The Hindu : Let's get back to business: Ram

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Nov 13, 2003

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Let's get back to business: Ram

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI NOV. 12. The Editor-in-Chief of The Hindu, N. Ram, said today that the decision to deploy the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) at the newspaper office could not be construed as a crisis of Centre-State relations.

Addressing a media conference, he said: "If this is a crisis — then nothing can help federalism in the country. This is a very specific narrow issue, in the sense very specific requests were made. ... It is a question of implementing the Supreme Court's order." All that the Centre had done was to respond, come immediately and decide to go ahead with the process of providing security based on a professional, expert threat assessment. The Hindu had not asked for Central security forces in the beginning, but did so only after the State police tried to create insecurity by standing outside the office and intimidating the staff.

While describing the statement of the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, as a good development, Mr. Ram said there were a couple of factual inaccuracies in it. First, he had not sought security for himself, but only for The Hindu and its staff. Secondly, apprehensions about the security of the five representatives of The Hindu had been expressed in the writ petitions filed in the Supreme Court.

But the main thing, he said, was the "positive development" of Ms. Jayalalithaa's statement saying that police would respect the Supreme Court orders staying the arrest of the five senior representatives of The Hindu and the Editor of Murasoli. Though her statement did not address the central question of the police action against The Hindu, it helped in the Chief of Bureau, V. Jayanth, gaining his freedom today. "I would compliment him for resourcefully keeping his liberty in the face of an unconstitutional and illegal police offensive. Not an ordinary offensive, but a real search."

What happened in the houses of Mr. Jayanth, the Editor, N. Ravi, the Executive Editor, Malini Parthasarathy, and the Publisher, S. Rangarajan, and in The Hindu office was a serious and grave issue, he said. The whole thing was planned for a weekend (to make it difficult for those sentenced to obtain bail), he said and in Bangalore too, he and the Joint Managing Director, N. Murali, were subjected to a rough experience by policemen from Tamil Nadu. When challenged, the policemen ran away like thieves after carrying out a crude gang-style interception, he said.

A factual report of the happenings had been prepared for being sent to the Centre. A copy could be given to Ms. Jayalalithaa, he said.

Mr. Ram said he did not want to continue to dwell on the issue. "I want to normalise. We want relations between the press, between The Hindu in particular, and the police and the State Government to be completely normal. Back to business. You may have your differences. But behave in a civil way, in a normal way. That is what we want to do."

Denying that he was blowing the issue out of proportion, he said he hoped that from today onwards the issue would die down. The Hindu did not want the issue to take up too much editorial space. But, it could not be expected to remain quiet in the face of an attack, he said.

Asked if he thought that the development was a climbdown for Ms. Jayalalithaa, Mr. Ram said that he did not want to answer in a way that would create any fresh controversy. "But in terms of sequence, it is clear that the assurance came after we sought Central security."

Asked what he thought was the message the Government intended to send by targeting The Hindu, he said the question should be addressed to the Government. "We want to get back to a normal mode so that we are able to deal with the Government, the Chief Minister in a professional way, in the normal way." The issue had diverted attention from various other matters. "We want to put this behind us."

To another question, Mr. Ram said a seminar was planned on the codification of legislative privileges as stated by the chairman of the Indian Newspaper Society, M.P. Veerendrakumar.

On the `X' scale of security provided to him, he said it was done at the time of the Chief Ministership of M. Karunanidhi, at the instance of the Union Home Ministry in view of the threat from the LTTE. "I don't want to be surrounded by security. It obstructs your work." But if there was an intelligence input on security threat, "it is your duty to cooperate." Tamil Nadu, he said, was completely safe from the LTTE during the period of Jayalalithaa in particular. "That is my understanding."

Mr. Jayanth, who was also at the media conference, thanked the management, his colleagues, and the entire media fraternity. "Now that they have seen what the response will be, I hope better sense prevails."

What happened to him was illegal and unconstitutional and he had not felt like a fugitive, he said. "My conscience was very clear. I was fighting for the freedom of the press and for The Hindu."

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