This recent Tehelka business has revisited the issue of how Indian media is not above bending the rules of the game to suit itself. There has been so much outrage and public wrangling that the media has been engaging in recently, going so far as to handpick cases that became public trials. Given this and all this talk of “mindset”, isn't it amazing that Tehelka’s top guy assaults a female employee(OK, let's allow for the possibility that he did "misread" the situation) and after she complains to the managing editor, the managing editor asks the molester to step aside? There is talk of apologising to the employee but the guy goes missing. When the employee protests about the weakness of the response, they appoint a committee and start patching up things in front of the cameras.
Barkha Dutt is caught talking about fixing up some things between DMK and Congress on the Neera Radia tapes but she continues to act as if she is a neutral, objective media person, commenting on all political parties and the electoral process.
This Tehelka issue came up at a time when I received some messages about media and my university of interest, VIT University. I was informed that The Hindu’s editor, Siddharth Vardarajan, had stepped down because the newspaper was going back to being family-run while N. Ram etc made some comments on adhering to some guidelines. As I have pointed out in earlier reviews, VIT University’s public relations department is a well-oiled machinery with many ties to different newspapers and channels.
I believe The Hindu, The Deccan Chronicle, The Times of India, Headlines Today are some of the English newspapers and channels who have visited VIT University for different reasons and maintain very cordial relationships with the management. These last months have featured articles in The Hindu about students being suspended from VIT for protesting against curfew, a former vice president alleging mismanagement etc. This was during Siddharth Vardarajan’s time. Now he has been removed. I recently received some snippets from articles in The Deccan chronicle, The Hindu and The Indian Express.
The Indian Express article refers to an egg-vending machine developed by some VIT students along with the Central Poultry Development Organisation(CPDO)—they plan to develop a cooked egg vending machine.
The Deccan Chronicle refers to VIT students developing ways to link the steering columns to brakes to address the issue of vehicles, especially the heavy ones, speeding on turns.
The Hindu article refers to VIT students developing an app to manage their timetables. My first thought was about how smart these students were. The next ones were:
Why would one want an egg vending machine? I want to be able to pick up my egg cartons and check the dates on them and only take those whose shelf-life suits my requirements. And if you wanted to give cooked eggs to people, why would you put them into a vending machine where they could spoil and cause gastrointestinal ailments due to bacterial contamination?
Why do these students need an app to manage their timetables—are they really taking so many courses? Of course, I do realise that it’s not the end point that’s so important, it’s the fact that it is possible to develop such an application which could be potentially used for more complicated matters requiring true management.
I recall reading that heavy vehicles like tractors already have steering/turning brakes to help slow down the vehicle while turning. Why then is this development by VIT students being reported as an “innovation”?
Last week, I read that students who protested against sexual harassment in Pondicherry University were punished by not being allowed to take exams on the pretext of insufficient attendance. The University officials did not like students protesting against their policies. So this covering up of truths and cosmetic upliftment of only good features with a good deal of makeup is universal. While it is human to want only good things about oneself to be published and to have the bad things be mild, this sort of twisting of facts and slick reporting to deliberately convey things that are half-truths(not necessarily full lies) is something that media should definitely stay away from.
I am completely supportive of technologies made by Indians for Indians which would cut down imports and a reliance on foreign technology. Regardless of friendship between these media and the university management, should such reports of Indian students be portrayed thus as innovations? Should they open the door to those who would then throw the baby out with the bathwater in saying that the whole is a lie if parts are? Should there be some fine print in the bottom of such articles that admit that these are advertisements put out by the concerned universities? That way, we can still decide how much stock to put in these articles.
