Dec 23, 2000 02:32 PM
3132 Views
India Today boasts of an enviable credibility and an excellent track record. Check out its latest issue for it has completed 25 years in the market and they are joyously celebrating the same. But I feel, IT must immensely thank 'Outlook' for waking them of the sleep of complacency that they had settled into after years of leadership.
They started off at a time when magazine journalism was hardly the order of the day. They were spearheaded by a bunch of rookies like vir sanghvi and others. Over the years, IT has broken a lot of major stories and has now-and-again set high standards of journalism.
The only reservation I have against them is their innate affinity for the present NDA government. It is alleged that the ink in IT journos' pens has turned saffron off late. Now, a publication loses its objectivity the moment it starts taking sides at the level of ideology affecting country's policymaking.
Thanks to Outlook, the balancing act is slowly getting there. A national publication ought to question government's actions and make it actually perform. The role is akin to that of opposition in the Parliament.
Outlook might be scandulous, but at least it gives you material that is different and worth thinking and talkin about. India Today, in that regard rather believes in the policy of appeasement that doesn't really arouse the reader response.
I think it's time for India Today to rethink its policy and that too on completing its silver jubilee.
Time to work guys!
