Obituary: The Feifdom of Barkha Dutt (1999-2008)

In a billion plus nation, a decade of undisputed reign for a person in any field is an impressive feat. Moreso, on television. And so, a Padma Shree, unprecedented recognition and several awards later, if the queen is finally being made accountable for her words and actions, prompting her to strike back in self defence, it’s a sure sign that her infallibility has fallen by Arabian Sea’s Taj promenade. But despair not Barkha Dutt, in the cycle of life, we all come with our ‘sell-by’ dates.

Barkha Dutt has been around as the unsparing (though sanctimonious), and ‘intelligent’ (or so proclaims a recent award she’s received) and objective (though often heavily critisised for losing it in times of real crisis) voice of the nation since 1999. She shot to fame with the coverage of Kargil war, as the intrepid female reporter covering live the gun battle, the blazing cannon shots, the flying shells, standing bravely in the face of death. Though she did come in the line of firing from several quarters accusing her of compromising the security of the nation with her live reporting, she emerged from it unscathed, unperturbed and vindicated.

Post Kargil, her reporting was so damned novel and path-breaking, the way she cast a magic spell on the urban Indian, churning out the gut-wrenching ‘truths’ about the haloed institutions of the nation, looking straight in the eyes of the men in power, and throwing, ever so fearlessly, uncomfortable questions at them, making mince-meat of their halting half replies. What guts, the nation sat up and took notice; what grit, the nation applauded; what gumption, the nation swooned. And thus was born, brand Barkha Dutt, the Star (pardon the pun here) of NDTV, the popularity and TRP ratings of which soared with that of the lady.

A minimally turned-out Barkha Dutt, with her trademark no-fuss hair cut, mike in hand, spawned many a clone in the TV news reporting arena, inspired many a woman-of-substance characterization for Bollywood belles (albeit with fancier outfits), and roused many an upper elite of the TV viewing India into suddenly questioning everything with a political tone. It was as if, the otherwise uninvolved apolitical Indian citizen had finally awakened, and taken seriously to armchair round-tables, thanks to the fiery words that zoomed in through the primetime news channel. She handled real social ‘people’ issues too, but the decibels in the studio would be the loudest best in the scenes of a political altercation involving community specific blame games. During times when the nation or the world refrained from going to war and riots and agitations, Barkha Dutt turned to playing messiah to the poor, dying, marginalized, and the wronged in the nation, with equally admirable flamboyance and elan.

And soon Barkha Dutt transformed into a generic entity with a massive fan following. In a magazine survey several years ago, the third most sought after career option for young girls (as young as 4 years), after modelling, and becoming an item girl in Bollywood or in music videos, was growing up to be like Barkha Dutt aunty, though I wont be surprised if it was more the Priety Zinta (post Lakshya) rub-off. Young men and women with a flair for live reporting wanted to be ‘Barkha Dutt’, thereby flooding the countless news channels with sound-alikes, dreaming big of striking gold aping her style. (Henceforth, in this piece, we’ll refer to the entire breed of these reporters as the ‘Burkha Dutts’ - the flip-side of being a generic icon) To me, personally, it didn’t matter way back then whether she was a left wing fire-brand, a right wing pundit, or middle of the path moderator.

Much as she would have liked to believe that she reigned supreme in the minds of the masses, but if truth be told, once the novelty wore off, and the women had discussed her ad nauseum at the kitty parties and men at their card tables, the masses switched their loyalties to the rather ‘prettier’ looking clones who had more important issues to tackle like which celebrity was spotted with whom in Goa, or how many ‘female’ spirits infest a particular tree at night waiting for human male catch (I’m serious), and how the aliens from a UFO stepped down to wish a young couple who eloped and married (I’m even more serious). Since Barkha Dutt refrained from pandering to the delights of those looking for cheap sensational ‘breaking-news’ stories, her appeal was limited to the rather discerning intelligentsia, the genteel parties, the vocal activists, and the motivated youth of the nation who sought inspiration in her fiery words and fearless exposes.

In recent years, the high pitched ‘Burkha Dutts’ have acquired an amazing appetite for theatrics before the camera. Facts take on larger than life proportions, the chimera of a corruption-free nation feels almost waiting for deliverance, thanks to their ‘flawless’ investigative journalism, and despite their intention to uncover the greys in society and politics, their take on most real problematic issues finally ends up as limited black and white. I’ve found many of them downright rude, cocky and disrespectful to the people in power or rank, at times too full of themselves with their half baked opinions, and at most times, grabbing more sound bytes than the interviewee or guest. I’ve not come face to face with Barkha Dutt (I am neither socially and politically awakened, nor celebrity enough to participate in any of her shows or know her personally) to hear her away from the camera, but the only lingering feeling that I go to bed with after having watched the shows that Barkha Dutt hosts is, “My God, will she ever let the other person talk?”

Barkha Dutt, in particular, has become increasingly predictable and repetitive in style, form, and content. Having failed to re-invent herself, like most personal working-styles that ultimately become the person’s waterloo, the discerning junta perhaps has got too discerning, and therefore is now tiring of her.

24/7 reporting of 26/11 has sounded a wake up call for the ilk, especially for the high priestess herself. Though it’s difficult to say how such a sudden outburst against Barkha Dutt in particular has got mobilized post Mumbai, there is a palpable revulsion. Maybe it’s her hyper-ventilating, lop sided (she stayed clear of the commoner’s arena of bloodbath, CST and Cama hospital) and self congratulatory reportage that did it, or maybe she was perceived as being too intrusive and playing God, but it has been most certainly because she (along with the others) could naively have given away vital information to the terrorists regarding the commando movements and positions. That of all reporters, Barkha Dutt failed to act with restraint, maturity and responsibility, is what has irked many. People switched channels in desperation to get one decent non-sensational coverage of the events as the tragedy unfolded, but the more channels we surfed, the more insufferable the 24X7 reportage became. Personally, after day two, I denounced the news channels, and went back to the good ol’ newspapers. Blogs went up in no time pooh-poohing her, and the likes of her; SMS’ poured in from all sides echoing similar sentiments. Several ‘Take Barkha Dutt off the Air’ groups have sprung up on Facebook and Orkut. Print media, that got left out in the mad race for TRP ratings in the middle of the Mumbai mayhem given the limitation of it’s once a day visibility, may finally be getting its own back at the TV channels, given the way most newspaper columns and editorials have lambasted the live coverage this time. For once, the politicians, if they’ve cared to follow these latest virtual bytes will feel happy they are not the only ones facing the flak!

Both celebrated and criticized for whipping up sentiments of people, Barkha Dutt has courted small controversies over her style many a time, but never before has this nation risen so vocally against a reporter in the wake of a tragedy. Is this the end of Barkha Dutt? Certainly not, for if she’s inherited even part of her mother’s grit (her mother, Prerna Dutt, nee Behl, fearless in her work, rose up to be the Chief Reporter at Hindustan Times) she’ll fight back and weather this storm brewing in the chat rooms and the virtual boardrooms. But what most certainly has ended is her infallibility. And with her, that of the entire brood of clones that she spawned.
RIP.