Costly
lesson – There is nothing like a friendly journo
By S.
Narendra
(Former
Spokesperson, Govt of India)
The distinction of giving the maximum number
of media interviews in the shortest tenure as Prime Minister goes to former PM
Inder Kumar Gujral. He was one political leader who could offer the most
quotable quotes in Punjabi, Hindi and in English which the media would just lap
it up. His tenure of 11 months as PM can be described as governance through
media interviews.
I had the privilege of serving as his
information adviser as well as the government spokesperson. Soon after his
swearing in on 21st of April 1997 in the Ashoka hall of Rastrapati Bhavan,
he spotted me at the rear of hall and walked up to me and took my hand, and said :
“Narender, I will not let you leave the government ( I was contemplating early
retirement then); you will be my information adviser.”
Breakfast
Interviews: I had instructions to meet the Prime Minister daily
at his breakfast table for a briefing. He was not in
the pink of health (was very hard of
hearing in one ear), and a late riser. As a result the breakfast
time was anywhere around 9.30 AM and at times could stretch up to even 11, unless
he had some official engagement early in the day. What I found was that on most
days, besides me, there would be some senior media person as well for breakfast,
often a team of them, and the breakfast would be followed by an
interview. Despite
being the designated information adviser, I was in dark about such media
meetings. I was not the lone person to be so surprised by morning media visitors; even his close personal staff, who
were supposed to arrange his day’s schedule were more than once caught off
guard by the prime minister’s morning
media engagements!
He was extremely warm and open with me, gave
me free access and sought and appreciated my inputs. As a former I & B
minister, one of the most
outstanding in that slot, Gujral
not only was very familiar with the
media world but had close contacts with owners and senior professionals.
As Mrs Indira Gandhi’s trusted lieutenant in the 1960s and early 1970s, he had
taken some pioneering steps to get more of Indian news across to the world and
had contributed greatly to the development of All India Radio and DD. I had the
occasion to be associated with this area
of work and as a result, we had developed a close bond.
On one
particular morning, I went to
join the Gujral at his breakfast
table, and found a very familiar senior financial journalist already closeted
with him. Amidst the breakfast, the journalist and the prime minister would
break into conversation in Punjabi. It so happened that Gujral knew the
journalist and her family and their talk often dwelt with old times and
exchange of information about common acquaintances. The prime minister asked me
to go ahead with my briefing, as the media person was present in her capacity.
Besides conversations in Punjabi, the
journalist representing the Economic Times began to slip into English and sought
PM’s views on some very delicate monetary policy issues. While popping such
questions, the journalist would also thrust
a tape recorder into PM’s face.
As
I said, Gujral was very hard of hearing in one ear and unfortunately the journalist
was seated on the side of the bad ear. Each time a question on the monetary
policy was shot, the prime minister would turn to me to ask “what was the question”.
Not only I was repeating the question, so that Gujral hears it properly but
also cautioning the prime minster about the tape recorder.
More than once I
told Gujral that issues
concerning the monetary policy was the exclusive domain of the Reserve Bank of India
and thjat the journalist should be directed to RBI. And. Gujral would ask the lady to follow my advice.
It is necessary to
explain here that the prime minister, was not very familiar with the complex
issues of monetary policy ( this was as expected, because most PMs leave such financial matters to their finance
ministers and the central bank). The
Journalist was trying to extract answers from Gujral about the day-to-day
management of the par value or exchange rate of a currency.
As the breakfast lengthened,
the journalist’s questions started drawing the PM into questions like whether
his government would prefer to float the Rupee in a band. An exchange rate band
means the value of a currency (Rupee) against another currency ,in place of
being a fixed one, is allowed the by
the central bank (in this case RBI) to fluctuate within a certain predetermined
limit. (Chinese remmimbi is allowed to
float in this fashion).
The information sought was highly sensitive,
and even the finance ministry would prefer to stay out of it. And this was the subject
of speculator in the forex market where millions of Rupees would be at stake on
such piece of information. As Gujral was not hearing the questions properly their
import was getting lost on him. At this stage I got up and took the tape
recorder away from the journalist and pointed out to the PM that the journalist
was misusing her family relationship.
Not a single question had been answered
by the prime minister, as I had firmly intervened every time the journalist was
trying to convert an informal meeting into an interview on such a sensitive
issue. I had repeated every time that
the journalist should direct her questions to
RBI .The journalist , before leaving assured the PM that she would not use any information (and there was none!) that she had gained in
that meeting.
A
Telephonic Blast: Early next morning, there
was a blast on telephone from a highly
upset finance minister, P. Chidambaram:
“what kind of interviews you arrange for the prime minister. Have you seen
Economic Times? Do you know what are the consequences ......”.No amount of explanation
by me that there was no such interview could convince him. The Economic Times
had a banner story: Rupee to Float in a Band, attributing the information to the PM
himself.
When I spoke to the editor of the newspaper
and protested about the story, he first threatened, stating that I was forcing
him to run the transcript of the interview. I told him that he would be doing a
great service to the country, and the PM,
if he were to do so. I asked him either to run the transcript or sack
the reporter concerned. An hour later the editor rang up to apologise, confirming that there was no
tape.
RBI
Loses Millions: There was mayhem on the exchange
market, as the Rupee wobbled violently, because of the newspaper story. The Government
and the RBI were caught in the situation of a person who faces the question ‘have
you stopped beating your wife?’ Whether
the story was denied or met with a ‘no comment’, they would send signals for
speculators to gamble and put pressure on
the Rupee. According to sources, the RBI had to intervene in the
exchange market to shore up the Rupee and lost about Rs 800 crores in one day.
There
is nothing like a friendly journalist! This
advice was given to me by a former journalist, Lajpat Rai Nair, who went on to become the
Principal Information Officer initiated me into the Indian Information Service in 1964. Nair was one
of my predecessors as well as the founder -Director of the Indian Institute of
Mass Communication. He had served under Jawaharlal Nehru. He had told our first
batch of trainees at IIMC that we should
be very friendly towards the journalists but not to mistake them for friends. He had explained
that news sources (PR) and
news users (media) ought to have an incestuous relationship,
 |
| The Author |
but
each has different obligations and loyalties.
While each should carry the trust of the other, both should respect each others’ professional
positions and obligations, and draw a mutually understood grey line between the
personal relationships and professional ones.
PM
Blamed, unjustifiably: Noted economist and
commentator S.L. Rao in his book Elephant Can’t Dance ( a collection of his
articles in media) blamed former prime minister Gujral , for speaking out of
turn to media on a subject he did not know that cost RBI a huge sum. But, now, you know where the
blame belongs. There by hangs a lesson for us in media relations.
(Coming up: Britain –A Fourth Rate Power and
Royal Skirt or Royal Bow?)
