Author: Seema Mustafa
Publication: The Asian Age
Date: September 21, 2006
The Prime Minister's media adviser, Dr Sanjaya
Baru, has in the decided view of nuclear scientists and senior former diplomats
overstepped his authority in deriding those who have been critical of policy
drafted and executed directly under Dr Manmohan Singh.
He has sent an email to former diplomat G.
Parthasarathy wishing him luck in continuuing his career with the BJP, even
as he has singled out former senior officials Satish Chandra and B. Raman
for acting under the directions of former national security adviser Brajesh
Mishra and Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi.
The email addressed to Mr Parthasarathy was
also sent to several other diplomats and officials by Dr Baru and is now in
wide circulation, with copies having reportedly been sent to Mr Mishra as
well. Dr Baru was responding to an email that had attached to it an article
by Mr B. Raman, former additional secretary in the Cabinet Secretariat, criticising
the joint terror mechanism agreed to by Dr Manmohan Singh and Pakistan President
Gen. Pervez Musharraf. In the process he sent his reply to Mr Parthasarathy
to 20 other officials and journalists as well.
The Prime Minister's media adviser wrote:
"This so-called piece by Raman is utter nonsense (the last two words
in capital letters). For two years people have been betraying the Prime Minister
as an innocent babe in the woods ... but he has gone from strength to strength.
That such criticism should come from those close to Brajesh (former national
security adviser) and Modi (Gujarat chief minister) - guys like Satish Chandra
(former ambassador) and Ram and the new Modi think tank. Good luck in your
new political career with the BJP...."
Mr Parthasarathy sent a reply which is also
in circulation, in which he said he did not realise that a journalist could
metamorphose into a bureaucrat at such a fast pace. He said that criticism
did not mean that everyone was a "BJP closet wallah", and that Dr
Baru could not deal with this by "throwing tantrums". The senior
envoy with decades of experience reminded the journalist-turned-adviser that
he had no political interests and that he should be prepared for more broadsides.
Dr Baru was also on television recently hitting out at former bureaucrats
critical of the joint terror mechanism with Pakistan as "politicians".
Former nuclear scientists, who had earlier
been at the receiving end of what many of them told this correspondent was
a virtual campaign unleashed by Dr Baru and the PMO questioning their credentials,
have actually sent out messages to the above officials welcoming them to "the
club". The former nuclear scientists had been particularly agitated over
the charges being levelled against them, but as these were all "off the
record" they were unable to take up the issue publicly.
Dr Baru has been consistent in targeting journalists.
Apart from SMS messages to select correspondents who questioned the Prime
Minister on policy, he crossed all barriers for the journalist community when
he wrote a letter to editors asking them to direct correspondents covering
the PMO on how to behave. One, they should not stage demonstrations in pursuit
of news at the Prime Minister's Office or residence; two, they should be courteous
to the officials and the staff deployed there; three, that instructions had
been issued by him that only PIB accredited journalists should be allowed
to stand outside the Prime Minister's residence. He suggested to editors that
journalists using foul language with the staff should either be transferred
out of the PMO beat or their PIB accreditation be withdrawn. Or, conversely,
he himself was prepared to report such instances to the editor, so that the
necessary disciplinary action was taken against the reporter concerned.
The Delhi Union of Journalists (DUJ) issued
a strong statement against the letter, maintaining that the tone was "threatening
and ominous and does not take into account the role of the local journalist
on duty outside the PMO in search of reactions and additional non-official
news." Taking serious note of Dr Baru's letter, DUJ president S.K. Pande
said that the threat to cancel accreditation was reminiscent of the Emergency
days, constituting a "clear attempt to browbeat independent and hence
inconvenient journalists who refuse to toe the government line."
