Squalor and splendour
P. SAINATH of “The Hindu” is a journalist I respect. He is one of the few journalists who visit the countryside and file stories which are earthy and full of passion. His reports on paid news exposed a practice in Maharashtra and elsewhere where newspapers accept money to print news favourable to the one who pays. If the practice is allowed to continue, it would mark the end of journalism as we understand it today.
His reports on the state of Scheduled Castes were an eye-opener because it showed that even decades after India became a Republic, the two-tumbler system — one for the SCs and the other for upper castes — continued in many parts of the country.
His latest article in “The Hindu” entitled “The austerity of the affluent” (May 21) falls short of my expectations because it lacks the rigour of research and it amounts to a personal attack on Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia. He has merely strung together some published facts from here and there to build his thesis that he is an extravagant in spending public money.
What occasioned his ire is the Planning Commission’s definition of the poor as anybody who is unable to spend more than Rs 32 a day in urban areas and Rs 26 in rural areas. At that time I had also questioned the commission’s rationale when a bottle of Diet Coke I am fond of cost Rs 30. Then he compares the money he spent on his travels abroad which runs into lakhs of rupees.
Read more at: http://www.heraldofindia.com/article.php?id=564
Invisible India / by A.J. Philip