The Devil’s online!
727 pages of ads in a single edition, Vogue shows the way

(column by Shashank Shekhar)

Being in ‘vogue’ in a fashionable world is an intensely challenging task – after all, it’s all about ‘induced epidemics’, to quote George Bernard Shaw. But it’s a plague of another kind steadily overcastting the publishing world and has in fact forced them out of their contented closets – rise of the world wide web and a general decline in consumer reading patterns of magazines & periodicals. How can they survive this onslaught? In more ways than one, it was Newsweek. com, in 2005, which played the lighthouse. Rather than duplicating text from print editions, this online alibi of the weekly included everything from daily breaking news to video blogs from correspondents at the Vatican to podcasts of the Newsweek On Air online radio show. And there, in this transmutation, from a strict magazine player to an overall online entertainment destination lay what pundits call the ‘gateway to the future’. So, on last Tuesday, when America’s glossiest glossy, Vogue’s obese September edition, hit newsstands with 727 pages of just advertisements, it appeared, for a minute, a case of reverse syndrome, of the print media winning back its honour. But the moment was short lived, when the real picture was disclosed. The deal was, in fact, a union between print & virtual gloss. By investing in Vogue’s pages, advertisers became entitled to feature their products on ShopVogue.TV, Vogue’s much delayed foray into broadband entertainment.

“America seems to be very much interested in entertainment about fashion,” furthers Thomas Florio, publisher of Vogue. On visiting Shop Vogue.TV, you are immediately drawn to the Vogue shop on the left hand corner divided into categories defined by brands, trend, departments & even price. It also offers innovative, original video content of over 240 minutes in multi-episode reality shows like “Behind the Lens, 60 seconds to Chic & Trend watch.” Florio expects to add a touch of reality through his programming of the fashion industry and open to his videos floating on the web.

A recent survey in US finds 92 of the largest 100 newspapers employing similar measures (videos on their websites) to win new audiences. Companies like Vogue are showing the way for print media on adapting to changing times. One would be skeptical, however, as to how a differentiated content-driven strategy would work for Vogue in a country like India, considering that internet penetration languishes at 5.4% and internet advertising is just 1% of the total pie currently (SSKI research). But for companies with deep pockets & long term vision, it makes sense to be prepared well before the internet comes in ‘vogue’ here.

(End of Shashank Shekhar column)

A world sans distances!
MTNL launches VoIP telephony

(column by Surbhi Chawla)

The scenario in the telecom sector in India has always had more than its share of excitement, be it in terms of crippling controversies or path breaking developments. Recently, for instance we have the Cellular Operators Association of India accusing the regulator TRAI for not doing enough for reducing roaming rates. On the other hand, we have an interesting business innovation that could based on the internet, that could in fact have a positive influence on even the lives of people who have been hitherto untouched by it.

Telecom service provider Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) has taken the initiative to introduce Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). This service is called Netfone, and would enable its subscribers to make international calls to countries like US, UK, Canada & Australia at a tariff as low as Re.1 per minute, hence making a killing in the market. MTNL has collaborated with Aksh Optifiber to facilitate the citizens of Delhi and NCR region to make inexpensive calls using VoIP to more than 150 countries. Th e company plans to extend this service to Mumbai too, very shortly.

Dr. Kailash Choudhari, Chairman of Aksh, explaining the business model and the strategic thought process of the proposed VoIP service, told Business & Economy, “Using VoIP service to make calls would be similar to making calls from a normal telephone and not from a PC. As the penetration of PCs in India is still far behind the developed nations, so the idea is to give more through the basic landline phones.”

The Netfone service would be made available to all the MTNL PCO holders as well. In the introductory phase, this service will be available only on a prepaid basis, giving the customers a choice of two types of plans. The first plan – VoIP 200, is available for a monthly rental of Rs.200, and provides 400 minutes of SIP to- SIP calls free and thereafter, at a price of 20 paise per minute. In the other plan, the monthly commitment is of Rs.400 and off ers 800 minutes of SIP-to-SIP calls free and a tariff of 10 paise per minute beyond that. Th is service could prove to be a shot in the arm for MTNL, as they continue to struggle hard for market share in the telecom sector. Chairman and MD, MTNL R.P. Sinha told Business & Economy that, “Broadband and the allied services like IPTV and VoIP would be the driving forces for MTNL”.

Although MTNL would still not resort to mass media or brand ambassadors (like all other service providers), yet it’s planning to step up its promotional and brand building exercises and believes that there would be many more first services that would unfold in the future as well from the company and that too at quite reasonable costs. Considering, however, the huge market for this kind of service, MTNL may be faced with fierce competition fairly quickly, and it is imperative for it to grab a substantial lead over the competition. Not many people would be able to resist the temptation of a Re.1 per minute international call!

(End of Surbhi Chawla column)

COMMUNALISM

There is a growing clamour in India to punish those guilty of the 1992-93 riots that victimised the Muslim community. But unlike those accused of the bomb blasts, will the guilty here be brought to book? Was the Mumbai police polarised, pressurised or simply patronised by the political class to carry out their sinister strategies? Why have the policemen, who behaved in a partisan manner during the 1992-1993 riots not been punished till date? Leave alone punishing the guilty, what has the Mumbai police done towards de-communalising the force & introducing professionalism?

