Saturday 2 February 2008

sensationalism

bombay´s
tabloid guru

By Kulamarva Balakrishna

Vienna,Saturday,February 2,2008: Sense is
the basis of sensationalism. I am sad to
learn the passing away of Russi Karanjia,who
always made sense, may be because of that
was called =sensationalist=,some took it to mean
yellow,others trumpeting,yet others human,
others believed just like the name Blitz everything
involved is in campaigning.If my friend,late Abid
Razvi worked as the General Secretary of Blitz
National Forum, Russi went all out for Krishna
Menon.Later, he stood behind Rajni Patel, the
man who survived the old Telangana March of
the left communists.Great jurist A.S.R.Chari and
Dilshad Chari of the Indo-Soviet Cultural Society
became husband and wife,through the Telangana
route.When I wrote about the =tantras= he had
special place for the article,which got more than
500 responses within a week.That was in 1970.
When I began to edit and publish my
Hi young people´s newspaper he was a great
moral booster. It was because of Russi Karanjia,
I was able to expose the dubious =savings
chit funds= known as =non banking financial
intermediaries= cheating small savers,which
culminated in the Reserve Bank initiating private
banks to run saving´s drive more organized way.
Their method of operation was simple.A few
persons joined hands to register a private limited
company with an imaginary Rs.million authorized
capital.But the paid up shares would be no more
than a hundred rupees!However this did not
prevent the con men collecting monthly saving
deposits from unorganized private savors.
The deposit canvassers got interest in the form
of commissions.The depositors got after a
lot of hassles some 75 per cent of their savings
as term loans at high interest rates.The rest of
the cash went for luxury living and private investment
of individual promoters.The late Mr.Vipin Acharya,
a chartered accountant from Ahmedabad helped
in putting this at perspective after Mr.Anis Hussain,
the younnger brother of my friend Akhil Hussain,
who was then working as Manager of the Reserve
Bank at Ahmadabad, where most of the Chit fund
cum savings companies were registered gave me
a hint to take the help of a chartered accountant.
By exposing the racket Karanjia´s so called
=yellow= Blitz saved millions of future small saver
victims.Although we pushed for the intervention
of by the Reserve Bank, finance sharks found
their ways to grab deposits at as high as 21
percent interest rates.A fifteen percent commission
and operational costs added, the sharks were
indeed helping themselves of the cash saved by
small people living under sub human conditions.
Even though most of them have been forced to
account or fold up, even today there must be
some operators undisturbed! In the business
text books the practice is clubbed together on
=pyramids=!

Besides, in tabloid journalism =human interest=
plays the singular central role.Russi Karanjia
was aware of this.In U.K. just some fifty years
before Blitz Tabloid journalism had made an
expressway for the media the late Cecil King
of the Daily Mirror leading the way.It was he
who coined a slogan, =publish and be
damned=.In order to show the tricks and move
up circulation chart, Mr.King once invited
the daily´s young female readers to participate
in an experiment.The newspaper offered them
supply chicken eggs, the volunteering young
women were asked to keep them warm between
their breasts until the eggs hatched! It was clear
there was no possibility of success but it did
generate interest to boost the circulation of the
tabloid to four million copies.It was keeping
this in mind Russi Karanjia once challenged
Yogi Lakshman Sandra Rao of Bangalore
to walk on water, if he claimed the powers
when the public watched the feat. Taraporewala
Swimming pool on the Narimanpoint was booked
for the show. Bombay was full of excitement.
Blitz National Forum sold tickets for the event.
Several thousand strong audience of invitees
and paying entertainment hungry crowd gathered
in bated breath to see the yogic feat. Yogi Rao
removed his dhoti clad in a swimming trunk
came before the crowd, bowed the public and
prayed all in solemnity.Then he stepped into the
depths of the pool.The fooled audience laughed
all the same.Yogi Rao successfully made his
point as well that yoga was not meant for miracle
making.

In 1979 I wrote from Vienna a short =believe it or
not= story about a man,who worked for Hitler as his
direct deputy in the middle east marrying a Moraccan
cousin of Iraqi Prime Minister of 1941,who
offered to invest some eight billion dollars on
any project with a minimum capital of 60 million
dollars, Karanjia was delighted since even the
Travel Corporation of India was looking for funds
to build a hotel in Sri Lanka.But their requirement
was no more than 20 million! We were inundated
with requests for donations even though my address
or Hitler´s surviving deputy´s (he lives in Vienna, in
his late eighties), were unknown to Blitz readers,
letters reached us all the same.The proud Hitler´s
deputy has since published the first part of his
autobiography to reveal that the second world war
wealth was derived running brothels and drug
trade as the behind line operative anti British
forces in the middle east was entirely self
supporting.He had trained during Hitler´s time itself
Algerian freedom fighters against French occupation.
Even after the end of the war he paid retirement
benefits to several thousand Arab anti-imperialist
volunteers, who had worked with him.He has
made public a post Hitler German diplomatic
directing the Arab volunteers to go to him for
their retirement benefits!

Then I had an opportunitiy to have lunch with Russi
as he attended the Qadafi sponsored tribunal
for the public trial of President Ronald Reagan,
at Brussels September 28-30,1984 with American
War College legal luminaries participating, along
with a couple of Nobel Peace Prize winners, like
George Wald, and Sean McBride, Nato General Nino
Pasti,former U.S.Attorney General Ramsey Clark,
among others.Ronald Reagan was convicted there
on several counts for substituting force for international
rule of law in his war against Grenanda, and Nicaragua,
where he supported anti-Sandinista contras.
It was in retribution to this trial of 1984 Orwellian
double speak President Ronald Reagan sent missiles
across the Gulf of Sirte on to Qadafi´s tent to kill
his adopted son!

Russi Karanjia was awake to the American
anti-war Underground Press.The movement
initiator and founder of the Village Voice,
John Wilcock of course wrote for Blitz as a
guest.It was Russi who suggested my name
to the Max Mueller Bhavan´s Dr.Heimo Rau
as one who could speak about the heart of
anti war Hippie Movement that changed
America.He supported Captain Colabawala
and his Whisper weekly especially engaged
in reporting Commander Nanavati´s trial
for Prem Ahuja´s murder as intruding paramour
of his wife Sylvia Nanavati in detail as its
sole goal.I know Russi Karanjia was not well and
bed ridden for many years.Friend Olga Tellis
was concerned and took interest in taking
care of him.He was an unpretentiously human
journalist Bombay could be proud of.(end)

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