To
Mr. Kunal Ghosh
Sports Editor,

Sangbad Pratidin,

Sir,

I was pretty disturbed to see an article on the front page of yesterday’s issue of your daily. The article in question was meant to pass on a congratulatory note from our CM to the city team KKR for winning this year’s edition of IPL; instead it turned out to be a rather bitter and naked attempt to assault the image of Mr. Sourav Ganguly. The opening lines were so crude and ill-tasted that it made me feel nauseated.

I am given to understand that your daily has come a long way from just another newspaper to a ‘promising’ chronicle in recent times. While I am least interested in your biases regarding politics or sports, it’s high time that you take care of the misconception your daily is trying to dish out.

    As somebody who has never studied ‘Journalism’ as a subject, I had the impression that journalism was a neutral man’s passive game. As Vermont Royster told the 1967 class of Nieman Fellows, a journalist should be a professional amateur, as he was to cast a fresh eye on a subject and remain objective, a tradition that keeps him from imposing personal viewpoints on their readers. Your ‘anonymous’ staff reporter seems to be anything but passive, won’t you agree?

   What baffles me more is the fact that just above the concerned article was a report authored by you in which you have clearly stated of your intention of keeping sports aloof of the political affairs of our state. How could you, then, possibly allow an article that completely counters your claim without being overtly hypocritical?
Even if your arrogant gesture suggests otherwise, I would like to humbly remind you that by endorsing such prejudice, you would be doing more harm than good to your own reputation as well as your paper’s, and to a greater extent, to our state. Parochialism is one thing, but branding people with undue insult and accusations was not part of the lesson I was taught while growing up, sorry.

With all due congratulations to SRK, skipper Gambhir and other boys of KKR, let’s not forget Sourav Ganguly’s contribution to Bengal Cricket and more importantly, Bengali way of life, long exceeds the reach of such distasteful opinions that has been published in your paper. True to his image, he will never care to stoop down to counter your political grievances. And you will do well to remember that sports and politics don’t produce the best of results when mixed forcefully. As of now, a thoughtful apology on your part should nicely cover up the mess you have created.

Hoping your better judgement will prevail.

Sincerely,
A neutral cricket fan
(Anirban Bobo Dasgupta)
29.05.2012