What is sauce for the goose...

Darya ki kasam, maujon ki kasam/ Yeh taana-baana badlega/ Tu bolegi mooh kholegi / Tab hi toh zamana badlega… (I swear by the ocean and the waves that ride it / This weft and weave of exploitation will change / Speak up, open your mouth/ And the world will change…)

I was visiting a friend who works in the Ghatkopar slums on Wednesday and I heard this song being sung by a women’s group. Maybe it was the tune, which was set to a popular yesteryear Bollywood qawali, or the sheer energy with which it was rendered, but the song kept playing in my mind as I scanned the papers on the commute to work.

I came upon an advertisement by The Indian Newspaper Society in a leading broadsheet that went hammer and tongs at the National Wage Board for Working Journalists and other Newspaper Employees.

The board has submitted its report to the ministry of labour and employment suggesting a revised basic pay, which works out to, approximately, Rs18,000 to Rs25,000 for non-journalists and Rs6,000 to Rs50,000 for working journalists in top establishments, with gross revenues of more than Rs1,000 crore.

At the same time, monthly emoluments for the lowest category would work out to be Rs18,000 for the basic pay at floor-level minimum wage of Rs5,000. The effective date of implementation would be July 1, 2010.

Calling this the government’s attempt at “buying the loyalty of journalists, through an arbitrary and undemocratic institution called the wage board”, the ad asks, “Why doesn’t the government pay its employees what it is asking newspapers to pay?”

Having been both a wage boarder in my first job and out of it since, I can say that both systems have their own pluses and minuses.

What I cannot understand is why The Indian Newspaper Society hasn’t ever raised other more obviously contentious issues which fetter and muzzle the media. I am proud and happy to be a part of DNA, which has steadfastly refused to be part of any anti-poaching deal with other papers, but until nearly six years ago, when there were only two broadsheets in town, they had a deal disallowing movement between themselves.

What this did to morale and salaries can only be guessed as the drive to do well and get noticed simply stopped mattering. While some moved to television briefly as a bridge arrangement before coming back to their jobs of choice, others moved to Delhi where there are more options. The ones who couldn’t simply languished.

Apart from your annual appraisals from within, when offers are made from other firms, it means the other organisation recognises your value. When media organisations changed to contract regimes, it was said that media-persons confident of their work will not be afraid. Doesn’t this work the other way round too with anti-poaching deals?