P. Sainath

“Orissa’s unemployment problem should be solved with minimum destruction of Natural resources” : Eminent Rural Journalist P. Sainath

Collection of selected stories form those got published in form of the famous book titled “Every body loves a good Drought” The book remained as the best seller in non fiction category for more than two years by penguin Publications. He has won many awards for his unique effort of using journalism for people’s development. Though the list of awards is quite long but Prominent among them are “Raman Magsaysay Award for Journalism and literature in 2007, B.D. Goenka Award for excellence in Journalism in 2000, PUCL Human Rights journalism Award, Amnesty international global Award for Human rights journalism in 2000. Canadian documentary film maker Joe Moulin’s has made a film on his life and at Edmonton Film festival that film also has received award. Truly he is a successful man with a visionary outlook. He has a close personal and professional relation with Orissa, during his last visit to Bhubaneswar our team member Ambika Sankar Mishra has taken his interview. The interview is as follows.

P. Sainath : I was always interested in journalism and writing. Historically the Indian press is the child of the of the Freedom struggle, it came up with the freedom struggle. Most of our nationalist heroes and leaders were journalists. Nehru established two newspapers, Gandhi established three, Bhagat Singh wrote prolifically for various news papers including letters to editors. Even Bijoy Laxmi Pandit was also in the same category. Most nationalist leaders were laying stress on journalism and for them journalism was a powerful tool for social change. I got inspired by that generation and I identified those values of Journalism. Secondly history as a discipline has helped me a lot in journalism, because for example, if you are going to cover Kalahandi   without  knowing its history its land relations, bonded labor system and laws of forest then your coverage will lack depth but a knowledge of history can help you there.

P. Sainath : I was always interested with rural journalism that is journalism for the people. At Blitz I got many opportunities but with the burdens of being a deputy Chief Editor, I was not able to use those opportunities. But  particularly after 1991, with the advent of neo liberal policies, when Indian press moved to cover about the top 5% population of the country, I decided to cover the bottom 5%!

• IED : Every year you are spending nearly 200-250 days in rural India you have reported the stories of many pain stricken people. What do you feel to be your next duties towards them?

P. Sainath : The duty of a journalist is to tell the story of those pain stricken people in a way that is fare and correct to them. In the writings of the journalist the experiences of whom you are reporting about should be reflected. The minimum duty of a good journalist is to ring the alarm bell for the society, to write the stories of common people of country and not just to restrict himself/herself in writing about film stars of Bollywood. That is the duty of a good journalist is to bring out to public knowledge the weaknesses of the society.

P. Sainath : See, If you look carefully you will never find me calling myself a development journalist. In my thought the meaning of development journalism in these days has gone restricted with covering Government projects or Programs or yojanas .For me development is a highly a political process. I also can cover politics. Rather I would better like to be identified as a rural reporter.

P. Sainath : There is no one process called globalization, there are in fact many forms of globalization. There can be people’s globalization like world Social Forum or similar events or processes where people in different countries are fighting for one cause then it is also a global resistance. That is globalization of people’s movements. But the dominant form of globalization today is corporate globalization. And this is harmful for poor people.

P. Sainath : Societies which are destroying forests, they are just cutting the same branch of tree on which they are sitting. If you are asking me about Orissa I would like to say that the problem is worse in the state because here a high percent of people are living and depending on forests. If you finish forest you will finish them. You have to maintain the balance between forest and forest dwellers. But do not accept that in name preservation of forests you will throw the the tribals and other forest dwellers out. Because, for example, in places like Sundarban where the government and forest department are not present, the tigers are growing there along with the forest dwellers but at places like Ranthambore the tigers are vanishing though the experts on tigers are there!

P. Sainath : You can not find a single body called NGO, because there are many. The word NGO does not represent any single organization or entity; its amourphous. There are many good NGOs who are highly responsible for their people and there are some NGOs who are lagging on this regard.

P. Sainath : On average I will say that many of them are not working sincerely. There are bad people in good NGOs and good people in Bad NGOs and bad people in bad NGOs too. But some of them are working in important areas and fields and potential is there to work. But I would like to see that if the NGOs, in stead of working on behalf of people, promote the spirit of self dependence among people, then its more an effective way.

P. Sainath : You can say it that way, but in my view it is democratization because if an NGO is raising funds from Geneve in the name of a village here, then that village has the right to know about the detailed expenditures relating to that fund. And that NGO has to remain accountable to those people. So I am stressing on the whole concept of accountability of NGOs to their target group people.

P. Sainath : This is the state which has suffered the worst in matters relating to development. This is the state, which displaced one group of people to accommodate another group during 1965 wars. This is the state which displaced, God knows how many people at Koraput for HAL, but the institution did not come there. 4000 acres are still lying there, when people thrown out of that land have gone into destitution. You have a village in Malkangiri called Chikapar which has faced displacement for three times. The problem of the state is lack of employment opportunities. So one way should be found out by which the problem of unemployment will be solved to the maximum but by maintaining a balance. Because, this is a complex state having 62 tribal groups. So we have to find out more employment with minimum destruction of natural resources and with putting the least strain on nature.

P. Sainath : (With Smiles) I know him well and he is a genius and giant and I am a journalist.

The time of returning for Mr. P. Sainath was coming closer and the arrangers were getting worried. They were in a hurry. So we had to close the interview before our expectation. But his reply to the last question really told much about his politeness and simplicity because in our view he is no less intelligent and competent than Noam Chomsky the great writer of Manufacturing the consent. His single answer expressed the greatness of Palagummi Sainath, the eminent People’s Journalist and the great writer of “Every body loves a good Drought”.