Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: Notesfiles $Revision: 1.7.0.10 $; site waltz Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxn!ihnp4!inuxc!pur-ee!uiucdcs!convex!waltz!dsouza From: dsouza@waltz Newsgroups: net.nlang.india Subject: Rajiv and the Media Message-ID: <40800012@waltz> Date: Mon, 28-Oct-85 15:43:00 EST Article-I.D.: waltz.40800012 Posted: Mon Oct 28 15:43:00 1985 Date-Received: Sun, 10-Nov-85 08:06:18 EST Lines: 35 Nf-ID: #N:waltz:40800012:000:1847 Nf-From: waltz!dsouza Oct 28 14:43:00 1985 The Washington Post annually publishes a list of "ins" and "outs" for the year. For 1985, India was in and China was out. Suddenly, it had become fashionable to talk about India, be aware -- even feebly -- of India, and to have seen "Gandhi", "A Passage to India" and "Jewel in The Crown" (yuck). I think after all this and after the spate of stories (gruesome and otherwise) from India in 1984, it has become fashionable in the media to do stories on India. Particularly since the year ended with the election of a young leader with a photogenic wife and family. Shades of the torch being passed to a new generation of Indians? I don't think the analogy is at all far fetched. Mrs Gandhi was certainly perceived as a visionary world leader (with no basis in fact, but we'll let that pass). But she had been around for ages and had less and less newsworthiness as far as the Western media was concerned. Except, of course, when she died. Rajiv, on the other hand, is doing his best to represent youth and dynamism; his hi-tech leanings seem to indicate possibilities of Western leanings...why shouldn't he get a lot of attention from the media? He is having a very easy time of it, though. Closer attention to what he does and says will show that he is not so very different from his mother -- the same pro-Soviet, anti-US pronouncements, the same evasiveness when faced by tough questions (did you see him on Nightline or Meet the Press some months ago?), and the same intolerance of opposition criticism (witness the banning of the CFD report on Punjab and the arrest of its authors). I think his honeymoon with the press should (and will) end soon and then we will begin to see tougher reports about him and less of these "Oh he's such a great guy" kind of articles. And it will be about time, Dilip D'Souza. TI/Austin. dsouza@ti-csl.