I have great respect for Coomi Kapoor as a very engaging, off-beat kind of political journalist and news tit-bit gatherer and commentator. I regularly read her extremely readable columns in the Indian Express . And she is a very seasoned and experienced veteran of her trade … what she has to say must always be heard with due respect even though she has a terrific knack of saying her bit with a levity that disguises gravity with brevity .
In the above Op-Ed in today’s Indian Express Coomi writes in her usual style — a columnist style that I say is like Muhammed Ali’s in the boxing ring .. She seems to float around like a harmless butterfly but she stings like a bee.
Coomi severely comes down on PM Modi’s press, media agents and IT-cell nerds who these days she writes behave more like a bunch of mafia goons than skilful constructers of PR policy, strategy and propaganda for the Government.
“Belonging to the old school” Coomi writes, “I, personally, believe that amiability and accommodation, and having broad enough shoulders to take criticism on the chin, make for better media relations than throwing your weight around. A well-argued counter is far more effective than a dictatorial “off with his head’’ approach.”
“Perhaps, this is partly because those now in charge of handling the media, both in the government and the party, were neither journalists to start with nor have any experience dealing with journalists. Most of them are IT and industry experts, with no political sensibilities, who short-sightedly judge success or failure in terms of the numbers in their support on social media or how many did they bully into toeing their line.”
Then Coomi delivers her coup de grace : “Similarly, the BJP party’s IT cell dominates the narrative more than political leaders. IT cell operatives have neither any sense of history nor politics, their rebuttals and counters are harsh and abusive, instantly magnified by their army of trolls.”
After reading Coomi’s sermon, one cannot but feel for her … She is as she herself confesses “old school” … She is filled with nostalgia for the halcyon days of Press aficionados like the suave and soft-spoken Sharda Prasad … who used to treat journalists like her perhaps with gallantry if not chivalry…
But what poor Coomi doesn’t understand is that what and how old school journalists wrote and manufactured opinions went out of fashion a long long time ago with the advent of the age of digital and social media platforms … which engage today readers and responders in numbers that are probable 100X the numbers that Sharda Prasad once had as his target audience … Coomi doesn’t understand that it’s no longer enlightened commentary that shapes public opinion today but ebullient polemics that are at the heart of effective journalism. The theatre in which journalism and media operates today is worldwide, granularly segmented, fiercely competitive and ideologically toxic. It’s a dog-fight for readers’ mind-space. It’s not a dalliance with readers finer instincts anymore.
I have a word of friendly advice to Coomi Kapoor whose fellow alumnus in the “old school” of journalism I’d like to believe I am … “Move on, Coomi … Our old writing days are over … it’s no use hearkening those good old polite times … Dont’ you recollect those words of wisdom in the Rubbaiyyat?
“The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.”
Sudarshan Madabushi