Why am I contesting for the President’s post?
Dear members,
Till some days ago, I was not keen on contesting the biennial Press Club polls, scheduled for July 26, 2008, owing to my pre-occupation with the “Save UNI” struggle that I have been involved with for nearly two years now and my disinclination to take active part in the electoral politics of the Club. However, the following reasons have compelled me to contest for the post of President in the polls:
1) Ahead of the close of nominations on July 21, 2008, I had a hunch that the Gurbir Singh-led ruling panel – Progressive Democratic Alliance (PDA), for reasons best known to it – was not putting up its nominee for the post of President. This meant that there would be only one Presidential candidate in the fray i.e., Mr Pradeep Vijayakar – fielded by the G Viswanath-led Forum for Democracy and Development (FDD). This would have led to the unopposed election of Mr Vijayakar for the post of the President for the second consecutive two-year term. For your kind information, Mr Vijayakar has held the President’s post for four terms during the last 12 years.
In the larger interests of the Club, I sincerely felt that Mr Vijayakar should not go unchallenged in the 2008-10 Press Club polls, considering that his performance as the President during 2006-08 has been rather pathetic. That is why I have decided to contest for the Club’s Presidential polls against Mr Vijayakar.
While I would deliberate at length on the performance of my opponent at a later stage, what immediately comes to my mind is a comment made by Mr Vijayakar in his appeal to the voters in the 2006-08 polls, in the context of increasing accountability in the current journalistic profession. He had this to say: “There are pressing times for journalists. The system of accountability has come into the profession. Perform or pack up. Stragglers have no place. The system of appraisal can easily weed out the shirkers.” Mr Vijayakar should realise that his statement applies to the Press Club, Mumbai, as well.
Having keenly assessed the functioning of Mr Vijayakar during the two years, I can without doubt say that he has not effectively utilised the powers vested with him as a President under Article 14 (a) of the Club’s by-laws which states thus: “The President of the Club shall oversee the functioning of the Managing Committee and he shall exercise the powers vested in him as the head of the Club elected by the General Body, to evaluate the performance of the Managing Committee, guide it from time to time, intervene decisively where there is malfunctioning or where there can be a possible breakdown in the administration. Further provided that in such eventuality, he shall enlist the assistance of the Internal Auditor as provided in Article 30”
Nor has Mr Vijayakar made effective use of the Internal Auditor as provided for under Article 30 of the amended by-laws, which mandates the Internal Auditor thus: “The Internal Auditor shall directly report to the President every three months on the performance of the Club. Further, the Internal Auditor shall present, if the situation demands, to the President an on-the-spot report on his own or at the behest of the President, if there is a likely breakdown in the Club administration or malfunctioning of the Managing Committee or any other development which necessitates the President's effective intervention”.
2) Another reason behind my deciding to contest the Presidential polls is rather saddening silence on the part of Mr Vijayakar on the appalling disregard shown by the outgoing Secretary Gurbir Singh to our the Institution Marathi Patrakar Sangh in our neighborhood and n the amended by-laws of the Club.
In this context, I would like to inform you that I have written several letters to Mr Vijayakar, with copies to Chairman Devendra Mohan, bringing to his notice the commissions and omissions of the outgoing Managing Committee and seeking his intervention. But, neither has Mr Vijayakar bothered to respond nor has the Chairman made amends within the Managing Committee.
3) I do not belong to either of the panels fighting the polls. If anything, I belong to a ‘minuscule minority” of members in the Club and those in the profession -- that is sane, sober and concerned, that believes in journalistic probity, that asks questions if something has gone amiss and that makes it a point to crusade against the omissions and commissions of rulers that be in a premier institution like the Press Club, Mumbai.
If I am contesting the Club Presidential polls, it is not because that I want to win myself and defeat anybody else in the polls – I honestly do not have a captive vote bank --, but it is because I would like to use the polls as means to reach out to my views to members on crucial issues – some of them constitutional and legal in nature and others relating to the day-to-day functioning of the club.
All the same, it is suffice to say in the end, – if elected to the post of the President by all of you – I would like to do the following:
a) Given that the Press Club, Mumbai, is not a legal registered body under any law of the land as it ought to have for an organization that has been existence since the early seventies, I would like to work towards to regularising/ legalising all matters relating to the Club. (On this count, I plan to bring out a fact-sheet during the course of my campaign).
b) I would dexterously discharge duties assigned to me as the President under Article 14(a), (b) and (c) of the Club’s by-laws.
c) I would also work ensuring that the various amended provisions of the Club’s by-laws are adhered to by the Managing Committee of the day in letter and spirit.
d) I would do everything at my command to uphold the dignity of the institution, would work in tandem with the Managing Committee, strive to make the functioning of the club as transparent as possible and contribute in my own to the growth of the Club.
e) Last but not the least, I would strive for increased participation of members in the activities of the club in general and its elections in particular.
