An exercise in ritual cleansing post-Nira Radia tapes, which left NDTV Group Editor Barkha Dutt looking rather silly on Tuesday night, was seemingly repeated on television on Wednesday.
Headlines Today invited two journalists in the Radia controversy - Prabhu Chawla, Editor (Languages), India Today, and Vir Sanghvi, Advisory Editorial Director, The Hindustan Times - to be grilled by a panel of editors, comprising N. Ram of The Hindu, M.J. Akbar of India Today and Hartosh Singh Bal of Open magazine. Dilip Cherian of Perfect Relations was also a participant.
While the cleansing absolutely did not purify Sanghvi, who participated in the exercise and Barkha, who did not, it left a lot to be explained where Chawla stood. Bal tried to cross-question Chawla but got embroiled in a nuanced point alleging that he had changed a crucial word in transcript that he sent out to various journalists while explaining his association with Radia. Chawla denied this.
Chawla's transcript says, in the 25th line from the top of where the conversation begins: "...Before the judgement was coming, I wanted to probe on him (sic)." Bal said in the actual taped conversation, Chawla had told Radia: "Before the judgement was coming, I wanted to forewarn him (Mukesh Ambani)."
Chawla denied this completely. But the point Bal had made got lost in the confusion that ensued. Not even The Hindu's editor-in-chief N. Ram cross-questioned him about the rest of the conversation where Chawla tells Radia that Mukesh Ambani is approaching the Supreme Court through a wrong channel via London and advises him on what is the right way to approach the court.
On why he gave a gratuitous information to Radia that his son runs a law firm which does not represent Anil Ambani in the gas pricing case, no one in the panel cross-questioned Chawla about why he felt that when the Ambani brothers fought, the nation suffered and whether the messages that he was sending Mukesh Ambani were for a news story or for some other reason.
"Everybody has an opinion, how can I be denied that right. I was only expressing an opinion that the two brothers (Ambani brothers) should not fight. I am expressing my anger with both brothers... that when they fight the nation suffers.
The sequence should have been made clear," said Chawla. At one stage, he suggested that his conduct was the same as N. Ram's. He touched a raw nerve when he told Ram: "All editors give advice…the way N. Ram gives advice to Sri Lankan government."
In the end, Ram gave him a clean chit. "I am very convinced that Prabhu Chawla has no case to answer. He shouldn't even be here as someone who has to answer questions," said Ram.
A relieved Chawla said: "Thank you." Ram was not so careful with the other two - Sanghvi and Barkha. "It is very clear that what they did was completely out of line. Their conduct was appalling. Last night, I saw this pathetic performance put up by Barkha. She was rude, aggressive and had absolutely no remorse. The explanation by Sanghvi is unsatisfactory," he said.
Sanghvi appeared in person for the first time on a TV debate from a "balcony in Bangkok". Headlines Today played Sanghvi's taped conversation with Radia before asking him why he took dictations from her to write his lead piece in The Hindustan Times. "Sources talk to you because they want something from you.
Are you obliged to play boy scout or push the envelope a little further and lie to them may be to get more information. I didn't do anything wrong. After all, I was only passing on what was gossip in the hope of getting important information," said Sanghvi, defending his column, which has since been discontinued in the Sunday edition of The Hindustan Times.
Ram said: "He (Sanghvi) says he was stringing a source along to get information. But the information he got was not worth it. And at some point, Radia conveys a 'thank you' from Kanimozhi. This is serious transgression of journalistic ethics."
"This conduct would not be acceptable in the BBC, in Financial Times or in New York Times. Why should it be acceptable here? We should raise the bar high," he said.
