how long will Indian Muslims live under the notion that the secular section of media will fight for their rights? Don’t you see the secular space has shrunk considerably? News today is a pure business. If no one has a problem with a Muslim opening a sugar factory or a tannery or a toothpaste manufacturing unit, why should anyone have problem with a Muslim establishing a news channel or a newspaper? If news, like the toothpaste, is a product–it is called colgetisation of news–there are consumers and their creators. Many erstwhile sentinels of secular ideas in Indian media have turned saffron or at least soft-saffron of late.
It is a valid point that giving a certain colour to your channel or newspaper may not buy you many readers or advertisers. Even those media organisations who are purveyors of pure saffron thoughts and ideas are not doing very well financially. They are surviving because of favourable political atmosphere and patronage from a certain class.
During the anti-CAA movement, I asked a friend who is a senior Hindi journalist ‘how the Hindi newspapers looked at the movement’. I know Hindi but, frankly speaking, have never been addicted to Hindi dailies like I am addicted to English and Urdu newspapers. The friend frankly said:”Almost all of them toe the government line that CAA is not against any community and, instead of taking anybody’s citizenship, it gives citizenship to those who have been persecuted in three neighbouring countries.” Did they discuss that CAA is against the spirit of the Constitution, it legitimises the otherisation of Muslims? Just imagine how much rancour it would have created among consumers of the news who were told that Muslims were unnecessarily opposing CAA.
Media moulds public opinion. Have you ever seen any famous Jew shouting from the rooftop that he owns a media house? And yet where in India do you read news and views critical of the Jewish state’s policies towards Palestinians? In some Urdu papers. Some would say: Jungle mein more naacha kisne dekha.
My submission is this. Prepare an army of journos amongst you by all means. But don’t ditch the dream of producing a Muslim Murdoch with some differences. Not everything about Murdoch can be said right. But who is a saint and yet a media moghul? There is nothing wrong in having a Muslim media Mughal in India, a media version of Azim Premji.
Mohammed Wajihuddin, a senior journalist, is associated with The Times of India, Mumbai. This piece has been picked up from his blog.