Monday, December 08, 2008

Letter to West Delhi Plus of TOI

I am regular reader of the TOI, and WDP. I have noted that you always give news about conditions of areas like Punjabi Bagh, Dwarka, Rajouri Garden, Janka Puri etc.. You describe achievements of people in these localities. But I would like to bring to your knowledge (in case you are not aware already), that in west Delhi, there are other areas too like Sagar Pur, Uttam Nagar, Raghu Nagar. The TOI main paper anyway does not give any news from these areas, unless some serious mishap takes place and they are kind of forced to come here. But West Delhi Plus is supplement particularly about western part of the city, so at least once in a while, you can direct your cameras to our areas too, which our mostly pointed towards organized colonies. I am a resident of Sagar Pur, I have been here for the past decade or more. I hardly read anything about our area. You report about water, sanitation, road problems of Dwarka or Janak Puri. But what about Sagar Pur, where there is no public park, where in such huge colony, there’s just one post box for the past 10 years or so, where there’s no charcoal road, where no public servant comes to clean sewage, which often leads to mixing of normal water with sewage water. If no one respects our colony, why do even form a constituency and we are urged to vote. You report achievements of kids and youngsters and about malls of Rajouri Garden. I want you to know that there are genius kids in our areas too. Who makes one area posh and other down market – you guys only, the media. I am myself 2007 pass out IIT Guwahati (Computer Science), and I have been to all those *hip-hop* areas, I clearly understand all the pages - page3 and page10. This is to request you to respect all localities, that’s what true journalism is. And I hope you wouldn’t reply by telling about your reporting of some slums in west Delhi, I really request you to stay sometime in middle too, not always on the extremes.

Anonymity – Ambiguous.. why is everyone so coward!!

TOI reported today:
NEW YORK: Former Pakistani army officials trained the terrorists who went on rampage last week in Mumbai , The New York Times said on Wednesday quoting unnamed Pentagon officials.

I don’t understand why new papers even report the statements of people (officials) who don’t have the balls to stand by what they speak. After Mumbai Attacks, I have been reading and hearing from all corners, about pak-link of terrorists. There has been no *solid* evidence. Those who claim to have it, say that wouldn’t share it now. Many of those who allege pak-terrorists are anonymous officials, be it those babus in external affairs ministry, be it some diplomat, or the so called reports of CIA, no body comes out in open and speaks without fear. Strangest part is that most pak-link newspaper reports are reported by The Observer, The Guardian, and NYT. Where are the TOI’s and HT’s of India? In Indian print media, like the photos of events in India, which are almost always clicked by Agency, or Reuters or AFP, now even intelligence reports of terror attacks are also out sourced from foreign press!