...we had this Delhi journalist who substantiated with evidence that there were places in India where women were offered for sale...<p align=center>
GVK's Other Works [3] :: GVK's Archived Works [4] :: GVK's Profile [5]Those who were in journalism in the seventies might recall that Kamla, a victim of slave trade, was 'sold' to a journalist for less than the price of a head of cattle. (In a film based on this episode actress Deepti Naval plays the role of Kamla.)
Ashwini Sarin was the Delhi-based Indian Express reporter who 'bought' Kamla at a market place in Dholpur to make a social statement - a woman is a thing money can buy. Never mind the UN Convention on political rights of woman, 1953. India's permanent representative at the UN Rajeshwar Dayal had boastfully declared then, "India had consistently stood for equal rights for women in all fields - political, social and economic.."
This was in May 1953. Well over two decades later we had this Delhi journalist who substantiated with evidence that there were places in India where women were offered for sale. Having made headlines with his story Ashwini had Kamla sent to 'Nari Niketan.' Nothing further was heard of her.
Ashwini could not have done what he did without the blessings of Ramnath Goenka, a press baron who could have told Rupert Murdoch a thing or two on how to promote newspapers. The reporter had the backing of Indian Express editors, notably Mr. Arun Shourie. The present communications minister was then a crusading journalist and pioneer in investigative reporting. The
planning and pursuit of the Kamla story, and, some said, even the style of writing, had the stamp of Arun Shourie.
Many leading lights in the media those days did not approve of Mr. Shourie's style of functioning. One could not imagine the Kamla story appearing in The Times of India under the editorship of Girilal Jain, or in the Hindustan Times under B. G. Varghese. When it comes to cheque-book journalism Arun Shourie was ahead of his times. The Kamla story was dismissed as a circulation gimmick by editors of many other papers.
But Ashwini became the envy of many of his peers in the media. I have heard reporters of better paid papers such as The Times of India and Hindustan Times saying they wished they could work for the Express. Indian Express those days did not pay its staff much but it gave more editorial leeway for its reporters. The Express editors were liberal with giving bylines to their reporters. Sarin became an overnight sensation with his Kamla coup.
Such a media sensation, in fact, that it prompted playwright Vijay Tendulkar to script a film on Sarin's exploits. It featured Shabana Azmi, Deepti Naval, A K Hangal and Marc Zuber. Deepti Naval played 'Kamla' and Zuber, the role of the hot-shot reporter. 'Kamla' was telecast recently in Sony Max.
Tendulkar's 'Kamla' is a newsman's slice-of-life drama, a glamorized one at that. The film is faithful to reality so far as the basics are concerned. Here is a New Delhi based journalist who ventures into Bundelhand tribal belt, 'buys' a woman at a 'shandy'
and presents her before journalists at the New Delhi Press Club. My problem with the film was its portrayal of journalists as a class of boozy high-flyers who lived in posh houses.
As Ashwini Sarin's contemporary in the media I can vouch for the fact that most Delhi reporters those days didn't draw even a four-figure salary. They lived in a Karolbagh 'barsathi' or modest flats in other outlying areas and bussed it to work on free travel
passes issued by the Delhi Administration.
As for the film's theme, men traded in women long before 'investigative' journalism became a trend and 'Kamla' made national headlines. And, predictably, the unscrupulous would continue doing it in Y3K, possibly, with a notable difference that the medium of exchange would be credit cards, rather than clumsy hard cash paid out in soiled notes. The message I get from Tendulkar's 'Kamla' is that those who champion a cause rarely stay the course and that murky politics and 'investigative' journalism thrive on prevalence of exploitation of women and other social injustices. Some individuals in public life and interest groups take up lofty causes to further their own agenda.
Watching this film on Sony Max the other day I wondered whatever happened to Kamla and how was Ashwini doing now. In the film Kamla 'disappears' from Nari Niketan (abducted by her folks). So does the records of her admission to the orphanage. The reporter, who counted on jump-starting his career advancement, gets the sack for having upset the newspaper owner in the pursuit of his political agenda.
An old colleague I e-mailed for a status report replied that Ashwini Sarin rose to be the Express chief reporter before leaving the paper in the mid-eighties. Married to a doctor Sarin lives in New Delhi and is believed to be doing well in business.
Kamla was sent to an orphanage in the old city, from where she disappeared a few weeks later. My friend Anil Saari, who had earlier interviewed Kamla for 'Sunday' magazine, says neither the Indian Express nor anyone else in the media cared to follow up on Kamla's disappearance.<p align=center>
GVK's Other Works [6] :: GVK's Archived Works [7] :: GVK's Profile [8]
