The heiress to a media empire in New Delhi was trying hard to get an appointment with the Delhi Nizam to invite him for her media conclave. She did get to meet the Modi, but in their discussion, it was made amply clear to the dapper lady of the arts that at the head of her star newspaper was a left-oriented intellectual who the Nizam much hated. Why? Because he had been running a campaign that recorded where all, after saffronisation of Indian politics, communal tension had peaked and in fact led to riots. The paper had shown this using graphics. 7 RCR put its foot down: the ‘commie’ has to go. In fact, one of the top intellectuals, the editor had been ushered in with much fanfare to the media stable, had been allocated a sprawling, plus bungalow in Lutein’s Delhi and had been chaperoned about in a glitzy Merc, top bracket.
It is known that the newspaper management had planned to retain the services of the editor till December, so that the transition could be seamless. But the ‘desires’ of the Boss was met and the editor was shown the door, crash course. This was not just a stray incident of media purging. Three top journos of an economic daily were also shown the door. There was a time when Ashok Road would go by what the media said. Now Ashok Road has busted the media, perhaps in vengeance!