There is tremendous disquiet and annoyance within the Editors Guild of India (EGI) after a bid to convey solidarity with a private news agency, Asian News International (ANI) by a section of the Guild backfired in the Executive Council.

This came to light when a popular Twitter handle run by a US-based Professor Rohit Chopra posted an image of a statement made by a senior editor of the Guild in its WhatsApp group last night.

News: The majority of the members of the Executive Council of the Editors Guild rejected the statement put out yesterday by Shekhar Gupta et al. on Rahul Gandhi’s use of the term ‘pliable’ for pro-Modi journalists. This is what one senior editor had to say. pic.twitter.com/F9xbckEzhc — IndiaExplained (@IndiaExplained) January 4, 2019

NewsCentral24X7 spoke to four members of the Executive Council of EGI who are part of the WhatsApp group which, as one former office-bearer said, acts as the ‘sounding board’ and ‘broad consensus former’, to ‘advise and guide the Guild’ on behalf of all its members. The WhatsApp group has 26 members who are active except for the office bearers, including the EGI President Shekhar Gupta.

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On Wednesday, Congress President Rahul Gandhi responded to a question about the interview given by PM Narendra Modi, where he called the interviewer Smita Prakash ‘pliable’, Union Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley went public on Twitter. The BJP leader, known as Bureau Chief because of his control of Delhi-based editors, suggested in his tweet that he was waiting for the Guild to issue a statement.

This led to a debate among the members of the Executive Council on the WhatsApp group, and an overwhelming majority expressed its opinion against issuing a statement on calling a journalist ‘pliable’. One of the members also referred to LK Advani’s famous remark about Indian editors during the Emergency: “when asked to bend, they chose to crawl”.

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Others referred to the Guild’s silence on abuse that is hurled regularly at journalists by BJP leaders and ministers in an organised fashion, while PM Modi himself called journalists ‘Bazaru’ and ‘news-traders’. It was noteworthy that Modi had called journalists ‘news-traders’ in an interview to Smita Prakash who had smiled at the reply, without taking any offence or offering any rebuttal. While the Guild’s statement names Rahul Gandhi, Narendra Modi’s name has been conspicuously left out.

One member of the Executive Council told NC24X7 that “not more than 2-3 members on that group were in favour a statement in favour of ANI, that too very tentatively. Others were strongly opposed to releasing any statement. To most of us, it came as a surprise that the office bearers of the Guild chose to issue a statement on the matter”.

As soon as the statement was put up, members on the WhatsApp group expressed outrage against Shekhar Gupta, the president of the Guild, who maintained a studied silence on the matter. One of the messages posted on the group late Thursday night was the one shared by @IndiaExplained on Twitter on Friday morning. Other members of the Guild also strongly supported that view, NC24X7 has learnt.

A former office-bearer posted the EGI rules on Twitter which state that “all decisions by the Committee, except when provided otherwise in these Rules, shall be taken by a majority of votes. The President shall have a casting vote.”

There was no vote taken before the statement was issued by Gupta and his team on behalf of the Guild. The members of the Executive Council state that even a cursory look would show an overwhelming majority being opposed to issuing a statement in favour of ANI. So far, no one understands precisely what led to the officer-bearers then issuing a statement that violates the Guild’s own rules and the views of its members.

The members fear that this was done at Jaitley’s behest. The disquiet and anger in the Guild necessitate that the statement is withdrawn and a clarification issued by Gupta and others who took the decision. That is the least senior editors owe to the people, in the spirit of democracy and accountability.

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