Journalist Ravish Kumar (Image: A screengrab from his official YouTube channel)
I am neither grandiloquent nor lachrymose over the NDTV journalist Ravish Kumar’s resignation. A time comes in many journalists’ careers when choosing self-respect over subservience becomes essential. It is that time for Ravish Kumar and quite hearteningly, if predictably, he chose self-respect over subservience.
Subservience to a journalist is like rust to iron bars. It bends them first and eventually breaks them. Nobody I can think of doubted that when push came to shove, he would push and shove back anything that pushed and shoved him. However, that is not unique to him, and he would agree readily. What is different about Ravish Kumar’s resignation is that it involves a high-profile, visually recognizable news anchor who became emblematic of the ever-narrowing space for independent media in India. Otherwise, many journalists and editors have chosen the path that he has before him without any fanfare or deification.
It is, of course, not Ravish Kumar’s fault that the TV screen has a way of magnifying what otherwise is part of a professional journalist’s job, namely professionally and without fear or favor presenting facts as they are. It is a simple principle. If the animal in front of you is a jackass, do not call it a lion. At least keep it within the same genus. This ought not to take a great deal of courage followed by a great deal of exultant praise and deification.
However, given the times we live in doing one’s job professionally and without fear or favor has become remarkable. For that society has much more to answer than an individual journalist.
Ravish Kumar’s resignation does not spell the end of precisely the kind of journalism he used to do on NDTV. His platform may change to YouTube, but his passion will remain the same. As of this morning, his channel Ravish Kumar Official has 1.16 million subscribers. Given his celebrity and popularity that number is expected to increase manifold. His departure from NDTV is not going to diminish his visibility and consequence. If anything, it frees him from the compulsions of television news as a business.
Having spent most of my forty plus years in print journalism, I am conscious that my reach is inherently limited as is the impact of what I write. Television accentuates both what one does and says as well as their consequence. YouTube may not be an anchor’s desk in a fancy studio where frenzied news teams run around during the broadcast hour with a sense of purpose, but its reach can be equally, if not more, wide.
I have zero interest in Ravish Kumar’s career choices post-NDTV but in so much as it means that he will continue to do what he so passionately loves, he will have many options. He has sensibly spoken about the dangers of the journalist becoming the story as it has happened in his case. To some extent it was inevitable since in India these days journalists doing their jobs professionally and without fear or favor has become a novelty. I am sure he would do his absolute best to ensure that as he charts a new course, he ceases to be the story.