Veteran Journalist N Rajan's demise

Senior Journalist N Rajan's death has come as a shock for the fraternity of journalists. Through out his career, Rajan remained deeply committed to the social cause and wrote with concern for the poor and the underpriviliged.
A die-hard communist but absolutely free of any biases, his commitment so secularism was exemplary. For a long-time Rajan Sahab was editor of The Hitavada, Bhopal. He joined National Mail, the now defunct-English daily of Dainik Bhaskar group. A fighter to the core and an honest man, he used his pen to fight the corruption in the government and corrupt politicians.
No wonder, successive Chief Ministes admired and respected him for his integrity. He championed the cause of journalists at all for and fought with the owners of the newspapers towards getting better deal for the journalists. His book 'Without Fear' was published a couple of years back.
This writer has fond memories of Rajan Sahab. I had the privilege to talk to him on numerous occasions and soemtimes for hours. He use to wonder how there was so much lumpenism among the urban middle-classes. The demolition of Babri Masjid hurt him. He still dreamt of a nation where casteism and communalism had no place. Rajan Sahab groomed many journalists but his demise has left a void that can't be filled.

Et tu Indian Express

Even Indian Express faltered on Siwan strongman Shahabuddin. The photograph showing Mohammad Shahabuddin (RJD MP from Bihar) mentions him prominently as Syed Shahabuddin.
Most of the papers commit this mistake. Syed Shahabuddin is the former MP who played pivota role in Babri Masjid Action Committee and during the entire Shahbano controversy. He is undoubtedly a learned man. while Mohammad Shahabuddin alias Shahabu is Siwan strongman. The political coverage of the Indian Express is always far ahead of other papers but on Wednesday it committed this absurd mistake. Such silly faults show the quality of the editing desk in all the newspapers.

Channels following newspapers

The electronic media once again lapped up the story published in Indian Express on the proposed policy of government to shoot down aeroplane in case of a hijack by terrorists.
The journalists of print are always way ahead of their electronic media counterparts. The former are well-informed and keep track of happenings while the latter have nothing except glamour. All these channels are now quite established but they are yet to evolve as good news channels and mostly play up poor stories.
The channels are adept at blowing up petty stories and hardly come up with any noteworthy news. All important scoops are brought by print journos. And the electronic media always follows. The news channels are good at devoting time to analysing absurd issues like marriage of Dawood's daughter and glamorizing the criminals.