One had certainly heard of Francois Gautier, the French Indophile journalist. [Gautier is the South Asia correspondent for French magazine Marianne, and editor of La Revue de l'Inde, a Paris-based magazine solely devoted to India.] And one also knew him as an advocate of the Hindu school of thought. Nothing wrong with that, definitely. One may disagree with all his contentions, but still one did not quite ever wonder what is wrong with him. Till, of course, one happened to see a flurry of emails from him on different email lists. The text was virtually the same, except for a few customisations obviously for the different audiences he was addressing.
Gautier started off saying:
As you know one of the biggest problems today is that Indian journalists are not always proud of their own culture and roots and as result tend to have a very negative outlook on India, which in turn influences western correspondents posted in India.
Ahem! So we are not proud of our culture. Hmmm. Maybe Gautier wants us all to tow the Hindutva hardline. Maybe it has dawned upon him at last that India has not become a Hindu theocratic state only because journalists have not by and large given in to medieval notions of what ought to constitute culture.
His opening line was meant to advertise the Bangalore-based Sri Sri Center for Media Studies. Nothing wrong with advertising of course. This center (we in India prefer to call it "centre", though. But trust the French not to speak English in the English, but American way), by claim, teaches the best of journalistic knowledge. Nothing wrong with that either. Claims are always there to be made. But hey, wait. There are also classes on Indian history here. And these classes, as he proudly states, are taken by him only. Quite convenient. All history teachers who are not right must be wrong, nay Leftist.
Other journalism schools, he believes, are sponsored by the Hindu and BBC, and their journalists are cast in the Marxist mould. And Marxists, you see, have more funds than the bulti-billion spiritualistic empire of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. Yes, yes, funds are so important. That is why this center, I mean centre, charges Rs 100,000 as an annual fee from its students. Come on, one lakh is nothing since Gautier is training them up to serve the country.
Yes, service is of paramount importance. As he says, journalism "is one of the highest seva you can do for India." Christ! One has heard of so many things people say about the profession, but this one takes the cake. And why so? Because, as the Indophile says, "journalists today are the most important people in the world — even the politicians are afraid of them!" This man is amazing.
Yes, it is true that the mainstream India media is increasingly mistrusted by the populace. But what Gautier is trying to do is dole out an obscurantist medicine for a modern ill. Can't help it, can he?
Nevertheless, it is high time you wretched Indian journalists were to become proud of your Indian lineage, and did some proper seva for your country. Alternatively, if you are old enough you can pack off your children to this venerable institution. Gautier promises both internships and jobs. No, not with Organiser. He pledges to plant them in the mainstream media. So folks, the silent saffron takeover of the media has just begun.
