Kerala’s obsession with the Salute and the Police uniform?

The two top controversies now being discussed in news papers both relate to Police- one the lapse of the part of a senior Police Officer who failed to salute the home minister at a passing out parade at the Police Academy  in Thrissur and the other the Ernakulam District Collector wearing his wife’s police uniform at home that appeared as a feature in a leading newspaper.

In the case of RishiRaj Singh, ADGP and senior IPS officer, he may not have seen Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala entering from behind the stage as the passing out parade of constables had already begun. Rishi Raj Singh also said that as per convention dignitaries on the dais stand up only when national anthem is played during passing out parade. Moreover he was only an invitee to the function.

People suspected motives behind Rishi Raj Singh’s apparent  ‘disrespect’ shown towards Home Minister at a public function as he was recently removed as Chief Vigilance Commissioner  from Kerala State Electricity Board for booking a corporate house for power theft in the state capital.
Strangely, Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala has no complaint against the police official leaving it to  DGP Mr T P Senkumar to decide.However, other ministers and politicians have taken up the issue saying that his conduct would foster indiscipline in the Police!

The salute itself is a vestige of the British rule and you can find constables at police stations been forced to life a heavy rifle to salute their senior officers each time they arrive and depart to the station. Some sensible officers have already suggested the removal of this colonial practice which is cumbersome for the newly appointed women constables too.

District Collector wears Police uniform

M G Rajamanickam, who was adjudged the Best District Collector in 2014 is now being criticised for wearing his wife’s police uniform for a human interest story in a leading newspaper. His wife Nishanthini, an IPS officer  is also a popular police officer  having served in Ernakulam and Thrissur districts.

It may be recalled that Mr Rajamanickam was awarded for his exemplary work in Kochi Metro, Airport Seaport Road and launching novel projects such as Bhoomigeetham.

The State Government has issued a warning against the District Collector for the impropriety shown in wearing police uniform.  The crux of the newspaper feature was that Rajamanickam, an IAS officer was more fond of wearing police uniform while his police officer wife was interested in being an IAS official.

The public, the government officials and policy makers who have described the conduct as improper hasn’t questioned the motive of a leading newspaper in doing this story. Moreover, the collector did not appear in public in police uniform and the public wouldn’t have known unless the paper carried the story!

Kerala’s policy makers, the public and officials spend several reams of paper , correspondence and discussion on a topic that is neither socially relevant nor important leaving no time for developmental and social work to take place. 

How long will the electorate suffer all this in silence?

  

Trust not the news or newsmen, but the blog!

What constitutes a media person? The traditional view was that you need to work for a newspaper, magazine and later on with the advent of radio and television and the internet more categories were added to the list.

Recently, I saw an interesting discussion on election of CPM General Secretary in a Malayalam TV channel – there was  N Madhavan Kutty ( formerly Bureau Chief of The Indian Express) and Appukuttan Vallikunnu (Deshabhimani columnist), Ramachandran (formerly Malayala Manorama) and another person I don’t recall. When arguments and counter arguments heated up, each of them started blaming the other for lack of knowledge of inner functioning of CPM!

Blogs qualify as Media!
And one of them pointed out Mr Madhavan Kutty (NMK) is no longer in the media. NMK was aghast about lack of awareness of  the fellow scribes and writers. Haven't they seen the emergence of  New Media – including online publications and blogs. My head started spinning, blogging is also media activity and the world is now full of media persons!. No wonder and true that many former journalists are now confined to writing blogs. Pity others confined to retirement, unsung and unheard missing the golden opportunity to remain 'blogger journalists'?

My view on this issue is that blogs do not come under the purview of the news media. That is a platform to air your views and ideas for discussion to a larger audience or even a closed group or shared through social media. Google or any company that provides blogging platform free is providing servers, front end for free but are not publishers of the content nor endorse it. But they do have the right to reject objectionable matter uploaded by the blogger.

A news media can be defined as a system where there are trained journalists, cameramen and technical support team who gather news, check its veracity, maintain a library of data, information on various topics and disseminate news and analysis in an objective manner. Blogs do not fall in this category.

Blogs gain acceptability than news?
When it comes to business or products, consumers trust blogs or bloggers more than news, according to Brian Pittman (PR Daily) quoted in Entrepreneur.com.
"That's why blog networks such as BlogHer drive thousands-if not millions-of consumers to the products, services and issues they cover."

Again what Pittman says is a statement and I don’t know whether it has been empirically verified. There are people who believe in the news than adverts. But even if it’s partially true, this tells upon the credibility of our newsmen. Who's responsible for this fall?

Both Newspapers and journalists and the new breed of bloggers come under Article 19 (1) of the Indian Constitution- Freedom of Speech. There ends the similarity, but for all practical purposes, they need to be seen differently.

What’s the harm in former Journalists saying, “ I am a blogger.” Hasn’t it become a  more respectful activity than a  journo?