Help
“Help me if you can, I’m feeling down…Won’t you please, please help me….’’
These words from The Beatles’ 1965 song run through my mind while reading the mail to the Readers’ Editor. In the past few months, readers have written in with requests for a helping hand — please, would you raise awareness on the “non-compliance” of University Grants Commission orders, please give coverage to the “unfair” prelims question papers in the UPSC examinations, please ask Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited why it has no staff to address complaints…
There’s more: Please find out why the results of bank exams conducted in March 2023 have not been released (this was July 2023), please write about the terrible fire in Maui Island, please focus attention on the “shortage” of drugs in the Jan Aushadhi Kendra in Odisha….and could you, please, do something about the appalling condition of NH 709B?
And then there’s this — “Please! Hey, us!!”
“I beg you with folded hands, requesting you to take this email of mine seriously and save our money from sinking…’’ wrote an anguished reader who claims that Rs 16,000 crore belonging to 22 lakh investors is “stuck’’ in a cooperative society.
Let me pause now. There have been many such pleas for assistance. The faith readers have expressed in ThePrint’s ability to help them is both touching and humbling. It’s also a little intimidating: Can we live up to their expectations?
This month, the Readers’ Editor column is dedicated to what readers want from ThePrint or have to say about it.
While the requests for ThePrint’s intervention are a reflection of reader confidence, they also sound like cries of despair from restive, frustrated people who turn to the media as their last resort. Their message is loud and clear: Hey, pay attention to us.
For instance, several students of the National Institute of Technology, Silchar, were, as one of them said, extremely concerned about the reported suicide of another student and hoped their “grievances will be heard”.
But is anyone listening? Or have we, as a society, become hard of hearing?
Also read: No internet, high propaganda—ThePrint got you Manipur stories through dictation & SMS
EVMs, UFOs, elections
At ThePrint, editors and correspondents frequently travel across India to write about people and governance. In granular, in-depth reports, they try to reflect reality, far away from the glittering lights of metropolitan India.
The public wants its problems addressed, but it also wants to have its say. A large number of readers have written in with lengthy comments. They have submitted articles for publication on a wide range of topics—the basic structure of the Constitution; studies that say the Hindu period was one of “stagnation”; One Nation, One Election; efficient EVMs; faulty EVMs; Opposition’s futile protests against EVMs…yes, this is a subject that really exercised our readers.
They have offered opinions on “UFO spotted in India”, why the “existence of Israel is important to India”, how “India needs to be united and integrated more”, why reservation ought not to be denied to Muslim Dalits, “Russia-Ukraine conflict getting more complex: Is Russia dependent on India?”, and how the video of women allegedly raped during the violence in Manipur was “deeply unsettling”. The articles I receive are passed on to the Opinion section for consideration — several reader submissions have appeared on the website — or to ThePrint’s ‘YourTurn’ section that publishes articles by ThePrint subscribers.
Also read: ThePrint Ground Reports go beyond breaking news, tell stories that are being buried
What readers want us to do
Next up from readers: Suggestions. “Give YourTurn more prominence” was one. Others range from very simple suggestions — “I wish you had an app for a tablet or mobile”— to slightly loaded ones: “Why Sekhar (sic) Gupta is obsessed with Punjab?…Tell him to write about topics other than Punjab and Pakistan”. Another: “Please tell Print editors to not promote but fight the caste narrative…”
One gentleman wants us to write about the “Unsung Heroes of Amarnath Yatra” (sanitation workers), a woman asked us to profile a “heroine”—the mother of two who is something of a swimming champion. Another reader wanted us to investigate why certain banks charged one per cent after five ATM withdrawals, while someone else thought we ought to explore a new electoral voting system whereby first past the post is replaced by a candidate winning the majority of votes—now, there’s an idea!
There were suggestions on how to eliminate “revdi” culture, how to write about communalism, “student anxiety”, “stray dog menace”, and more practical ideas on ThePrint’s videos needing more graphic illustrations and photographs with the otherwise excellent ground report on Indore.
Paying close attention
Is there renewed interest in journalism as a career? I ask this because we received several applications from young aspirants — in fact, I was surprised by the number.
There are young people out there who argue that they can “make a difference” by becoming journalists — and that’s a running theme through the messages. Then again, am I reading too much into it? Is this simply about needing jobs?
Well, take your pick: I would like to believe young people appreciate the need for good journalism; let’s hope I am right.
We have now arrived at the point where ThePrint comes in for critical comments. We were pulled up for grammatical mistakes, errors in translating articles from English to Hindi, publishing incorrect names. One from the Korean Cultural Centre for a statement in an article that said “people from the Korean embassy” were rescued from a fire in a Gurugram flat, when these were “people from the Korean Association”.
Also, technical glitches continue to irritate readers — one even terminated his subscription for this reason.
In the past two years, readers have often identified ThePrint as a supporter of anti-Hindu viewpoints, so it was unusual to be accused of promoting “Right wing’ views by one reader. Another felt we paid far too much attention to “Sima from Pakistan” — Seema Haider, the Pakistani woman who crossed over into India to be with her Indian paramour. A regular Readers’ Editor correspondent was angered by commentator Vir Sanghvi’s views on Udayanidhi Stalin’s “hate speech’’ regarding Sanatan Dharma.
To offset these, there were compliments for columnists Swasti Rao (“wonderful’’), Jaithirth Rao (“outstanding”), ThePrint’s Associate Editor Neelam Pandey’s interview with BJP leader Uma Bharti (“brilliant”), fandom for Cut the Clutter with ThePrint’s Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta, and for a column on Sri Lanka by Jyoti Malhotra.
Let’s end on a lighthearted note: Here is the most unusual mail I have received this year. It concerns a very popular Indian preoccupation — marriage. “Welcoming & Inviting all the international men & women across the world to come to India, to date & marry compactible (sic) Indian men & women as their spouse….Cross breeding or mating with different interracial, culture & ethnicity groups will lead to intelligent and talented individuals as per statistics & surveys….”
Last Sunday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged rich Indians to hold their weddings in India. It seems ThePrint reader read the PM’s Mann ki Baat?
Shailaja Bajpai is ThePrint’s Readers’ Editor. Please write in with your views, complaints to readers.editor@theprint.in
(Edited by Humra Laeeq)