Pamphleteering and Bhopal press

Pamphleteering and Bhopal press

One more pamphlet about journalists got circulated last week in Bhopal, and, as always, I don’t figure in it. The anonymous sender of this one-page pamphlet did not consider me worthy enough for even his mailing list. I got to read the pamphlet at senior journalist ND Sharma’s place. Am I really sad about the omission? Here’s is dilemma. A part in me wishes that some pamphlets had mentioned me as honest and true professional. But the inner voice castigates me for cherishing such a wish. ‘You are not doing any favour to anyone if you are honest and professional,’ it reasons with my conscience. I must heed to my inner voice.
That said, I must confess, if ever any future pamphlet mentioned me in bright light—as truly me --, I will be immensely pleased. Another confession; I find the pamphlets a great entertainment. True, not all that is written in them about targeted journalists is correct. In fact, most pamphlets suffered from sweeping generalization. They say Mr so and so are touts/ middlemen/ powerbrokers without corroboration. They are a joyful reading nonetheless. Any way, most journalists don’t need any pamphlets to know about their corrupt and racketeer colleagues. The pamphlets only provide people like us an opportunity to gloat over imagined embarrassment or torment of the targeted ones. This is just a small reward for remaining a true professional.
Nearly a hundred pamphlets may have been circulated in the Bhopal media in the last and half decades but the memories of the first pamphlet still linger on. What a pamphlet it was! Its subtle humour, wit, irony and linguistic beauty had greatly charmed us all. The pamphlet had created such a huge sensation in the corridors of power that the then chief minister Digvijay Singh had to announce a sort of inquiry into the whole episode. The journalists who figured in it were all fire and brimstone and, the journalists who did not figure in it, bubbled with mirth. The righteous indignation of the targettted journalists was a great, if secret, source of joy for all of us. Not only journalists, the politicians and bureaucrats also thoroughly relished the pamphlet. Wild conspiracy theories abounded about writer of the pamphlet. Some speculated that it could be the handiwork of Digvijay Singh himself, as he wanted to expose some of the journalists for what they really are. Since the pamphlet was purported to be Digvijay Singh’s opinion about the journalists in first person, there were many takers for Digvijay’s behind-the-scene role. Of course, Digvijay Singh was never serious about the probe he had announced to find the truth behind the pamphlet. The then SP of Bhopal Mr Sanjiv Singh did go through the motion of quizzing some journalists about the source of the pamphlet but the probe, predictably, remained elusive.
The pamphlets that followed could maintain neither beauty nor dignity of the first one. Some of these pamphlets were outright vulgar, unfit for reading. They insinuated bizarre sexual link-ups among and about journalists.