Volatile combination of Surinder Nihal Singh and Arun Shourie sends sparks flying at Indian Express

Goenka leaving Zail Singh's house: Trade-off?For an organisation whose reputation is founded on its unbiased and aggressive reportage of news, the sprawlingIndian Expressempire has a peculiarly nasty habit of finding itself on the wrong side of the media fence, inadvertently providing fodder for others to write about. The main protagonist is, of course, the paper's founder, Ram Nath Goenka, the feisty chairman of the group who exhibits a perverse pleasure in juggling his editors around with almost gleeful abandon.Barely months ago, Goenka orchestrated another round of editorial musical chairs in which mild-mannered Express editor Ajit Bhattacharjea and News Service chief Kuldip Nayar resigned because of a new appointment. In came former Statesman editor Surinder Nihal Singh, whose affable exterior is in deceptive contrast to his acid-loaded typewriter and his strong anti-Mrs Gandhi views, as editor-in-chief of the chain.That was in April, when the Express was hitting a hot journalistic streak with a series of innovative, investigative stories, largely inspired by the paper's Executive Editor, Arun Shourie, 39, the Ralph Nader of Indian journalism. To Express subscribers and the paper's stable of reporters, the volatile combination of Shourie and Singh was widely expected to send the sparks flying.In the event, the sparks did fly, but in a totally unexpected direction. By last week, it was obvious that Singh and Shourie were inexorably heading for a major confrontation that threatens to initiate yet another major shake-up in the upper strata of the Express.Bruised Sensibilities: The trouble started when Shourie, on a busman's holiday in Bangalore, began to wield his pungent pen against some of Karnataka's controversial ministers. In his inimitable style, Shourie's first coup was an acerbic exchange with Chief Minister Gundu Rao over an informal lunch which made mouth-watering journalistic copy and revealed Rao in his true colours.Shourie, certain that the interview was front-page material, dispatched it over the teleprinter to New Delhi. To his surprise, however, the instructions from Singh semaphored to all centres was to cut the piece drastically and relegate it to an inside page. His journalistic sensibilities badly bruised, Shourie demanded that the article be withdrawn and in a fit of perverse pique, sent it to Sunday, the Calcutta-based weekly, where it appeared to Sunday's advantage.The next bout between Singh and Shourie was sparked off by a middle by Shourie on Sanjay's death anniversary in which he recounted a prediction by an astrologer that something drastic was to happen the day before Sanjay died. The piece landed on the desk of assistant editor, Sumer Kaul, who deleted the opening lines of the article and casually mentioned to Shourie that he had done so. Shourie politely sent a message to Singh asking that the lines be restored.Instead, he received a curt missive from Singh stating that his "verdict was final". Shourie again withdrew the article and sent it off to Dina Vakil, editor of the paper's Sunday edition, the Sunday Standard, where it duly appeared. Angered by Shourie's action, Singh sent Shourie a show cause notice demanding an explanation for undermining his authority. (Technically, Singh is editor-in-chief of the Sunday Standard as well.)Shourie's next piece for the Express about the confrontation between Mrs Gandhi and the judiciary was titled, with delicious irony, "A Declaration of War". Singh passed it without changing a word. By now, Shourie had flown back to Bangalore, where he was determined to gun for CM. Ibrahim, the state minister with a murky past whose questionable dealings had been exposed in the media but with little effect.Contacting Janata Party leaders - Ibrahim had been a member of the party earlier - Shourie managed to get hold of a tape-recorded campaign speech delivered by Ibrahim in early 1977 in which he referred to Mrs Gandhi as "an international prostitute". Having collected other anti-Mrs Gandhi quotes by Ibrahim couched in similar crude language, Shourie compiled a devastating article titled, ironically enough, "Where nothing else works, will this."Deleted: According to Express sources, Shourie cleared the article with Singh, detailing its proposed contents on the phone, and sent it out on the Express's vast network at 4.30 pm. Then, at 10.45 pm just before most editions were put to bed, a message from Singh - who had just seen the pieces flashed to all centres carrying instructions that eight paragraphs of the article were to be deleted, including the controversial quote.When Shourie learnt about this he immediately telexed Delhi with a message threatening to call a press conference if his article was not removed. Within half an hour, he received a reply slating that those editions which had already started the print run had been told to stop the presses and the article was to be removed. The next morning only the early issues of the chain's Chandigarh and Cochin editions had carried the original piece.Vulnerable Position: Since then, Shourie's familiar byline has abruptly ceased to appear in the Express and there are serious doubts among senior staff whether Singh's actions are governed by instructions from Goenka, who is in a vulnerable position as far as pressure from the Government is concerned. Last week, Goenka met Home Minister Zial Singh at the latter's residence, where they were closeted together for over an hour.Sources close to Zail Singh confirm that, among other things, the two discussed the giant chain's current problems with the Government including cases lodged against Goenka for alleged business misdemeanours some years ago. Goenka refused to comment on the subject; Singh denies there is any pressure being applied."We are a hard-hitting paper and we will continue to be one," he said. Regarding Shourie, Singh states that he was only doing his job. "An editor's job is to blue pencil. Arun Shourie is a great asset to the Express but I am only exercising an editor's prerogative. If he refuses to have a comma changed in his articles. I cannot permit that." Shourie counters by saying that editing does not mean mutilation. "I must confess that I am puzzled by what is happening," said Shourie.Shourie says that his only interest is for the good of the paper. "Phrases such as 'prerogative' and 'verdict' are being used as if they were a mantra. Phrases such as these reflect a bureaucratic attitude which will ruin the Express. This is not a rich paper, neither is it well organised. The only thing it has going for it is a spirit of adventure, informality, and comradeship. Anyone who stands too much on his office will finish all this and the paper as well."That, however, is something that Goenka hardly encourages. His cosy tete-a-tete with Zail Singh last week could well be the first moves in an attempt to bury the hatchet with the government, till now the paper's principal target. It could also mean the hatchet will be buried in an obvious place - Shourie's expendable back.Published By: AtMigration Published On: Nov 13, 2013 09:12 IST--- ENDS ---

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Volatile combination of Surinder Nihal Singh and Arun Shourie sends sparks flying at Indian Express

For an organisation whose reputation is founded on its unbiased and aggressive reportage of news, the sprawling Indian Express empire has a peculiarly nasty habit of finding itself on the wrong side of the media fence, inadvertently providing fodder for others to write about.

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