The Express carries it, finally!

The Indian Express (Mumbai Edition) has carried an article on the current blogstorm. It is heartening to note that the mainstream media, which has till now acted comfortably numb to the issue, is waking up.

Kaps and I had asked Sudhish Kamath (of The Hindu) why the media was acting deaf-mute to this issue. His response was that his newspaper doesn't react unless one of the parties comes out with a press release. Well, I cannot fault him on that. However, I am surprised that the media in our country works on such dated principles. I wonder what press release The Hindu waited for before covering the recent earthquake or last year's tsunami. Perhaps the media stands testimony to the statement "When confronted with a problem, people don't think; they simply re-adjust their prejudices!"

The Express article states...

With word spreading in the ‘blogosphere’, the incident has now erupted into a major controversy and hundreds of bloggers are standing by Sabnis and espousing their right to freedom of speech

Further it quotes A. Sandeep, the all-India dean of IIPM as saying that he has "no idea about it." On the legal (t)angle, the article seems to side with the institute.

Legally, IIPM is well within its rights in taking the blogger to court, said advocate Vishwas Patel. ‘‘The organisation’s reputation is tarnished by such statements and if it continues to be eroded, it can resort to civil and criminal procedures under defamation laws,’’ he said.