Zee News producer resigns, salute to crores of Kanahiyas

Deeply distressed with the wrong coverage of the Jawaharlal Nehru University row by Zee News, producer Vishwa Deepak quit the channel on Feb 19, and made the decision public in a Facebook post on Sunday.

Deepak wrote on the social media platform as “We, journalists, question others but not ourselves. We are called the Fourth Estate of democracy. But are we, our institutions, and our coverage, democratic?”.

The way the JNU Student’s Union president Kanhaiya Kumar was framed in the name of “nationalism” and, after a media trial, was proved to be an anti-national, is an extremely dangerous trend. As journalists, it is our responsibility to question the powers that be, not move step in step with the powerful. Whatever good and beautiful has been achieved in the history of journalism is the result of these questions.

“My resignation is dedicated to lakhs and crores of Kanhaiyas and those JNU students who strive and make sacrifices with dreams in their eyes,” he wrote.

Hear is the resignation letter

Dear Zee News,

After a year, four months and four days, the time has come for me to leave you. Although, I should have done this earlier but if I don’t do this now, I’ll never be able to forgive myself.

What I am about to say is not a result of anger, irritation or emotion but is a well thought-out account. Along with being a journalist, I am also a citizen of the country in whose name the poison of blind “nationalism” is being spread and the country being pushed towards a state of civil war. My responsibilities as an Indian citizen as well as my professional duties is to stop this poison from spreading.

I know this is liking trying to cross the ocean in a boat but I still want to make a start. I am therefore resigning from my post as a protest against the role we played in kindling and then promoting a campaign of blind nationalism which used the JNUSU President Kanhaiya Kumar as an excuse. I request that this letter be accepted without making the issue one of personal enmity.

In any case, the matter isn’t personal at all. It is one of professional duty, social consciousness and, finally, one of patriotism. I regret to inform you that that as a result of being a part of your organisation, I have failed many times as a journalist on all three counts in the last one year.

Post May 2014, ever since Shri Narendra Modi has become the Prime Minister, more or less every newsroom has been communalised – but the situation at our organisation is even more appalling. I apologise for using such grandoise vocabulary however there really is no other word for it. Why is it so that the news is written by giving it a Modi angle? The aim in writing the news is to push the Modi government’s agenda.

I have started to seriously doubt whether we are journalists at all. It seems like we are nothing more than the government’s mouthpiece or contract killer. Modi is the country’s prime minister, he is my prime minister but as a journalist, I am unable to swallow any more Modi worship. My conscience has started to revolt against me. It’s like I am ill.

Behind each news story is an agenda, behind every news show is an effort to show how great the Modi government is and behind every debate is the attempt to shoot down Modi’s opponents? Nothing less than words like “attack” or “war” is acceptable to us. What is all this? When I stop and think about it, I feel like I have gone mad.

Why were we made to be so immoral, unethical, and despicable? After having studied from the country’s top most media institute and having worked in esteemed institutions such as BBC, Aaj Tak and Deutsche Welle, Germany, my journalistic capital has now been reduced to people calling me a “Chhee (yuck) news journalist”. Our integrity has been blown to bits. Who will take the responsibility for this?

This is what happened on the issue of Dalit scholar, Rohith Vemula’s suicide. First we addressed him as a “Dalit scholar”; then as a “Dalit student”. That’s still fine. But at least, they should have written the news properly. The role of ABVP leader and BJP’s Bandaru Dattatreya in driving Rohith Vemula to commit suicide is still surrounded by dubious questions (everything is clear). But as a media house, our work was to dilute the issue and to be their saviour.

But now how long should I do it – and why?

I am not able to sleep well. I am restless. Maybe it is a result of a guilty conscience. It is the biggest taint any individual can be marked by: treason, of being a traitor. But the question is, as journalists, what right do we have to give certificates and degrees on being a traitor? Isn’t this the domain of the courts?

Along with Kanhaiya, we made many students appear to be traitors and anti-nationals in the eyes of the people. If anyone is murdered tomorrow, who will take its responsibility? We have not merely created a situation for someone’s murder or to destroy some families but we have created the conditions ripe for spreading riots and brought the country to the brink of a civil-war. What sort of patriotism is this? After all, what sort of journalism is this?

