His name may not spark easy recognition, but a
recounting of his work does. That alone makes Aniruddha Bahal an anomaly in
todayÂs personality-saturated, Twitter-dominated media landscape, where your
work is often conflated with the quality of your online presence and vice
versa.
But Bahal  an investigative journalist who
worked at India Today and Outlook and was, along with Tarun Tejpal, a founder of
Tehelka in its original Âdotcom era avatar as a news and investigations
website, before later going on to found Cobrapost, among a host of other
ventures  is that rare reporter who spent his whole career letting his work do
the talking.
Till now. BahalÂs memoir, A Taste For Trouble,
dives into the invisible bylanes of an investigative journalistÂs life, in the
process revealing more than just a personal story. Rather, it is a chronicle of
the times he lived through as much as it is an essential reminder of what, at
its heart, journalism is about: the pursuit of that which lies outside our
vision. That pursuit may often be clumsy, is sometimes accidental, and if it is
done truthfully  as BahalÂs account so vividly reminds us  frequently gets
its pursuer into trouble.
Bahal, clearly, has a talent for it.
Two of IndiaÂs most seminal investigative
stories of the past 25 years have one thing in common: him.
The first: the stunning expose of match fixing
in Indian cricket, if possible more devastating to the country than any
political scandal or corruption might be, because of the almost sacred space
cricket holds for its followers. Starting with Pakistani cricketer Rashid Latif
in 1997, Bahal and fellow journalist Krishna Prasad  both were then at
Outlook, along with Tarun Tejpal, with whom Bahal would later go on to co-found
Tehelka  had begun to insinuate their way into the cricketing establishment to
get at the true story of betting, fixing and throwing of matches. But it was in
2000 when Bahal and Tejpal persuaded Manoj Prabhakar to to wear recording
equipment and a pinhole camera and play whistleblower that all hell broke
loose. The resulting Tehelka investigation, Fallen Heroes, zeroed in on
three main episodes: the incident of a teammate offering Prabhakar Rs 25 lakh
(his revelation of the name Kapil Dev reverberated through the country even
long after the rest of the investigation was forgotten), a match in Sharjah
where they were apparently told by management to play on even when it was
clearly night, and a third incident in 1994 at Kanpur where Prabhakar and Nayan
Mongia were penalised for playing slow.
Fallen Heroes went on to be a 90 minute
documentary as well as a book, and the CBI went on to use over 40 hours of
recordings for their own investigation, but the entire episode also marked
BahalÂs life in other ways  it was the beginning of his realisation that an
investigative reporter who uncovers an explosive story is fated to spend as
much of his or her life in courtrooms as they are the field.
But even Bahal could not have imagined what was
in store when Tarun J Tejpal and he began the investigation that went on to
consume his life for the next many years, from being hunted, threatened,
persecuted in court, needing police security for over 8 years, and losing
absolutely everything they had worked for till then.
The story? Operation West End, which caught
members of the defence establishment and the then ruling NDA, leading all the
way up to the BJP party president Bangaru Laxman, caught on camera accepting
bribes in order to facilitate defence contracts to a fictitious company set up
by the journalists in order to expose the graft in IndiaÂs defence
procurements.
It was a story that was to profoundly alter the
course of all their lives  Bahal, Tejpal, Tehelka itself. BahalÂs book does a
superb job of giving a sense of what that investigation took and how he went on
to be dogged by it for many years. He estimates that he has spent over 650 days
in court as a result of his journalism, and this does not account for over a
decade of legal conferences, reading of judgements, preparing arguments and
testimony, nightly readings of legal precedent, and more, nor does it account
for the financial consequences of the same.
This is no depressing, deadening ride though.
The book is peopled with fascinating characters and anecdotes, from Outlook
founder Vinod MehtaÂs haunting of the editorial floor to TehelkaÂs only-ever
board meeting that had its three external directors all show up to the office
in person. The three directors? Amitabh Bachchan, Khushwant Singh, and Sir V S
Naipaul. Bahal is generous to the bosses who gave him room to flourish, and
seems to make the case that it is freedom and courage and the enabling of other
peopleÂs excellence that makes breakthrough journalism possible.
For instance, he writes of Tarun Tejpal, ÂTarun
is the best editor I have worked with. His understanding of a media product is
superb and his writing incredible. He is also one of the few people I really
enjoy sharing a laugh with, simply because of our keen sense of the absurd in
daily life. Elsewhere in the book he writes of Tarun J Tejpal, “he never micromanaged a story, preferring to
give you guidance in broad strokes. His USP as a journalist, apart from being a
good one himself, was to manage interpersonal relationships, leading reporters
to chase their own stuff.Â
He notes a similar quality in Uday Shankar, who
was his boss at Down to Earth. ÂShankar was another boss who left you
alone to do whatever you were up to. Yet, despite having, according to Bahal,
the smarts and knowledge to take a public editorial role, Âwhen Shankar left
print and went to television, he decided early on never to become an anchor  a
decision that contributed to his success at both India Today and Star
News.Â
Bahal was involved in a host of other noteworthy
stories during the course of an eventful, meandering career  his story on MSG
levels in the food of certain fast food chains for instance led to a massive
outcry and investigation against KFC Â and yet this book is not about
particular stories, particular media outlets or even himself the journalist.
It is, rather, a front row seat to the making of shape-shifting journalism itself; the moral ambiguities, ethical challenges and unwavering conviction involved in chasing truth hidden under dense layers of corruption and an absence of transparency; the crucial role an uncompromised judiciary does in enabling journalism to do its job, and the incredible personal and professional strains investigative journalists encounter when chasing the concealed.
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