December 15, 2008

‘Typical Mouse from Mumbai” a threat to the TOI?

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , — Sucheta Dalal @ 8:06 pm

the mumbai mouse

the mumbai mouse

Have you read this post addressed to The Prime Minister of India?

I am a typical mouse from Mumbai. In the local train compartment which has capacity of 100 persons, I travel with 500 more mouse. Mouse at least squeak but we don’t even do that.

Today I heard your speech. In which you said ‘NOBODY WOULD BE SPARED’. I would like to remind you that fourteen years has passed since serial bomb blast in Mumbai took place. Dawood was the main conspirator. Till today he is not caught. All our bollywood actors, our builders, our Gutka king meets him but your Government can not catch him. Reason is simple; all your ministers are hand in glove with him. If any attempt is made to catch him everybody will be exposed. Your statement ‘NOBODY WOULD BE SPARED’ is nothing but a cruel joke on this unfortunate people of India….” … there is more and it is all worth reading http://www.suchetadalal.com/forum/topic.php?id=9. You can do it by going to Google and search for “typical mouse in Mumbai” – you will get 2750 hits and find that the letter has been posted and commented upon by innumerable blogs and forums on the World Wide Web.

Why? Because the angst, frustration and boldness of the letter struck a chord, not only among Mumbaikars but Indians around the world.

The mouse in the letter is Prakash Bajaj and he was bold enough to put his name, full address and telephone number at the bottom. Bajaj is indeed the typical, hard working mouse from Mumbai, doesn’t matter the IIT pedigree and the Napeansea Road address. He is hard working, emotional and as angry as many of us that we have allowed politicians to destroy India by turning a blind eye to corruption – the root cause of it all.

At a meeting of concerned Mumbaikars on 13th December, Prakash Bajaj told us that he had received thousands of calls from people around the world to say that they read the letter and support everything he wrote. He says, he was so angry at the terrorist attack that he dashed off the letter and sent it to various friends without bothering about the consequences. Indeed I alone have been forwarded the letter around 50 times.

If Bajaj’s message has reverberated around the world, why is it that we haven’t seen it in the Indian media? The answer is clear when you read it… he names names! He uses the D word – namely Dawood Ibrahim. He names corrupt ministers and the role they have played in defeating the Mumbai spirit. So instead of lionising Prakash Bajaj and going overboard – as is typical, especially for television – there is deafening silence.

But that is okay too. After all, Bajaj did not write for publicity. What is however stunning is the reaction of the venerable Times of India. On 12th December 2008, it suddenly carried a little box claiming that Bajaj had represented himself as the Editor of the Times of India. (see http://tinyurl.com/5moh3o) This is false. While the editor of the Times of India is faceless, Bajaj had no problems giving his name, address and number – although I think he ought to be more careful.

It also threatened legal action against him, God alone knows on what ground. But, while doing all this, it carefully avoided reproducing the letter or quoting from it. Isn’t that funny? Now you know why the country is in the state that it is.

All of you who were moved by Prakash Bajaj’s hastily drafted missive may want to look at what his friend Sudhir Badami has to say. If you agree with Sudhir, do write to the TOI and register your protest!

    Here is Sudhir Badami’s letter:

Sir,

I have received and have read the email dated 1 December 2008 addressed to Prime Minister of India, written by Shri Prakash Bajaj. At the bottom of the letter, his address and phone number has been mentioned. No where in the letter is there a mention that he is the Editor of The Times of India.

Your Insert on page 3 of The Times of India dated 12 December 2008 categorically states: “One Prakash Bajaj, who claims to be a resident of Mumbai, has addressed a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, misrepresenting himself as the editor of The Times of India.”

” ….. but Bajaj has displayed this letter on his blog. …..”

“…… We are separately initiating legal action against Prakash B Bajaj.”

Link to your posting: http://tinyurl.com/5moh3o

I have known Shri Bajaj close to 35 years. The email I have received and the address given by him are his. I have not known him to be a blogger. Therefore in all fairness to him, I think a newspaper of your repute should have verified whether he indeed has a blog and if so, whether the blog has him impersonating Editor of The Times of India. If you already have done this exercise, I would appreciate your giving me the link of the blog where there is a misrepresentation by him as the Editor of The Times of India.

When I did a google search for Blog / Prakash Bajaj, I got a response of 1200 plus links to various blogs. I opened a couple of these and found that the letter therein was the same as the one I had received - i.e with only his name, address and phone number - there was no impersonation of whom so ever by him.

This fact could have been easily verified by your esteemed newspaper. It appears as though you deliberately chose not to do so and in the process behaved like all the politicians and bureaucrats and agencies described by Shri Bajaj in his letter. This was least expected of from the esteemed news paper, which is why Shri Bajaj chose to send the letter to you to make it public.

As things would have it, this letter is representative of what so many people feel of the state of affairs of India and hence the letter has been getting forwarded so many times world over.

I think you should have the moral courage to admit to having made a mistake as serious as this - it is like wanting to suppress any such expression openly by any citizen. As a pillar of our democracy, it is the prime duty of the media to ensure that any act of suppression of expression of such feelings by citizens, does not take place due to influence of people getting affected.

I am sure this letter of Shri Bajaj would not have received any response from you even if it were to have the impersonation line, had it not received such overwhelming public echo through email.

These are good enough reasons for me to believe that you have been put under pressure by the persons referred to in Shri Bajaj’s letter to the Prime Minister. It is a shame that a paper of your repute has succumbed to such pressure.

However my faith in the independence of the media will be restored, if you courageously and unconditionally apologize to Shri Bajaj giving the same space, same page same location. Don’t you think it is your moral duty to do so?

–
Regards

Sudhir Badami

+91 98216 85072
Email ID: badami@vsnl.com, badami@iitbombay.org, sudhirbadami@gmail.com

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