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Since much of India's mainstream media and the corporate sector is rather gung-ho about Narendra Modi becoming the country's next Prime Minister, here's a contrary point of view on why the Gujarat Chief Minister may not be able to fulfil his ambition. This article argues that the road ahead for the Bharatiya Janata Party and its prime ministerial candidate is going to be far from smooth. The chances of the BJP obtaining close to, or more than 200 seats in the next Lok Sabha is far from certain...

Given the allegations of financial misdemeanour against New Delhi Television Limited, the question arises as to whether the media group is being persecuted. Highly-placed sources in NDTV certainly believe they are, that too by individuals close to the Sangh Parivar. On April 8, 2013, during the "Think India Dialogue" organized by the Network18 group -- headed by Raghav Behl and financially supported by Mukesh Ambani's group and which is NDTV's rival -- Gujarat Chief Minister and the BJP's prime...

A serious allegation levelled by Indian Revenue Service officer S.K. Srivastava against the management of New Delhi Television Limited is that the company bribed an Income Tax officer, Sumana Sen, to allegedly influence the Income Tax Department’s assessment of NDTV’s income. Sen’s husband, Abhisar Sharma was employed with NDTV as a senior journalist. Was there a case of conflict of interest in Sen handling the tax assessments of NDTV? Were Sharma and Sen "bribed" in the form of trips to Europe...

This story is a slew of claims and counter-claims, with allegations of financial misdemeanour, money laundering and tax evasion flying thick and fast. The dramatis personae includes two political heavyweights one of whom is a cabinet minister, one of the country’s best know TV personalities who is owner of a media company, a controversial income tax official with an arrest warrant against him and two of his female colleagues accusing him of slander. Behind the allegations levelled last December...

The Indian economy is currently in bad shape, some would even say in a pretty perilous state, despite all the optimistic claims being made by government spokespersons, more of which will undoubtedly be made by Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram when he presents his government's vote-on-account in lieu of an annual budget in the Lok Sabha on February 17. The annual rate of growth of the country's gross domestic product shows no signs of rising above the 4.5-5 per cent mark. Investor...

A year that has seen a record number of working journalists lose their jobs ended with a high court setting a significant precedent. In what is a unique judicial intervention, a vacation judge of the Madras High Court at Chennai issued an interim injunction restraining the management of New Generation Media Corporation Private Limited from acting on a letter served on 35-odd employees asking them to either accept a sharp cut in remuneration or leave the company. The injunction will at least...

The Tamil Nadu-based Sri Ramaswamy Memorial (SRM) group has decided to indefinitely postpone the launch of its English television news channel. Consequently, 40-odd employees of group company, New Generation Media Corporation Private Limited, have been verbally told to leave their jobs or accept a drastic cut in salaries. Quite a few of these employees, some of whom had been waiting for a year and a half for the launch of the television channel, are predictably upset with the terms under which...

It seems the Election Commission of India is the only body in the country that is seriously trying to combat the pernicious practice of "paid news". If other organizations, including organizations that claim to represent the interests of journalists and other media professionals, played a more proactive role in curbing this corrupt practice, the phenomenon of masquerading advertisements as news could be curtailed to some extent. This is unfortunately not happening at a significant pace. On 3...

When gods have feet of clay, even believers become atheists. Tarun Tejpal, just over 50, used to be an iconic figure in Indian journalism. He was a man who led a media organisation which shook a government, unseated influential officials, broke new ground in investigative journalism using sting operations, and championed causes in favour of the underprivileged. Today he has been disgraced and humiliated, accused by his young daughter's close friend and his employee of sexual assault and abuse of...

Hartosh Singh Bal, political editor of Open, was served a notice of termination of employment on Wednesday November 13, 2013. The weekly is published by Open Media Network Pvt Ltd, a company in the RP-Sanjiv Goenka group headed by industrialist Sanjiv Goenka. Goenka has reportedly wanted Manu Joseph, the editor of the publication, to remove Bal from his position for quite some time now. Joseph resisted but finally gave in to "rebuild his relationship with the owner" and "push through an...