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  Reyaz Azimabadi, journalist and author NK SINGH I met Reyaz Azimabadi for the first time at a Patna tea shop   -- the best place to meet, considering that we thought of ourselves as budding intellectuals. At the age of 17, he was already the Editor of Masael, an Urdu weekly. And by the time I met him at that roadside tea shop in Patna, I considered myself a veteran journalist at the age of 18; I was already freelancing for a number of daily newspapers and weekly magazines. The year, if I recall correctly, was 1969.   Failing to secure accommodation in the hostel of BN College , where I was pretending to study for my graduation in English Honours, I had rented a room on the second floor of a shopping complex in the crowded Langartoli area.   The shopping complex was owned by a fisherman – Machuatoli, the fishermen’s district, was just round the corner – a massive potbellied man with two wives and a bagful of bawdy stories about Angrez sahibs that left nothing to...

  Public money used for party purpose   NK SINGH   Radical 21 November 1970 PATNA: The use of Government machinery for organising the meeting of a political party is not a healthy tradition. In democracy, the difference between a political organisation and the Government must be understood well. Public resources should not be utilised for party purpose. The democratic institution would not last long Government resources are misused by the party in power. The 3-day conference of the All India Congress Committee (Indira Congress) at Patna turned into a State show rather than a political party meet. Radical, 21 November 1970

Rajendra Nagar Stadium, Patna A report on Patna AICC session in 1970 NK SINGH Frontier 28 November 1970 The  use of government machinery for party purposes by a political party in power  amounts to corruption. A blatant example was the three-day Ruling Congress AICC session at Patna in October. It turned into a State show rather than a political party meet. For the first time in the history of Bihar about 60 under secretaries, a contingent of magistrates and hundreds of peons were forced to forgo their Puja holidays to work and supervise the arrangements of the AICC session The Congress drama staged at Patna set a new record in misusing government machinery  The total expense due to this session is estimated at about Rs 50 lakhs. It is of course a different matter that the party collected only Rs 3 lakhs and the rest of the expenditure was met by the various departments of the State Government. First of all, the city of Patna was given a face-lift-the sole benefit t...

Courtesy: cartoonsbyirfan.in Why Media has become so partisan? NK SINGH हमारे समय में पक्षधरता को प्रतिबद्धता समझा जा रहा है. दोनों बुरी तरह गड्ड मड्ड हो गए हैं. उनके बीच की लकीर लगभग मिट गयी है. उससे भी ज्यादा खतरनाक यह है कि कई मीडिया संस्थान और पत्रकार अपनी पक्षधरता को एक तमगे के रूप में पहन रहे हैं. इनमें से कई आज के समय के नामी-गिरामी पत्रकार हैं, मीडिया आइकॉन हैं, सेलेब्रिटी हैं. वे बड़े गर्व के साथ राजनीतिक पार्टियों के, विचारधाराओं के झंडे उठा कर चल रहे हैं. प्रतिबद्धता बनाम पक्षधरता की इस डिबेट से एक बड़ा सवाल उठ खड़ा होता है. क्या पत्रकार अपनी निष्पक्षता खो बैठे हैं?  क्या इसकी वजह से पत्रकारिता अपनी सबसे बड़ा धरोहर खो बैठी है? वह पूँजी है -- हमारी क्रेडिबिलिटी, हमारी साख, हमारी विश्वसनीयता. यह क्यों और कैसे हुआ? गुजरात के दंगों सबको अभी भी याद होंगे. 2002 के दंगे. वे आजाद भारत के इतिहास के सबसे भयानक दंगे थे. तीन महीनों तक गुजरात एक दावानल की भांति धधकता रहा. आजादी के बाद यह शायद सबसे लम्बे समय तक चलने वाला सांप्रदायिक दंगा था. सरकारी आंकड़ों के मुताबिक १०४४ लोग...