A daring investigative journalism

Gujarat Files: Anatomy of a Cover-Up (2016)

Author: Rana Ayyub

On one hand, she is celebrated as an exceptional journalist at the Washington Post and has received numerous awards for her courageous reporting of breaking news. On the other hand, she is labelled public enemy number one. The Indian courts accuse her of insulting Hindu deities and inciting racial discord, and there is even an ongoing trial concerning the misappropriation of public funds.

For background information, the cover-up in Gujarat referenced in the book pertains to the events that followed the Godhra train burning incident in 2002. In February 2002, 59 Hindu pilgrims returning from Ayodhya lost their lives in a train blaze. Multiple commissions failed to ascertain the true cause of the disaster. The Mehta-Nanavati report was employed to convict 31 Muslims for the train burning.

Communal riots erupted shortly after the fire. For years, the then Chief Minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi, and his party members faced allegations of orchestrating the riots. Repeated election victories seemed to strengthen public confidence in Modi's non-involvement. Nevertheless, the Western media continued their efforts to undermine Modi and the BJP's reputation, often disparaging them before major general elections through publications such as the BBC and its affiliates.

Following the riot, the police initiated a wave of arrests, and several high-profile police staged encounters occurred in Gujarat between 2003 and 2006. Rumours spread that these deaths were orchestrated by right-wing politicians, specifically Modi and Amit Shah. At one point, Amit Shah was also apprehended for his involvement in the staged encounters.

For approximately eight months, from 2010 to 2011, Rana Ayyub, who was then employed by Tehelka, went undercover as an American documentary maker. She adopted a fictitious Hindu name, Mthali Tyagi, complete with Sanskrit credentials. Accompanied by her purported cameraman, a 19-year-old French student named Mike, she conducted a sinister mission to interview various figures directly involved in the notorious fake encounters, employing her camera and, later, a concealed recording device when they wished to speak off the record.

With her charisma and the Indian public's susceptibility to foreigners, NRIs, and "goras", Ayyub successfully obtained recommendations by conducting counter-references to interview high-ranking police officers, intelligence officers, anti-terrorist squad personnel, former MPs, and even former Commissioners of Police in succession. Many of the interviewees have since retired, and while some were initially somewhat hesitant to open up, they eventually relented.

Rana Ayyub
https://tcij.org/person/rana-ayyub/

Through her research, she uncovers a significant amount of misconduct within the police force. Some individuals were conscientious and performed their duties diligently, without fear or favour. Nevertheless, a culture of subservience to both superiors and politicians prevailed. Rana suggested that police officers exhibited discrimination against their peers from lower castes. The extra-judicial killings carried out under the guise of police encounters were executed with indifference, according to her. Rana Ayyub, in so many words, implies that Modi is the mastermind behind the unrest in Gujarat, with Amit Shah as his trusted aide who carries out all his orders.

As her sting operation draws to a close, Rana Ayyub manages to secure an interview with Narendra Modi himself. However, the book concludes abruptly afterwards, leaving the outcome of the interview unexplored.

Ayyub's audacious attempt to uncover the root of the unrest in Gujarat raises ethical questions about such an operation. Betraying people's trust, exploiting their vulnerability, and inserting oneself into their lives under a false persona may not be moral. However, individuals are unlikely to volunteer information without prompting. This encapsulates the essence of investigative journalism; one cannot solely rely on official statements.

Whatever Ayyub attempted to unleash has evidently yielded no results. As time has shown, Modi must be doing something right. The BJP's successive victories in elections, its popularity, the current state of the economy, and the general mood of its citizens suggest that India is on the right trajectory. One must consider the broader context. However, checks and balances remain essential. 

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Thick as thieves?

