Ministers, GOM and ‘White’ journalists get colour coding wrong

I think the journalists and government who suggested the classification and colour coding of journalists got their hues and imaging all wrong. Green should never have been the colour for fence sitters because if the fence sitters fall on either side, to the right or to the left, they would need to be fully washed and steeped in some new colours.

Now they suggested white for those favouring the government but if green were to splash on to the white, the white could be quite destroyed – the green may be diluted to a paler hue but the white, depending on the proportion of the green splash, might begin to look distinctly envious green, perhaps a lighter shade but definitely green. Then isn’t green, even if it be the colour of fertility and agriculture on the Indian flag, also the colour assigned to Muslims? So, tch, tch, bigots!

There might be some upper crust Hindus among the fence sitters and the government must afford them the opportunity to don a proper hue, right or left. So I think the wishy-washy white should have been the colour of fence sitters, easily overcome and coloured in any shade you want.

So then what should be the colour of the government supporters, if not white? Why, saffron, quite clearly and I am surprised it should not have occurred to these supporters. After all, hasn't the government been trying to tinge everything in saffron for the past half dozen years?

And even if the saffron on the Indian flag stands for sacrifice and purity – it was after all the colour of Adi Shankaracharya and Guru Gobind Singh long before the RSS ideologues were born or even conceived – today it is associated with militant nationalism and the kind of partisan politics associated with the BJP. So it should be saffron that would gel well with white and even if that turned it a lighter shade of saffron, it would still be so distinct, no one would notice.

Now, black for those against the government is also quite the wrong colour. The government was probably thinking of the black hearts these journalists they believe possess but I would suggest red. Dark blood red. For these journalists, only a handful remaining in the country today, are still like the red rag to the bull. They make the (red) blood of those in authority boil with their consistent refusal to toe the government line, they draw the blood of many in power with their terrific exposès; they wave the red flag on the surreptitious attempts by government authorities to destroy India and generally make the government see red with their support for liberal democracy.

Red it should be then, for if the green fence sitter or even the white one falls on to the left side, the black will just not react to either – at best it might turn a lighter shade of black with both or either. But the red could be made to turn pink with the white, so we will instantly know who has tinted whom or even the green could turn the red into a horrible shade of olive and the government could instantly succeed in blurring all the lines of rebellion among the journalists.

But then I am not sure if red mixes with saffron what might result or even green with saffron – a less horrible shade of olive, I am sure. But olives are not a bad colour either and they are quite healthy for the system, so that might not be quite a bad thing to happen. It could well purge the nation of all the toxicity and poison circulating within for the last several years and give us all healthy hearts.

But then the government and its supporters quite forgot the colour yellow – I would have thought that would be the first colour that would occur to them in the context of journalists. But I suppose it was quite prudent and advisable to skip that colour and give it a wide berth. For, I guess, today most of those who could be clearly described as yellow journalists are on the bigoted side of the national divide.

These are aplenty in the country today, mostly devoted to targeting the opposition. But while the original American definition of the term “yellow journalism" related to newspapers that did not research or substantiate their news reports and merely relied on sensational headlines to boost sales, today, in our country specifically, we have purveyors of not just sensational, empty headlines but actual fake news – like, for example, UNESCO having declared Jana, Gana, Mana as the best national anthem in the world (even if Rabindranath Tagore did write those lines) or all the 196 countries in the world wanting the Indian Covaxin or even that a particular Ayurvedic immunity booster was a cure for the Coronavirus (which had to be eventually denied by the World Health Organisation).

So what colour should we assign to them? I really cannot think of any primary, original colour – it cannot be blue or purple because they represent better values, it cannot be beige or gray for they are the colours of elegance.

Perhaps, for these kind of journalists we should mix a bit of yellow into the saffron and be done with it, whatever colour that palette throws up. It would be appropriate, I think.

But in all this hoopla over colours, I quite forgot a nugget in the original report on the colour coding of journalists – that many of the fellow ideologues do not trust their own loyalists and pliant journalists. I seem to recall the most vocal of them was dismissed as a 'pariah'. While I feel sad on their behalf for such low value placed on their devotion, I am wondering which colour can represent such types the best – white, perhaps, with splashes of red to represent how the brave warriors have fallen in the battle for eyeballs? And with a few brown muddy boot prints to depict how they are being trampled underfoot by those they consider their own.

That leaves those journalists unafraid of speaking the truth, of speaking truth to power and having been slammed into prison for months for refusing to speak anything but the truth. What colour should we assign them? I think it should be three (or four at a pinch) – the tricolours of the Indian national flag with the navy of the Ashoka Chakra centred on the white below the saffron and above the green.

For these are the journalists who have kept the spirit of the nation, its democracy and freedom of expression alive. They are the flag bearers of India and they deserve no less than the purest colours of the world. They represent the sacrifice (saffron), peace (white) and prosperity (green) and integrity (the blue of the Ashoka Chakra) that India has always stood for.

(Views expressed are authors own)