A Family Feud at the Venerable Hindu (Newspaper)
As published in Wall Street Journal
As published in Wall Street Journal
The Chennai-based Hindu newspaper, long respected for being one of India’s most serious daily reads, has in recent days provided a generous amount of tabloidesque fodder to its competitors as a spat between two brothers for control became very public.
The tussle has been simmering in the open for over a year, first making its way into papers in March 2010, two months before N. Ravi, an editor at the paper, was, according to his account, due to take over the post of editor-in-chief.
But his older brother, N. Ram, who continues to occupy the post, didn’t step down.
Last week, Mr. Ravi wrote a letter to The Hindu’s newsroom, clearly fed up after the board of directors moved on April 18 to appoint someone from outside the family to succeed Mr. Ram. A copy of the letter was also posted on media watchdog site The Hoot.
“In a shocking display of bad faith that has left me deeply anguished, N. Ram and some of the directors at the meeting of the Board on April 18, 2011 have sought to remove me and appoint as editor Siddharth Varadarajan who joined The Hindu in 2004,” wrote Mr. Ravi in a letter April 20, a copy of which he provided to India Real Time.
He told the newsroom the paper’s reporting had suffered under the stewardship of his brother, who became editor-in-chief in 2003, and knocked its editorial and advertising policies as well.
“The Hindu as an institution had in the past valued its editorial integrity over all else. In the recent period, editorial integrity has been severely compromised and news coverage linked directly to advertising in a way that is little different from paid news,” wrote Mr. Ravi. “A meaningless distinction has been sought to be made between walls and lines, and the walls between editorial and advertising are sought to be replaced by ‘lines’ between them.”
He also said the paper had on May 22 of last year published a long interview with former telecom minister A. Raja defending his telecom licensing policy in exchange for advertising the same day from the telecom ministry.
News reports, including in The Hindu, quoted Mr. Ram dismissing the accusation concerning the telecom ministry and saying that the ministry ad in question appeared in several papers the same day.
Mr. Raja stepped down from his post in November and was charged this month in the alleged rigging of the 2008 licensing process. He is contesting the charges.
Mr. Ram has said that seeking an outsider to replace him is an attempt to make the newsroom more professional. Mr. Ram did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
According to its Web site, the Hindu was started in 1878 by two school teachers and four law students who were angry about the way India’s British-run newspapers had covered the appointment of the first Indian judge to the Madras High Court.
It became a daily in 1940. It came to be owned by the present family in 1905, when the paper’s then legal advisor S. Kasturiranga Iyengar bought the failing paper.
The paper’s present 12-member board is made up of four sets of siblings who are the great-grandchildren of Mr. Iyengar. Several of them hold positions such as Washington correspondent, executive editor or editor of The Hindu’s business paper.
People who read Mr. Ravi’s letter online weren’t very sympathetic to either brother. Several people who commented on a very recently set up blog called Save the Hindu, where Mr. Ravi’s letter was also posted, described themselves as onetime loyal readers who feel let down by the management of the paper in recent decades, accusing it of becoming too left-leaning and pro-China.
Many also criticized its coverage of the Sri Lankan civil war as being too supportive of the island country’s government.
Others said it was no longer as bold as it used to be. “The Hindu, after initial investigative reporting in the Bofors scandal case, succumbed to the govt of the day’s arm twisting tactics and has never been the same thereafter. The Rams and Ravis – who have spinelessly kowtowed to powers that be need no sympathy from us,” wrote “Qurioux” in response to Mr. Ravi’s letter. “The Hindu has short changed its loyal readers for three generations like me. Now it is a family feud that is coming in the open not a fight for principles.”
But some said that it was still a pretty good paper, and urged Mr. Ravi to stop airing the paper’s dirty linen in public.
“Even if all the allegations N. Ravi has made are true, I think it is highly unprofessional for him to have made this letter public, thus washing the family dirty linen in public,” wrote sHaranYa, comparing the paper favorably to some of India’s other mainstream dailies. “At least The Hindu does not print gossip about film actors and have photos of barely clad women, and print of photos and reports about socialites at Page 3 parties, and discuss nonsense in the name of news.”