The Post (2017)

The ongoing saga involving the former seemingly unassailable Prime Minister of Malaysia and its sovereign fund is a stark reminder that the world is ruled by an unholy union of politicians who conned the public, bankers who finance the whole fiasco, lawmakers who put a legal jargon to all these. Trailing them are a thick band of thieves, yeomen, hyenas and a slew of servants who would die or kill for their cause under the banner of nationalism. Depending on the setting, servants of God would get their hands dirty in the cookie jar to give a divine seal to all these shenanigans. 

In an environment of each wanting to fend for himself, in a world where 'The Truth' does not always prevail, and victors decide justice, the losers are the general public. Repeatedly the laypeople fall prey to the 'powers' of the day's sweet promises. In pursuit of happiness, they sacrifice my sweat, blood and tears.

They say we, the people, choose our leaders and the fate of our country. The politicians are at our mercy and not the other way around. But, increasingly, opposers to the status quo are cowed into submission by fear of harm and lost opportunities. The ongoing 1MDB trial opened the putrid cane of worms where civil servants are treated as lapdogs and rubber stamps for the ruling party. Amongst all these traitors emerge a lowly administrative officer, Nor Salwani Muhammad, who had the foresight to slip a recording device in her superior's pencil box to record certain vital proceedings.

I don't know him!

In a civil society, the last bastion of hope seems to be the media, the third force of resistance. Even that is a threat in many authoritarian societies. Press is no longer the purveyor of the truth but increasingly become mouthpieces of their financial masters.

The Washington Post is usually associated with the Watergate Scandal and Nixon's subsequent resignation as the US President. In 1966, an American State Department military analyst felt that the USA was misleading the public by convincing them that the war in Vietnam was proceeding well when, in reality, things were pretty bleak. The thought of the unassuming public sending their youngsters to be slaughtered in tropics pricked his conscience. The analyst decided to go public with documents that would prove the hypocrisy of three decades of US administration (post WW2) that had been hoodwinking the American public.

Even though it was first exposed to the New York Times, the filmmakers decided to tell the story from the viewpoint of the Washington Post who was struggling with a lady leading the helm as its publisher. The Post was the second newspaper that was approached to publish after the AG office shut down publications of the New York Times for articles deemed threatening national security.

The Post, a political thriller, shows the trials and tribulations of the journalists trying to fight for free speech, The First Amendment. After the mumbo-jumbo of legal threat and repercussions from the Nixon administration, the Supreme Court decided to allow printing of the controversial news. Its justification was that the papers worked for the governed, not the governor!

Lesson learnt: The citizens decide the path of the country. Its leaders should lead their subjects towards this end. They serve the public, not themselves or some uncertain promise of the future. It is difficult, however, when the people are lulled and stupefied by years of indoctrination and self-aggrandisement.

https://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/503023

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Follow the money...

All the President's Men (1976)

It pains to hear the trend of interviews that our reporters pursue as they are invited to a press conference. The questions posed appear so timid and lacked the incisive power to tease out the right information. Quite so often the interviewees wrap them around their fingers and control their strings. The reporters end up as stenographers, but when their reportings draw flak, the respondents would claim that they were misquoted.

Now with the hustle and bustle that had hit our land with allegations of misappropriations of funds and other wrongdoings, one is compelled to think that reporters would have a field day, scooping information here and there with the plethora of information available in cyberspace. Unfortunately, it is business as usual. Just another day in paradise.


This 1976 film is about the success story in the field of investigative journalism. What started as a routine reporting on a break-in into the Democratic Office by burglars opened a can of worms that eventually forced President Nixon to step down. Reporters Woodward (Robert Redford) and Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman) smelled a rat when the burglars had past employment with the CIA. With in-depth inside information from their reluctantly anonymous informant 'Deep Throat', they track a trail of money that led them all the way to coffers in high places. They soon realise that that the whole government machinery is hoodwinked to cover the path. The entire system which was set up to take care of the welfare of the majority is streamlined to protect the select few. Hey, I thought it heard this story quite recently! Well, history has the unsavoury habit of repeating itself, and we forget quickly.

