Sunday, February 2, 2003		Books

Around the world with reporter Kamath
Hari Jaisingh

A Reporter at Large
by M. V. Kamath. Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. Pages 810. Rs 600.

M. V. Kamath, now Chairman of the Prasar Bharati, has been an outstanding journalist and columnist. A value-oriented Editor of repute, he is one of the very few widely travelled journalists. He has reported extensively and in depth for his newspaper, The Times of India. His overseas postings include stints in Bonn, Paris, Geneva, the United Nations, New York and Washington DC.

As a foreign correspondent, he set new standards in journalism and gave his readers an Indian perspective on burning global issues of the time. In most Indian newspapers this has been a neglected area. Even today most newspapers do not see and report world events through the eyes of India. Why newspapers continue to be shy of posting their top journalists at sensitive world capitals which have a bearing on Indian interests is intriguing. Some newspapers do this selectively. For that matter, even the neighbouring countries, including China, have not drawn the attention they deserve.

I hope and pray that Kamath’s fascinating narration of his experiences as a reporter will prompt more newspaper establishments to wake up to the importance of posting their ace reporters at key global centres, which will add to the richness and readability of their publications.

Kamath has, of course, talked about his moments of triumph and frustration. He also tells us how he was once shadowed in Bonn because his American wife, in her earlier days, was a member of the US Communist Party.

Those were the days of the Cold War, when the relationship between the two superpowers was characterised by mutual suspicion and East and West Germany were at their worst. Not surprisingly, West Germany’s Foreign Office felt that Kamath was under the spell of "the communist ideology" of his wife. Even the German Ambassador in India at one stage was asked to inquire into Kamath’s credentials. Those were shades of West Germans’ James Bond indeed!

Kamath recalls how he was harassed: "Once, when both my wife and I were out of town — we had gone to Geneva — someone broke into our apartment and ransacked the cupboards. When we returned, the place was in a mess. I complained to the police, and to the Foreign Office. My wife was upset believing that because of her I was getting into difficulties.

"We were promised protection, but I never came to know who the culprit was. For all I knew it could have been the police themselves."

After this incident, Kamath sought a transfer to Paris. The then all-powerful General Manager of The Times of India, J. C. Jain, helped the process. There are a number of interesting anecdotes and accounts of Kamath’s stint in Paris.

He was in Washington when the infamous Watergate scandal came to light. It was on November 8, 1972, when Richard Nixon was re-elected US President for a second term. Even before Nixon was formally declared re-elected, Watergate had burst into the open. The whole affair came as a big shock to the American people who had given Nixon a massive mandate. The Washington Post and The New York Times were full of sensational stories about the shenanigans of the men in the White House. What a thrilling time that was for the intelligent and enterprising reporter that Kamath was in his younger days.

To quote the author: "The American Press did a splendid job of ferreting out the truth even if it was unpleasant. The Administration seemed to have gone haywire. It had let loose both the CIA and the FBI on the American public and when the Rockefeller Commission Report on the CIA was released in June 1975, it was difficult to believe what was printed. The Commission’s 229-page report revealed that files had been created on half a million Americans, that there were mail openings, wire-tappings, room-bugging, burglaries and extensive monitoring of overseas calls. And all that in addition to espionage against dissident American political groups." This was surely not what the people had believed American democracy to be. What a shock that was!

Though as a non-American journalist he had obvious limitations in reporting from a foreign land, Kamath did a splendid job with his despatches from Washington and the United Nations. To quote Kamath’s friend, M. V. Mathew: "I was chilled into cerebral immobility for full five minutes when I read M.V. Kamath’s Washington despatch on CIA."

He could not have been the only one. Kamath opines that "compared to what the US, under Nixon, was doing, Indira Gandhi comes through as a saint, and the Emergency a minor aberration".

According to the author, one reason why the American Press did so splendid a job in exposing the Watergate scandal is the high social status journalists in the USA enjoy. "Which other country could boast of a Walter Lippmann? When James Reston of The New York Times dined out, his guests were news." Moreover, salaries of top TV news personalities sound unbelievable even now.

As compared to the salaries and perks enjoyed by American journalists, Indian journalists, with a very few exceptions, are nowhere. While some Indian journalists have done well, others have made money through means other than those transparent and fair.

On an average, Indian journalists are an exploited lot, although some of them have of late carved a place for themselves by dint of hard work and clean workmanship.

However, most socially successful Indian journalists these days give the impression of being an extension of the stinking political culture, which is certainly not complimentary. The problem with credible Indian media personnel is that given the freedom and status and salaries, they are genuinely handicapped. It is indeed tough going here to work honestly, sincerely, freely and fearlessly.

Instead of recalling innumerable exciting narrations cited by Kamath, it will be worthwhile for interested persons to directly experience the real thrill by going through this voluminous book. Enlightened persons and young journalists will benefit from this volume for its sheer wealth of information and the quality of writing.

A super workmanship of the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan Publications, the book by a scholarly journalist of Kamath’s fame will help those who wish to understand the hazards the profession of journalism carries.

In sum, I see the book as a primer for budding journalists. It is grippingly informative on the events gone by for those who wish to have a proper perspective on the world as it exists today, India included, past and present.