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24 February 2005
The boy from Ballia
Newspapers and weblogs alike are abuzz with reports of the NASA hoax foisted by an ingenious family in Uttar Pradesh. The boy, Saurabh Singh claimed to have passed the International Scientist Discovery Examination organised by NASA. At first the story was played around on local media. Soon afterwards, papers nationwide picked it up and Saurabh Singh was a rock star overnight. A couple of days following the story, a Rediff reporter decided perhaps to glean more information about the examination itself and contacted NASA and found NASA denying the existence of such an examination. Of course, that was enough time for the packdogs at Indian Express and Times of India to churn out their publicity blitz about the boy. The Indian Express did it best with a blow-by-blow account of the boy's exploits. It starts off with a sneak preview:But Saurabh is still upset that he missed out on a world record. His result speaks for itself: Aeronautics-A++; Physical Chemistry-A++; Organic Chemistry-A++; Magnetism-A++. Then the horror. He scored a mere A+ for Electronics and he is furious with himself. (Emphasis added)and follows it up with a melodramatic opening:
It is a compelling tale that must, of course, begin with a brilliant boy, just five feet four inches tall, who is still working out physics formulae under the dim bulb and who thought nothing of studying 16 to 18 hours a day for months.By this time, the creative juices are in flow and the spin doctor begins to sound like Nirmal Shekhar when he writes about Federer (and wrote about Sampras) -- "the story is incomplete without his father... it cannot ignore a certain Reena Singh" who "herself made sure that she sharpened Saurabh's English language skills." Says she: "The children here are oozing with talent and just require some motivation". Yes sir, in Ballia. There is the pinch of authenticity and jingoistic appeal: "when NASA chief Sean O'Keefe asked Saurabh a question on English grammar, he gave the right answer - even though replied in Hindi and conveyed it through an interpreter. "The NASA chief applauded," says Saurabh". The icing on the cake though comes from the real facts, "Each member of the UP Legislative Council has now promised to donate a day's salary to help Saurabh. His own idol, President Kalam, has expressed a desire to meet him." Times of India was no worse, though less muted and more attuned to sticking to the facts they covered the story from the UP Legislative Assembly angle. The Assembly had decided to "honour" the boy during session -- something reserved only for the rarest occasion, with an immediate compensation of Rs. 300,000 announced and an additional Rs. 1000 coming from a Samajwadi Party leader.
Then, the bubble burst. Following the Rediff story, and to the credit of the Indian media, the downfall was equally spectacular. Rediff in particular was not to be outdone. Rather sadistically, they quoted anybody who spoke to them and wildly asserted to the authenticity of the examination. This brings back to the table the low and fallen standards of journalism in India. Granted that the incident was good fodder for local newspapers in and around Ballia to pipe, it defies comprehension how the system of checks and balances crumbles when it comes to the national media. But then again, with the sometimes notable exception of The Hindu most have given in to running cheap, tabloidal material and stories of gargantuan accomplishments like excelling in a NASA-conducted examination in rather trying circumstances like living in an unknown cranny in a state that is only marginally shy of its neighbour in the east when it comes to criminalised politics automatically get a thumbs up -- lay on all the hyperbole, forget all the fact-checking, serve it in dollops to the teeming crowds that fulfil their commitment to the country by gloating, congratulating and snubbing. And why not? For is it not in the same vein, that cricket in India also derives its existence -- in the delusional sense of achievement and nationalism of its many patrons? It makes perfect business sense then to pander to these as therein lies your market -- the anxious parents who will sign their wards up for yet more coaching classes as more mushroom under the International Scientist Discovery Examination umbrella, the unthinking twenty-somethings huddled in call centres who find an outlet to vent their spite at their employers and callers alike and no doubt the politicians who would have canvassed the boy's feat as a mirror of their own promises.
What needs to change is the lack of accountability. The absence of peer pressure and the absence of true competition as each newspaper magnate carves a geographical sector of its own where it dominates have instilled a sense of complacency in the Indian media. To eliminate this cavalier anything-goes attitude, I am now increasingly led to believe that it needs to be instilled with a dose of strong free-market principles -- clamp down on the monopolies, bring in more players (domestic or foreign) and impose stiff penalties on flagrant violations of a basic code of journalistic ethics.
