ANOTHER HONOUR FOR BARKHA

| by B.Raman

( June 22, 2012, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian) The highly-reputed “Foreign Policy” magazine of the US has carried on June 20,2012, a list of 100 female tweeters around the world that everyone should follow. It calls them Womerati.

The list is available here

The overall list includes two from India---Mrs.Nirupama Rao, former Indian Foreign Secretary, who is now India’s Ambassador to the United States, and Barkha Dutt, well-known Indian TV journalist, who is the President of the Board of Editors of NDTV.

Mrs.Rao figures in the diplomats category and Barkha in the category of journalists/activists of South Asia.

Nine journalists/activists of South Asia have been chosen by the FP for this honour. Of these, four are from Pakistan, one is a Canadian of Pakistani origin, one each are from India (Barkha) and Sri Lanka (DushiYanthini Kanaga ) and the remaining two are foreigners reporting from South Asia.

The large number (five out of nine) of Pakistani journalists/activists honoured as against a single Indian woman TV journalist is an indication that in foreign perception Pakistani journalists as a community rank higher than their Indian counterparts.

The recognition of Barkha by the FP as among 100 women tweeters to follow has come in the wake of an earlier honour to Barkha by the “Time” magazine as among 140 best tweeters of the world (men and women taken together) to follow.

Honours and recognitions have come in search of Barkha this year. She was invited by the World Bank, Washington, DC, in April to participate in two public discussions during the annual session of the Bank. The same month, her “Women of Tahrir Square”, a documentary produced by her during a reportage in Egypt last year, won a coveted award in the US. She has had three scintillating televised interactions with Oprah Winfrey, the US TV anchor, and Salman Rushdie, the controversial author, from Jaipur during the annual literary festival, and with Mrs.Hilary Clinton, US Secretary of State, during a Town Hall discussion from Kolkata.

Barkha’s strongly-held belief that you don’t have to go after recognitions, but they will come after you, if you are true to yourself and do your job well has stood vindicated.

Despite the honours coming one after the other, Barkha has remained open to criticisms and takes them in her stride so long as they are not vicious and ill-motivated.

I have been a strong admirer of Barkha as well as a strong critic when called for.

I was devastating in my criticism of her interview of Shah Rukh Khan, the film actor, last month.

I was touched by her reply to my criticism. She tweeted: “It is a free world, Sir. You are welcome to think well or badly of me. Regards.”

That is Barkha, in a nutshell.