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The Loser Takes It All

You can rail against news channels, protest against 'trial by media', threaten writs and libel suits. Nothing helps. Once the roll starts, it rolls and rolls.

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The Loser Takes It All
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The decline and fall of a high-flying politician, brought down by hubris, bad luck, skulduggery or voter disenchantment, is a familiar enough sight. We need shed few tears for Mr Natwar Singh on this score. (To write his political obituary, though, may be a trifle premature.) In the case of the minister without portfolio, it is the collateral damage which is truly heart-rending. The Natwar Singh and Sehgal families must dread the arrival of the morning papers, wondering what further bad tidings they bring, what sordid revelations they unearth, what new dirt they print.

All families have dark secrets, some more than others. Usually, it is possible to keep some sort of a lid on them. In India, happily, the media do not indulge in the kind of investigative tabloid journalism devoted to the sensational and the salacious. Alas, when a political scandal hits town, not only is the aforementioned scandal replayed but anything else which may have voyeuristic appeal. In this scramble, professional norms are stretched and sometimes ignored under the guise of 'public interest'. It is assumed that the man on the Chandni Chowk bus has a constitutional right to be fully informed not just about the politician under the scanner, but of his kith and kin too.

In free and open societies with a free and open press, it is difficult to contain the excesses of such reportage. Since there is little sympathy for the individual in the dock, it is open season on his family too. This is the price democracies pay for enjoying the luxury of a free press. You can rail against news channels, protest against 'trial by media', threaten writs and libel suits. Nothing helps. Once the roll starts, it rolls and rolls. I take no position on this kind of journalism, neither do I wish to sound critical. I merely emphasise the inevitability of some 'bad taste' reporting in a situation where hard information is scarce while anonymous quotes are plentiful.

Mr Singh's family history is both troubled and tragic—and most of it has been played out in the public domain. The juice is now being added with relish, some of it true, some of it coloured, some of it exaggerated, some of it plain lies. The air is thick with stories of mysterious suicides, thuggery, illicit liaisons, shootings, school expulsions, errant behaviour, messy divorces. Indeed, the financial 'crime' may appear small change in the sordid narrative. And you can be sure that the macabre in these unverified stories improves with each telling.

At the best of times, K. Natwar Singh did not have many friends. However, even his enemies must feel sorry for him as he fights his way through this muck.

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