The real India isn’t reported: Josy Joseph

Josy Joseph has been an investigative journalist for over 20 years, known for stories on Adarsh Scam and Naval War room leaks among others. His first book, A Feast of Vultures, lays bare the corruption across all levels, from a village to the top echelons of government and private sector, which is corroding India’s innards. With the book not shying away from naming and shaming its targets, senior journalist Sindhu Bhattacharya spoke to Joseph to understand how deep the rot runs. Edited excerpts:

What motivated you to write this book? 

I have been doing serious investigative reporting for the last 20 years. But even though my stories appeared, I used to worry I was reporting a polished, very varnished, a censored India. The real India, its cruelty, its compromised merit — these were part of newsroom discussions but not reported properly.

All that you have reported in the book, has it been published before?

I wouldn’t say that. There are a lot of references which are out there in the open already.  I have tried to create a narrative which is easily accessible to readers. Some of the stories weren’t published in mainstream media though I pitched them…. I am showing how the poor and the rich are looking for intermediaries to get a hospital, a road to the village, a birth certificate. I am also trying to capture how the elite are snatching away what rightfully belongs to the majority.

Whatever documents you have accessed during your career, I am sure other journalists must also have had access to something similar. Has enough has been done with the available information?

There is a very high-level of self-censorship among journalists in India. We start with the presumption that a story won’t go…the censorship starts in our mind. This feeling has intensified with the present government.  When I took on the UPA government, nobody turned around to tell me that I am a Christian, an RSS agent, a communist. But today this is happening.

You took on the UPA government how?

I did stories on the Adarsh scam, the 2G scam, the CWG scam…

So nobody picked on your identity then?

Nobody picked on my identity…Obviously government of that time also tried to discourage me from writing, that was part of the game. But there was no concerted effort to discredit me.

The personal and the professional were separate with the earlier government?

Every time I write a story now which is critical of the present government or the establishment, I see trolls on Twitter and FB abusing me for being a Christian, which my name obviously suggests. There are rape threats -- some people think I am a woman – and murder threats. Initially I thought this was the natural outrage of a population but it is not. I have been watching them and now can document it...

So it’s some sort of a campaign?

That’s right. It is an organised campaign and I can point out the handles being used that are trying to discredit me.

Do you think TV has a done a little bit of disservice to the fight against corruption?

Not little. Huge disservice. TV has reduced the concept of news to very idiotic levels. It means you compromise who you quote, what you quote and how you verify that. Today every other TV anchor will run the document given by a lobbyist without any verification. My process is very simple. If a lobbyist gives me a document and I am unable to verify it, I do not run the story.

Sure. But with the present government, if you want to run the story after verification, there is absolutely no response that you are going to get! I am not talking about this government alone. I am talking about the
ethics of journalism, your job as a reporter. Who are the commentators in the public space today, on TV and who are now creeping into print? These are people who have not contributed anything significant….. In an earlier time, TV did some good because they were amplifying some stories that people like us were breaking.

Do you think lobbying should be legalised?

A lobbyist is an agent of corporates. A powerful, well funded lobby can alter the course of policy. Since the Vajpayee government you can officially register yourself as an official agent of an arms company,  I think. But nobody registered. Why? Because the intermediary in the Indian system is doing under-the-table deals. His original job is to carry suitcases to politicians, bureaucrats and generals. How can you then register and declare?

Do you fear legal hassles, especially in chapters where you have made specific allegations?

My book is backed by documents which run into more than 10,000 pages. Almost every line I have said in the book has a document backing it. Over the next few months, I am going to make these documents public.
Defamation notice is the basic tactic of the elite. When they hear something which is not comfortable, they don’t go to court. So if the airline honcho I have written about wants to go to court, I would be very happy because then I will be able to place on record, before the court, documents that have been buried in government for the last 20 years.

What kind of world will our children see?

I think the restless youth will demand changes. In fact, one of the predictions I have made is that we are going to witness another grand youth movement. It is coming. Those left out from the economic boom, those stripping and agitating against land takeovers in Jharkhand or women in the North-East -- they carry anger against economic boom since they are not the beneficiaries. This is a large population. Something like a left-of-centre movement could happen.