I sincerely look forward to receiving your support my Presidential candidature in the Club polls, scheduled for July 26, 2008.
Warm regards
CP Jha
You may also write me at cpjha@yahoo.com
CP JHA
A senior journalist, CP Jha – better known as CP among his colleagues and friends – has been working for the United News of India (UNI) since 1986. Reporting on politics has always been his forte, CP has of late begun to cover events in business and corporate sectors, a new beat he has picked up on his own after coming to Mumbai in 2003. Though he is attached to “UNI-varta” – the Hindi section of the national news agency, he files copies both in Hindi and English.
Coming from a middle-class family in Bihar, CP has been associated with some movement or the other since his college days. Like thousands of other students of his time, CP was inspired by Jay Prakash Narayan to no end. And he took to JP movement during the Emergency days, like a fish takes to water.
A linguist, CP did his post-graduation in Chinese literature and language from the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) where, in fact, he learnt the arts and science of student union politics – a developed trait that has stood him in good stead in later years.
Though a product of JNU which has spawned hundreds of youngsters who easily get agitated, can hold forth on issues of ideology endlessly but can not deliver in the end, CP has attained a rare maturity over the years, is committed to the core on issues relating to UNI and various journalistic organizations. CP has been in the forefront of a long-drawn agitation against the desperate efforts by a media baron to take control of UNI. During the course of more than a year-long agitation, CP as an All India General Secretary of the UNI Employees Federation had gone a week-long fast in UNI’s Bandra office to protest against suspensions and transfers of the employees in October 2006.
The struggle by CP and his other colleagues in Mumbai, Delhi, Kerala and elsewhere in the country --- which took them to various courts and Company Law Board --has already paid dividends. And they have succeeded in restoring a status quo situation in UNI – which is now sans the control of the media baron.
During the “Save UNI” agitation, CP turned a chronicler of the troubled times within UNI, CP objectively documented the unpleasant events that befell both the employees and the news agency during those months and, at the same time, brought on record the overall history of the organisation, five years ahead it completing its golden jubilee of its formation, in his book “UNI - Back to Future” which is soon to come out with a forward by Veteran Journalist Kuldip Nayar.
Dubbed as an `activist-journalist' than a mere journalist, CP had earlier created a stir in the political circles of Uttar Pradesh in 1998, when he as a journalist launched a campaign against the `fake encounters' perpetrated by the police at the behest of the then Mulayam Singh Yadav dispensation in the state. In that "Campaign against Liquidation", he had not only crusaded against the unpardonable violation of human rights committed -- all in the name of eliminating criminals, but also meticulously documented in reams of pages the manner in which the police had targeted and bumped off `unwanted' elements.
CP is not sparing when it comes to his own ilk within the media. He made quite a few enemies within the journalistic circles of Lucknow in 1997, when he launched a campaign against "corruption in the media" allegedly involving at least 100 journalists. The then UP chief minister Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav had virtually bought over the journalists in question by gifting them with.
In Lucknow, CP along with senior journalist Radhika Ramseshan had around the same time crusaded against a pornographic magazine brought out by a section of journalists in the Press Club there in collaboration with some local politicians on the occasion of “Holi”. As part of the crusade, CP and Radhika had staged a dharna in front of then chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav’s May-day meeting in the Press Club, prompting his successor, Mayawati to order a State CID inquiry against those behind the questionable magazine. Afterwards, the journalists and politicians concerned discontinued the publication of the magazine.
All through his 22-year-long career, CP has taken active interest in the issues relating to fellow journalists. During the period, he has been a member of several Press Clubs, including Press Clubs of India (Delhi), and Chandigarh Press Club
CP has been a member of the Press Club, Mumbai, since 2003. During the period, he has been very active and he has crusaded among other things against the questionable governance of the club by the Gurbir Singh-led ruling alliance, its utter disregard for the by-laws of the Club, Mr Pradeep Vijayakar’s failure to discharge his Presidential duties and determined efforts by the ruling dispensation to bail out Secretary (Mr Gurbir Singh) in the alleged violent incident involving the Secretary himself and member Renni Abraham.
After considerable deliberation, CP has now chosen to take a plunge into the electoral politics of the Press Club, Mumbai. More than winning the elections, CP wants to use the polls as a means to focus on the challenges before the Press Club, Mumbai, in the coming years.
