An innocuous answer by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar at a press conference regarding Nobel Peace Prize proves that Indian media has totally lost its sense of direction and purpose. The serious issue of water scarcity in Maharashtra and Sri Sri’s vision of solving it by rejuvenating water bodies for which the press conference was held has been completely sidestepped.
Whether Malala Yousafzai has done enough to deserve the Nobel Peace Prize has always been a matter of debate. Sri Sri isn’t the first one to talk about it. Nor would he be the last. When the popular opinion forum www.debate.org polled public opinion on ‘Does Malala Yousafzai deserve the Nobel Peace Prize?’, an overwhelming 84% said ‘No’. A total of 11 votes had been cast on the forum when this article was published.
It was not so much about Malala. Sri Sri was alluring to the larger perception about the falling standing of the Nobel Peace Prize.
He surely belongs to the old school which believes that Nobel Prizes must be awarded to the person who has contributed the most to peace. The spirit of Alfred Nobel's will that the Peace Prize is to go to whoever "shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses" is no more a sacrosanct and open to being “conveniently” interpreted.
There is a vast majority which still questions, and not without reason, what real peace did Al Gore, Yasser Arafat, Yitzhak Rabin or Barack Obama bring for humanity. Some even joke around that Yasser Arafat and Israeli leaders were given the Prize in 1994, just for getting into the same room and talking.
Though there are great individuals among the 129 Nobel Laureates so far, it’s after all a very political prize chosen by a committee of four politicians and a lawyer from Norway. It would be foolhardy to expect that their choices would always reflect the reality of the world and be free of bias.
In that sense, Sri Sri has committed no blasphemy by casually commenting on one of its choices. A section of Indian media and Twitterati has completely missed the big picture. They have just taken the easy and tested route of sensationalism.
More than demonstrating an anxiety to malign Sri Sri, such loose reportage exposes a total lack of knowledge of issues they are reporting. There is no system of a Nobel being offered to anyone.
The prize is a secret till it’s officially announced. Even nominations are never officially commented upon.
What’s even more pathetic is the fact that many media, including some international names, chose to indulge in their penchant for armchair journalism by ‘filing in’ comments and opinion-based pieces on the basis of a concocted report. RIP, the journalistic ethics of cross-check!
A mere understanding of the letter and spirit of how a Nobel is awarded would have been enough for any editor worth even a pinch of salt to kill the story.
It’s a tragedy that the tribe of such editors is long dead. Or is there something more than what meets the eye? Is there a conspiracy to trap Sri Sri and pre-empt any chance of him actually getting a Peace Nobel, which many including global figures believe is long over due?
The haste with which a prejudiced media and Twitterati lapped up the issue does add credence to such theories of conspiracy. At least for now, I would rather prefer to believe in such theories rather than write the inevitable obit for ethical journalism.
For the records, Sri Sri didn’t call a press conference in Latur to run down the Nobel. He had a more serious agenda of getting water to a drying Maharashtra to articulate. I wish media too have some empathy for such pressing crises! Am I totally out of sync with the ground realities? The Twitterati is welcome to pass an out-of-court verdict!
(The author is a former business journalist. The article represents his personal views and does not reflect the stand of Network18 Group)
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