(MENAFN- Asia Times) “Live as brave men; and if fortune is adverse, front its blows with brave hearts.” – Horatius Cocles
In the 6th century BC, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, aka Tarquin the Proud, ruled Rome. He did not treat his people fairly and they became fed up with him and threw him out. Tarquin appealed to Lars Porsena of Clusium, the most powerful king in Etruscan Italy, to help him take back Rome. Porsena sent a message to the Romans saying they should accept Tarquin as their king, and when they refused, he declared war on them.
But Rome lies on the banks of the River Tiber. To reach Rome, Porsena's army needed to cross a wooden bridge.
horatius cocles was a junior officer charged with guarding the bridge, and when he realized the Roman army was in full retreat, he moved to block the Etruscans and defend the span. Looking at the size of their army, Horatius told his soldiers,“You should go ahead with your job of taking down the bridge at this end. I will go back to the other end and stop the enemy.” And with two more senior officers, Spurius Larcius and Titus Herminius Aquilinus, he stayed on the bridge to fight them.
According to legend, all Rome watched as Horatius defended the span, quilled with arrows and stabbed by spears, until at last the bridge was sufficiently sabotaged that neither the Etruscans nor Horatius could cross. The city had been defended and the enemy army waylaid thanks to Horatius' courage.
It is a fantastic story of sacrifice and heroism to be sure, but perhaps a little too fantastic. In fact, there are several historians, ancient and more contemporary, who doubt its veracity. But the essence is clear: History never forgets those who fought to defend their core values.
One man in India who over the years has protected the sanity of Indian journalism is Ravish Kumar.
The Horatius of Indian journalism
The greatness of democracy is decided by the freedom to direct uncomfortable questions to those in power, even though people in power never like it, even though they disapprove of the facts, even though they wish people didn't question them.
A journalist's primary commitment is toward the citizen. The public must know that it is being served, not exploited. Over the years, one name in Indian media who has set the bars of journalistic standard every time quite high is Ravish Kumar.
ravish kumar was born in the state of Bihar. He is considered to be one of the most credible faces of Indian television. Recently he himself was in the news for his sudden resignation from NDTV on December 2, one of India's top mainstream news channels.
He resigned after almost 27 years in service as Modi loyalist Gautam Adani initiated a hostile takeover of NDTV. The channel is considered one of the last bastions of independent journalism among Indian mainstream media, which always remain under constant pressure to toe the government line.
Kumar is considered the biggest critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government and one of the only credible voices to millions of Indian's voiceless. While most of the media ran a pro-government narrative, he dared to question the government.
He challenged the divisive, frivolous, noisy lies of the government, so often ignored by the mainstream Indian media. For his excellent services to journalism, he has been the recipient of many national and international awards, including the ramon magsaysay award in 2019.
Such was his popularity that as soon as news of his resignation came out, he started top-trending on all the social-media sites, particularly Twitter. His impact can be assessed from the fact that all the mainstream Indian newspapers as well as international media like aljazeera , the independent , the washington post and reuters covered the story. That never happens to any journalist in India.
He is now considered to be an institution in himself. All of the news-based shows he anchored on NDTV India, such as Hum Log, Ravish ki Report, Des Ki Baat, and Prime Time, were widely accepted by the people as well as the critics.
His unique ways of presenting facts and people's key issues with humor as well as deep research were praised by the masses. He even coined a name for the pro-government media,“godi media” (godi is the Hindi word for“lap,” the implication being that they are lapdogs).
Many young Indians see him as a legend to look to for inspiration. Even the journalistic fraternity across the country has expressed solidarity and respect for him, except few pro-government anchors who celebrated his resignation.
A day after his resignation, when Kumar took to youtube to inform his audience, more than a million people viewed the video in a few hours. In just a short span of three days, his resignation video got more than 7 million views and more than 2.5 million users have subscribed to his channel. It's a testimony of his popularity among the masses.
Ravish said he is not certain about his future moves but in the meantime, YouTube will remain his primary address. He said that if the godi (lap-sitting) media are not resisted, all future journalists will have to do sycophancy of the government.
He is hailed as a hero with a flood of sorrowful memes and cartoons on social media. But the most important one was“It's not important NDTV was sold, what's important is that Ravish has not sold himself.” That speaks about the integrity of the man in common masses.
Certainly, history will tell that a leader of 1.3 billion people with two rich friends on his side couldn't buy his integrity, so they bought the channel. Undoubtedly, today his credibility and popularity have become more than those of Prime Minister Modi itself. Certainly Modi is facing a serious threat from Ravish Kumar, his biggest concern for the 2024 general election.
In the future, the government of India may even ban his youtube channel from looking at the current conditions. India already has its lowest rank ever in the Press Freedom Index, while Paris-based media watchdog Reporters Wintout Borders has ranked it 150th among 180 countries. So whatever the news, data or reports comes out of the country, it will certainly lack authenticity and credibility.
It is high time that international media take note. They must boycott Indian media at international press meetings or deny any representation to any international forum. Now, after Ravish's exit from NDTV, there will be hardly any mainstream independent media left in the country.
His exit from mainstream media extinguishes the one spark of intelligent, resourceful and courageous journalism that somehow survived the last eight years, when the pressures on independent journalism escalated.
Just like Horatius saved the bridge against the opponent army, Ravish has protected the integrity of Indian journalism with his reporting. As Horatius said,“How can a man die better than facing fearful odds for the ashes of his father and the temples of his God?”
Ravish has made this supreme sacrifice to make sure that Indian's journalism ethos remains protected. As he said after receiving the 2019 Ramon Magsaysay Award,“Not all battles are fought for victory. Some are fought simply to tell the world that someone was there on the battlefield.” Just like Horatius, history will tell that he was the only person on the battlefield fighting for the voiceless in the Modi era.