Thread by @smitadeshmukh

This is what I hear in majority of journo whatsapp groups - Gosh we are suffering in #WestBengal. There have been no jobs. But no, we don't want outsiders. Seriously?!
I've been in media for 30 years and in my 22 years as a journalist in Mumbai, this is what I saw -

Thread

Majority of editors in print and TV were Bongs. And they were clear in hiring more Bongs - colleagues, families and even current and former girlfriends. Such was the trend that we joked that the official language in Times, DNA would be Bengali. The strategy was effective

#Mumbai and #Maharashtra embraced them. So did Benguluru and Delhi. No one said 'outsider'
When majority of deskies for DNA Mumbai launch landed from Kolkata, we worked together to ensure they understood #Maharashtra politics. We were a team. Vada paav was shared. It was fun

Every media student who seeks admission from Bengal in Mumbai, Pune tells a horror story of poor growth and jobs. No one ever wants to go back.
But now, when Bengal is on the verge of change, the same people who embraced this lot are 'outsiders'
It is despicable beyond words

The 'outsider' debate is kicked off by same editors who have plush houses in Mumbai and Delhi with their entire extended families living a cushy life. Imagine if Balasaheb Thackeray had called them outsiders, throwning them out? The same lot would have screamed fascism!

I was always the outsider in these Bong media groups. They claimed intellectual superiority over glasses of whiskey at the press club. I'm proud the way my city, state embraced them as their own. But they are failing all of us in return.
Exactly what I expected. Sigh