In an atmosphere of communal polarisation, what does one expect from the police? The guardians of ‘public good’ are expected to be non-partisan; diligently douse the fires of bigotry & display compassion for the victims. And what happens when the police fails to meet these constitutional & of course, the moral obligations? In short-term, such a behaviour flares up the passions, leading to gruesome atrocities against the community failing to find favours with the protectors. In the long-run, the social fabric of the nation suffers an irreparable dent. This heinous crime was committed by the Mumbai police during the 1992-93 Mumbai riots, where the Muslim community was systematically allowed to be butchered at the behest of saffron-clad politicians. Recollecting the police apathy & insensitivity during the riots, Prabhat Sharan, Senior Editor, The Free Press Journal told B&E, “I & a colleague of mine was sitting with a high ranking police offi - cer & we heard police personnel on the wireless jocularly stating, Mandir Wahin Baneyenge and Udhar Landiya (a derogatory term for Muslim) ko marne ki report hai, zara dekh lo. The police officer did not know what to say he just sheepishly grinned.” The evidence of this, rather obnoxious behaviour of the Mumbai police is adequately documented in the Justice B.N. Srikrishna Commission report on Mumbai riots of 1992-93. These facts have recently been corroborated by a leading television news channel in India, which has released the wireless messages of the policemen, exposing them as accomplices in the brutalization during that period. Explaining the police behaviour Prabhat Sharan added “We cannot say the entire police force is communalised but then a section of it does carry the germ of hatred towards Muslims in their bosoms.” Now, if a section of the police force only carries the germ, it leads us infer that Mumbai police has been deeply infiltrated by communal elements belonging to the majority community & it is this section of the Mumbai police, which acted at the behest of their political masters instead of following the lawful command of their senior officers. And if this is true, then what happened in 1992-93, surely constitutesa mutiny in the police force. “They neither obeyed nor did they disobey; they did what they felt and most of them were either polarised or scared to even approach any mob.” Prakash Deshmukh, Senior Journalist, Sakal & an eye witness to the riots told B&E Those who argue that it was neither a mutiny nor a larger conspiracy reason that since the entire society was communally polarised preceding the demolition of the Babri Masjid & thereafter, a few policemen also got infected. Such an argument supports the view, that an aberration, for a few policemen to get infected with communal virus was a natural phenomenon. Outrightly refusing to categorise Mumbai police actions either in terms of mutiny or aberration, a noted lawyer & Counsel for a group of the victims in the Shri Krishna Commision, Niloufer Bhagwat told B&E, that “If it were a mutiny, one would have seen summary trial being carried out against the constables & officials, who disobeyed the constitutional command, but nothing of this sort has happened. The fact is that no tangible commands to help the victims emanated from the top. It was a larger conspiracy played out at the highest levels to divide the country to manage the discontent arising out of neo-liberal shift the economy was making in the 1990s.”

Without drawing a macro-picture of the causes & effects of the neo-liberal agenda, one can say that riots were a systematic act of crime against a particular community. The policemen who collaborated with the lumpen element were a part of the plan executed with precision by political elements. The policemen who participated in the genocide did not get infected after the riots had broken out; they were in fact, already suffering from the communal cancer which had infiltrated their nerve centre much before the riots. That the infiltrated policemen were only used by the political class at that juncture to execute their well laid out plan is the moot point. Therefore, to deny this fact tantamounts to burying ones head like an ostrich to the reality that what happened in Mumbai in 1992- 93 was nothing short of a mutiny. The communal elements in the police force disregarded their constitutional & professional duty; switched over their loyalties to openly ally themselves with the political agenda of a particular hue. And if this does not constitute a revolt within, then we certainly need to redefine the word ‘mutiny’. Moreover, one need to appreciate that communal passions were being raised in the society for years preceding the riots. Did the police officials in Mumbai & the administration system in the country take any concrete measures to stop this virus from seeping into minds of their men? What programmes did the higher police management team launch to ensure the integrity of their rank & file is preserved during tough times? What did the police intelligence networks do to identify & weed out the politicized elements within their force? Search for the answers to these questions and all you will receive is a stoic silence from those who consider themselves to be professionals. By letting politics make inroads within the police structures, all that the police personnel have done is to fracture the state monopoly over organised violence. And no doubt it is because of this enfeebled monopoly that communal carnages continue to engulf our nation at repeated intervals.

Report of the Justice B.N. Srikrishna Commission on the Mumbai riots of 1992–1993 the krishna without a flute Srikrishna Commission report that had probed the violence in Mumbai during the 92-93 riots, explicitly states that “The response of police to appeals from desperate victims, particularly Muslims, was cynical and utterly indifferent. On occasions, the response was that they were unable to leave the appointed post; on others, the attitude was that one Muslim killed was one Muslim less... Police officers and men, particularly at the junior level, appeared to have an inbuilt bias against the Muslims, which was evident in their treatment of the suspected Muslims and Muslim victims of riots. The treatment given was harsh and brutal and on occasions, bordering on the inhuman... The bias of policemen was seen in the active connivance of police constables with the rioting Hindu mobs, on occasions, with their adopting the role of passive on–lookers on occasions, and, finally, their lack of enthusiasm in registering offenses against Hindus even when the accused was clearly identified and post-haste classifying the cases in ‘A’ (True but not detected) summary”