Woodward and Bernstein had the shield of the First Amendment of the US Constitution of freedom of speech, and their weapons were the legal system, supportive backing and responsive public who were not content with just passing the buck but went a step further by pushing the envelope.

Attempt in futility

True Story (2015)

Bumped into this story as I was checking on the second season of 'True Stories'.  Initially, the movie was getting interesting as a mass murderer is arrested with a pseudonym that of the protagonist of the film, Michael Finkel (Jonah Hill). Finkel is an award winning journalist with the New York Times who was fired from his job for being untruthful in his reporting. As he was brooding in his misery in a secret hideaway in the wilderness, he is informed of this case.

He decides to visit the inmate. Hence starts a series of interview with a disturbed man, Christian Longo (James Franco) who killed his wife and three children. Finkel gets absorbed into the man's story and is convinced that he may be a victim of circumstance.

After that, the story becomes draggy and uninteresting as Longo, in his soft hypnotic dialogues, makes the film a bore to watch. In his actual trial, the accused tells his feats of killing his family to the jury. It appears as if the killer is actually just clamouring for attention and Finkel is just a pawn in his endeavour.

The whole feat of watching the film is attempt in futility - waste of time, time better spent sleeping.

Today's news, tomorrow's thrash!

Ace in the Hole (a.k.a The Big Carnival; 1951)
Director: Billy Wilder

This must be one of the first movies that take a swipe at the evil of the media and the way they exploit the situation with only one intention on their mind, for financial gains. That is all. The apparent concern and empathy is all just show. Even though the media helps to showcase to the world, it has its own personal agenda. Put in Kirk Douglas, a smirk journalist with an attitude problem and some punchy line and you have it- a blockbuster which is eternally carved in the annals of time as a great film.

Chuck Tatum (Kirk Douglas), lands in an Albuquerque newspaper office after thrown out disgracefully of many papers back in the East. He is dreaming of a break which would put him at par with a Pulitzer winner. He dreams on.

He is sent to cover a rattlesnake show. En route to the venue, at a stopover for petrol, Chuck and his rookie photographer hear about a cave-in at an Indian reservation site. The owner of the petrol station, Leo, is trapped. The reservation area is filled with stories of curse and superstitions. Grabbing their chance,  Chuck and his assistant report the story and hog the headlines for the next few days. They manage to garner the attention of people from miles away.
Leo's wife, Lorraine, is a bored ex-waitress at a nightclub joint which is tied down by an unfulfilling marriage. She cannot wait to scoot off from all these and be in the midst of the bright of the city once again. She thinks that this is her chance, but Chuck talks her into staying put and act as an anxious wife at least for the media.

As Leo lays trapped in ruins, the popularity of the run-down town soars.
A corrupt power crazy Sheriff uses this opportunity to improve his chances for re-election. Actually, the idea was given by Chuck!

Lorraine is not complaining either. Her small cafe had not ever seen so much business. Somebody even starts collecting money at the reservation site. Scores of busloads and trainloads of people join in the fracas while Leo stays trapped and is slowly dying. Even the circus comes to town! A rescue fund is launched.

On the sly, Chuck gets exclusive rights to visit Leo in the cave and the rights to the story. He holds his office at ransom and throws his weight around. To drag on the story, he manages to convince the unsure rescue worker the longer way to get the victim, just so that the rescue mission and the story stays on longer!
As the story goes on and Leo's life is in a limbo hanging by a thread, he sees the love that Leo has for his wife and how his wife does not care a damn about him. Chuck realises his own mistake and tries to make amends...

A gripping tale which was based on real events.
The lesson that one can learn at the end is that no one actually cares what turns out for others. All they are interested in is their own agenda. And churning money and making a business out of everything in spite of your misery while appearing to sympathise and empathise to your predicament. Beware, it may be fake. People who seem too good to be true may not just be!

Quotable quote...
It's a good story today. Tomorrow, it'll be yesterday's news and they'll wrap a fish in it.

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