BUT CAN THESE PAPPUS EDIT HINDUSTAN TIMES? The country was basking in the first individual gold medal that Abhinav Bindra had won.
I open the Hindustan Times and find a picture of the President putting her hand on the cheek of Abhinav – a poignant picture that told so many stories.
Of how the Indian State totally ignores sportsmen but should one of them do well, it is quick to claim credit. Suddenly so many foster mothers are created from nowhere, condescendingly accepting success of the individual as their own. The President’s picture was symbolic of a government and its officials who do nothing but are quick to claim success as their own.
Yet what was the caption that Hindustan Times gave? It wrote a ghastly caption, something like “This pappu can shoot.” The title borrowed the idea from a popular movie at that time, and tried to belittle our champion. Which was not surprising, because all that Hindustan Times seems to be doing these days is to write copy which they think is clever but actually falls flat.
I am no fan of Indian newspapers, but suddenly The Times of India seems to be gaining ground. Of the bunch of papers that I get everyday, it is the TOI that tends to get picked up first. Pappu journalists cannot liftthe Hindustan Times from its reputation of being a Punjabi paper written in English.