I have been a reader of The Hindu ever since boyhood. The newspaper helped me to cultivate interest in reading. Its editorials and articles have always fascinated me.
I also have a nostalgic thankfulness to The Hindu. While I was in school, I was awarded the first prize in an elocution competition conducted by the Mylapore Academy. In a way this was unfair because another competitor spoke much better and the audience rightly expected him to get the first prize. That was my expectation too. During my talk, I referred to a leader piece in The Hindu and this obviously tilted the scales in my favour. A sub-editor of The Hindu was a judge in the panel! I felt guilty and pacified myself thinking that that is how life is. (The speaker who must have won the prize is Dr.G.S.Kailash who is presently a chest physician and a popular public speaker on health-related issues.)
So my delight knew no bounds when The Hindu claimed on May 12, 2020 that it is the fastest growing English daily in India. It added 4,61,000 readers nationally in Q4 of the calendar year 2019. This count was 1,03,000 more than what Times of India could achieve.
However, my delight was deflated when I read what the Social Affairs Editor, G.Sampath has written today. He writes that five qualities are necessary for success in the world. What are they?
1) Hate: The Hindu's hatred for our prime minister is phenomenal.
2) Lie: The daily's false stories about the Rafale purchase cannot be forgotten.
3) Cheating: The newspaper's propensity to ignore anything positive about its bete-noire is well known.
4) Ability to bully the weak: The newspaper bullies and gets bullied too. This is not surprising because the country it admires most is the world's most powerful bully.
5) Toadying up to the powerful: This is second nature to the newspaper. Till 2014, the daily excelled in this attribute. It bent over backwards during the emergency days when The Indian Express displayed its spine.
Thank you Mr. Sampath for your unintended explanation.
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