Sonu Nigam Vs Subhash K Jha

I have always been an ardent advocate of free press. And consequently, I have always loathed the fact that all our so-called top media houses use their well-entrenched network to promote their affiliates (for want of a better word), and vilify their opposition. Some of our most revered newspapers are believed to be unofficial mouthpieces of various political parties. With the advent of 24/7 news channels, the use of media as a tool to promote one's self has only increased several folds. Amidst all these developments, the neutral observer has been left in the dark. The dream of Free and Fair Press seems to remain just that. A dream.

On another tangent, the power of “free press” has been conveniently abused by certain journalists to the extent that they even resort to threatening their victims of a public vilification if the victims don’t comply with their demands. In many ways, this is tantamount to the extortion business that the D-company and the likes have been running for so long, except that the impending damages in this case are more social than physical.

The recent incident of popular singer Sonu Nigam openly accusing reputed film journalist Subhash K Jha of harassment is a classic case in point. Sonu accused Jha of using national press to vilify and criticize him for not complying with Jha’s “homosexual” overtures. Read the whole letter here and here.

Subhash Jha is a very well known journalist in the film industry, and claims to have close personal equations with several top Bollywood personalities, most notably the Bacchan clan, including Aishwarya Rai Bacchan who he cites as his favorite in several of his columns. He is known to promote the people that he personally is friends with, and lambaste everyone else. Among his hate list are top stars such as Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan etc. He is also widely believed to wield significant clout in the industry, and is therefore, considered to be a “Godfather” for budding heroines and, more specifically, heroes.

Sonu claims to have saved the various lewd SMSs that Jha had sent him, expressing his love for the singer, and has appealed to the national media house that employs Jha’s services to take appropriate action against the vengeful scribe. The choice of words in the letter seemed really crafty, where Sonu has carefully ensured that he doesn’t distance his homosexual fans but at the same time he has put his point across that he is not one among them.

As I googled a bit more, I found that Jha is not new to controversies. He was recently found guilty by a film forum of plagiarizing an interview with Quentin Tarantino from a non-commercial blog without giving due credit to the original publisher. When caught, Jha responded with an abusive letter mentioning that he did not know that the interview was published previously on the blog. Interestingly, he didn’t mention where he got the interview transcript from if he didn’t look it up from the blog whose owner actually conducted the interview. Read the entire episode here and here.

To further add credibility to Sonu’s allegations, several other members from the film fraternity have also come out with statements against Jha. Music director Ismail Darbar, who is known to shoot his mouth indiscreetly, called Jha a “third rate journalist” while singer Abhijeet has also come out in open support of Sonu.

It will be interesting to watch how this episode pans out in the days to come. Jha is believed to be considering filing a defamation suit against Sonu, and has even questioned Sonu’s audacity in writing such a letter to him. Interestingly, just a couple of years ago, Jha was known to wax eloquent about Sonu Nigam’s singing and, believe it or not, his acting prowess. Such unabashed praise for Sonu’s acting skills is a dead giveaway about Jha’s ulterior motives. And when Sonu didn’t reciprocate, Jha became a smitten lover, and started to use his pen to abuse the same Sonu that he almost revered till then.

With such irresponsible journalists ruling the roost, freedom of press might seem a very dangerous tool. It gives these power-hungry scribes the right to abuse anyone without any consequences. As it is, our country’s press is run mostly by political parties. If several such incidents occur repeatedly, even the fictitious perception of free press might be revoked.
To ensure such an eventuality does not occur, the online blogger communities and forums should come together actively, and ensure that press, while being free, is also regulated, not by a government body or by an act of law, but by the people who consume the news themselves.