Are we the mouthpieces of the BJP or the RSS that we will do whatever they say? The video that did not at all have the slogan “Pakistan zindabad”, we played it repeatedly to create madness and mayhem. How did we believe some voices coming out from the dark did indeed were those of Kanhaiya and his colleagues? We misheard “Long live Indian courts” as “Long live Pakistan” and working on the government line, brought the careers, their hopes and aspirations and families of some people to the brink of destruction. it would have been better if we had let the agencies do their jobs and waited for their conclusions.

People are threatening to rape Umar Khalid’s sister and attacking her with acid, they are calling her the sister of a traitor. Think, if something like this happens, would we not be responsible for it? Kanhaiya said it not once but thousands of times that he does not endorse anti-national slogans but he was not even heard once because the mayhem we created was on the government line. Have we taken a serious look at Kanhaiya’s home? Kanhaiya’s home is not a “home” but a painful symbol of the helplessness of this country’s farmers and common people, it is a graveyard of those hopes that are being buried every second in this country. But we have become blind.

It hurts me to say this but I want to say that there are many houses like this where I come from. Indian rural life is equally colourless. Those broken-down walls and already-weakened lives have been injected with the poison of nationalism without thinking about its consequences. If Kanhaiya’s paralysed father dies out of shock, would we not be responsible? If the Indian Express had not done the story []]on Kanhaiya’s family], this country would not have come to know where Kanhaiya gets the inspiration to speak for the rights of the deprived.

Rama Naga and others are also in the same state. From modest backgrounds, having struggled against poverty, these boys managed to get a subsidised education at JNU. You can see the confidence in progressing. But those willing to sell out for TRPs have almost ruined their careers.

It’s possible that we don’t agree with their politics or that their ideas are radical, but how did they become traitors? How can we appropriate the work of the courts in judging? Is it just a coincidence that Delhi Police’s FIR has Zee News’ name in it? Is it that we are in nexus with the Delhi Police? What answer can we give the people.

After all, what do we have against JNU or JNU’s students? I believe the modern values, democracy, diversity and co-existence of opposing views has made JNU an eden in India, but now we have begun calling it a den of treason and outlaws.

I’d like to know if it is JNU that is beyond the law or the BJP leaders who stormed into court to beat up a leader of the Left? The BJP MLA and his supporters were beating up a CPI leader on the streets, with the police simply standing by and watching the spectacle. On screen, we could see the assault and we wrote ‘Allegations of violence against OP Sharma’. I asked why did we have to say ‘allegations’? I was told this was because it came from ‘upar’ (above). How has our ‘upar’ gotten so low? You can understand if it goes p to Modi, but things have gotten to such a state that we are now saving BJP leaders like OP Sharma and ABVP workers?

I have started to loathe my existence, my journalism and my helplessness. Is this why I left a number of careers to become a journalist? Maybe not.

Now there are only two options before me. Either I leave journalism, or I separate myself from these conditions. I am taking the second route. I have not made any decisions, I am just asking some questions about my profession and my identity. It is a small matter, but this accountability is important. It’s less for others and more for me. I’m quite certain I won’t be able to get a job anywhere else. I also understand that if I had kept at it, I would have gotten close to a lakh. My salary is good but it comes with too many sacrifices, which I’m unwilling to give. I come from an ordinary middle-class family, so I know how difficult it is to be without a salary, but still my consciousness will not be stifled.

I am saying again that I don’t have any personal complaints. These are issues of institutional and editorial policy. I trust that it will be understood also in this way.

It is also important to say that if a media house wants to impose its right-wing preferences, individuals should also be free to talk about their own political lines. It is my job as a journalist to remain neutral, but as a person and an enlightened citizen, my path is of the Left which is found not in party offices but in our everyday lives. This is my identity.

And finally, I am thankful for the year in which I struggled within Zee News. It is because of that struggle I managed to make some good friends.

Respectfully yours,

Vishwa Deepak