RIYADH, 14 October 2006 — Kerala native Anita Pratap fits the profile of the proverbial news addict who, like any other award-winning journalist, spends a great deal of time keeping tabs on current events worldwide. But one thing she doesn’t spend a lot of time doing is watching television.
“I read a lot every day,” she said in an interview this past week with Arab News. “I watch TV news only for 30 minutes and only because that’s the time I spend exercising on my treadmill. TV is only good for breaking news. To understand — to make sense of what’s going on — I still rely on print journalism.”
Ironically, Pratap has spent a good part of her career as a television news journalist. She worked for CNN (as well as Indian Express, India Today and Time magazine) until 1999. She won the prestigious George Polk Award in 1997 for excellence in television reporting for coverage of the Taleban takeover of Kabul. She also earned nominations for the Pinnacle Award in the television news category for her work in Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Kashmir, where she was the first television journalist to report from the 22,000-foot-high Siachen Glacier — the highest battleground on earth — where Indian and Pakistani armies exchange fire almost daily.
Other notable commendations for this intrepid Keralite include winner of the 1997 Eminent Indian Award, conferred by the Indo-American Society, the Chameli Devi Jain Award in 1998 given to an “Outstanding Woman Media Person”, and Woman Achiever of the Year in 1998, awarded by Giants International.
Pratap is also author of “Island of Blood” (Penguin, 2003) where she profiles Tamil military leader V. Prabhakaran and discusses her work in Sri Lanka and Afghanistan. She also produced four documentaries about India’s cultural and political landscape.
Pratap discussed with Arab News her views on the future of India as a global player.
Q: Can you talk about Kerala’s attempt to foster sustainable development and eco-tourism?
A: Well, I think it’s important to encourage growth without harming the environment. Protecting the environment is important in any part of the world, but it is even more important in Kerala, which is the jewel in India’s crown. It is the emerald state. It is world famous because of the bounty of nature it is endowed with. It’s Kerala’s unique environment that makes Kerala unique. Kerala today is on the world map as a tourist destination. People flock to see Kerala’s incredible natural beauty and rich local culture, not for high-rise buildings and shopping malls.
Q: How does this reckon with the state’s efforts to promote industrial development?
A: If we allow construction and factories to mar this extraordinary natural beauty, we would be the biggest fools — no, we would be criminals. Our children would never forgive us, for we would have destroyed what is their heritage. I am alarmed how in Kerala, in the name of development, we are allowing factories and real estate monstrosities to come up in our front yards in a way the West would never allow in their backyards. We do this because of a completely misguided notion of development. Development that entails the destruction or despoliation of the environment is unsustainable and utterly shortsighted. And I hope the government will heed this before it is too late. It’s impossible to turn the clock back on the destruction of nature. We can destroy in a year what nature takes hundreds of thousands of years to create.
Q: What you say about Kerala’s recent effort to ban Coca-Cola after reports that the soft drink contained pesticides?
A: The fact is that this is the second time that pesticides have been found in the drink. Coke is an unhealthy drink even without pesticides. It is far better for Kerala youngsters to drink tender coconut water; it’s tasty, nutritious and plentiful, and it’s good for our local economy. But coconut water has no snob value. It’s not trendy. And I find this attitude bizarre and truly old fashioned. Increasingly, our people have outmoded concepts of modernity.
Q: What about allegations that the move was politically motivated, a form of protectionism?
A: Are our columnists aware how the US government banned shrimp imports from Kerala on completely unsubstantiated grounds of hygiene, forcing our trade authorities to file expensive lawsuits in the US? Was that ban protectionism? They call it “strict standards” when they ban imports on trumped-up charges of hygiene, but it’s “protectionist” of us to ban the sale of products proven to be contaminated. I don’t blame Coke or Americans; I blame us servile Indians who think that the foreigner must always be right. We crave their approval. I don’t always agree with the way they go about it, but I admire the way Americans single-mindedly pursue their national interest. So do the Chinese. Every nation must pursue its national interests, and not seek to win brownie points from others.
Q: What are your views on India’s long-term goals for its development as a world player?
A: Nothing can be achieved overnight or even in five years. Unfortunately, all our politicians are driven by immediate, short-term goals. If India is to evolve into a developed nation, then we must have a 20-year perspective. We need to plant the right seeds today for it to yield the right fruits in 20 years. Results will not and cannot be achieved immediately. Short-term perspectives have blighted India’s post-colonial history. The seeds of the few successes we are experiencing today were planted decades ago — whether it was Nehru’s concept of self-reliance, which made us make our own cars and refrigerators that created this huge manufacturing and entrepreneurial capability within India, or the computer software giant that we have become today because Rajiv Gandhi planted the seeds in the mid 80’s. But our biggest challenge was and is to wipe out poverty. Too many Indians live without the basics that other nations take for granted. It is not only pointless, but also positively dangerous, if one segment of India becomes a developed nation within a nation while the rest struggle in a rut of poverty, injustice and exploitation. Such cruel disparity is simply not sustainable. The earlier the authorities and the elite in India wake up to this reality and do something about it, the better.
Q: So how does your vision reconcile disparities with India’s backward castes?
A: I believe that reservations (affirmative-action quotas) must be made for backward castes in lower education (at merit-based primary schools) so that they can access the best education facilities and function in the right environment that facilitates knowledge acquisition. If this process is well regulated and implemented then these castes can compete on a level playing field by the time they reach the higher education levels. I personally believe that higher education should be merit-oriented. If reservations are observed at all, then seats should be reserved only to financially poor students.
Q: What about the challenges Indian women face in being promoted based on their professional merits, or, as it has been called: the “glass ceiling”?
A: Glass ceilings exist everywhere. I would say there are no barriers or discrimination against women in India until they approach the top management level. There, men still largely occupy the positions.
Q: What are you working on these days?
A: I am currently writing three books. That has taken up all my time this year. One book is ready now and the printing will begin soon, Inshallah! I have two more to go. Hopefully, I will finish them by the end of next year. Writing is what I enjoy the most, but some subjects depress me. I just finished writing a long paper for the Press Council of India on “Media and Globalization”. Writing that paper clarified issues in my head and I hope it will do the same for readers. What is worrisome is that there is a method in the madness. Across the world, the media today is no longer what it was. I don’t think people have really caught on to what exactly is going on. In this paper, I try to make sense of what is going on, throw the spotlight on the distinct patterns that underline what seem to be haphazard events.
Q: You’re from Kottayam, Kerala. You studied in New Delhi. You met your husband (Arne Walther) when he was Norway’s ambassador to India. You’ve lived in Oslo and Vienna (when Walther became ambassador in Austria). Now you live in Saudi Arabia where your husband is secretary-general of the International Energy Forum. Your son, Zubin, is a corporate lawyer in New Delhi. How has all this globetrotting affected your view of people and cultures?
A: I am a global citizen. I am equally comfortable living in Saudi Arabia, India, Norway, Austria, and the US. The only difference is that in Saudi Arabia I have to wear an abaya when I go out. But people are the same everywhere: some are good, some are bad, some are fun, some are terribly boring, some bigots, some tolerant. I do what interests me wherever I am. I am a person of minimal needs. A book and a laptop is all I need.