Two months after the Kolkata-based ABP Group announced that there would be  around 40 per cent job cuts in its English daily The Telegraph and Bengali flagship Ananda Bazar Patrika, the axe has finally fallen. On Thursday between journalists and other members of the staff from The Telegraph clubbed with those from ABP,  over 120 were asked to resign.

Among the hardest hit in the bloodbath was The Telegraph’s features bureau. Senior members of the department were asked to go and nearly all state correspondents axed. The political bureau also saw several sackings — at least three in Delhi and many others in state capitals. The paper’s photo and web departments have been denuded as well. The sacked journalists include both wage board employees as well as those on contract.

Pages of both ABP and The Telegraph were reduced drastically from December last year. The Telegraph’s popular Sunday magazine Graphiti was also scrapped. 

However, ABP has been extremely generous in its severance package to journalists. While younger staff are being given a few months’ basic as compensation, those who have put in several years of service with the company are getting anything between 75 to 100 per cent of a year’s CTC. Journalists who have been with the company for 20 years or more are also going to be paid their basic salaries up to their retirement age.

The layoffs and extreme cost-cutting measures at ABP come in the wake of rumours that The Telegraph may be up for sale. Sanjiv Goenka, chairman of the RP Sanjiv Goenka Group, is one of the names being thrown around in Kolkata as a prospective buyer. In 2015 Business World, ABP’s business magazine, was sold as well.

The shocking spate of job cuts in ABP is the second big story of media retrenchment in recent months. HT Media also cut a 100 plus jobs early this year, shutting down editions of Hindustan Times in Kolkata, Ranchi, Bhopal, Indore, Varanasi, Kanpur and Allahabad. HT’s business bureaux in Mumbai and Delhi were also shut down and the work outsourced to the staff of its sister publication, Mint.

The pressure of dwindling ad revenues, especially in the aftermath of demonetisation, is being cited as the principal reason for job cuts in media houses. The Times of India is also said to have put in place a freeze on hiring — after complaining in a lengthy Op-ed about the way wage board revisions in the pay scale of journalists and others was eating into the viability of running media organisations. 
 

"However, the layoffs in ABP have a dimension other than a purely economic one."

However, the layoffs in ABP have a dimension other than a purely economic one. It is being seen as a culture shift in the Group after owner Aveek Sarkar stepped down as Chief Editor in June last year. His younger brother Arup Sarkar, who helms the group now, is regarded as a more practical owner who is keen to shed flab and make his publications more cost efficient. 
Insiders say that Aveek Sarkar has been entirely marginalised now and has no say whatsver in the running of the papers.

Meanwhile, journalists at ABP who survived the culling are keeping their fingers crossed. Not everyone believes that they have seen the last of the layoffs. Morale is at rock bottom and the future looks tense.

(Courtesy: The Hoot with special inputs from Sabrangindia)
 

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The Telegraph reported as many as four persons were killed and over 500 injured in Hazaribagh on Sunday, as Ram Navami procession clashes again became an excuse to settle scores, fan inter-community passions and go amok on roads, prompting the district administration to impose an indefinite curfew starting from 8pm Friday.

The violence broke out that had begun on Friday broke out, once again, in Hazaribagh in Jharkhand on Sunday during another Ramnavmi procession. Processionists were the playing a banned cassette that contained objectionable and provocative slogans that triggered the violence, veteran civil and political rights activist, Razi Ahmed of the CPI, a resident of Hazaribagh, told Sabrangindia today. “The cassette played by processionists blared slogans like “Mussalmanon Bhag Jao Pakistan with unmentionable and obscene swear words especially for Muslims—some of these do not bear repetition,” he added  added.

Though akhara rally, with flags, spears, swords, maces and sticks started hitting the streets from 10 pm on Saturday through Sunday, skirmishes between akharas took a serious turn around 4am. At a rally at Jadu Babu Chowk, Sonu, the 28-year-old son of prominent BJP leader Deepak Nath Sahay, allegedly stabbed to death Anuj Kumar Sinha (19), a school van owner. Apparently, Sonu stabbed Anuj nine times in the stomach over an altercation, though the cause of his murderous rage is not yet known.

Sonu, his wife and son are absconding from their Lower Bodom Bazam mohalla home. Another victim, Saurabh Kumar alias Prince (14), a Class IX student of DAV and son of BJP Kisan Morcha leader, died instantly when he was stabbed and hit by a sharp object on the head. Prima facie, it appeared that Prince, who had come to see a Ram Navami rally, was attacked as his family in Vishnupur mohalla had an ongoing dispute with neighbours.

In the afternoon of Sunday, the body of one Bhairav Gope (55), a resident of Mohdar, was recovered from the place of an inter-community clash at Lepo Road, but DIG Upendra Kumar said it was due to an inter- akhara clash.

Lepo Road, however, was witness to ugly scenes when members of one community pelted stones at a passing procession of the Rewali Club and the latter retaliated by attacking a nearby mosque, which snowballed into a full-blown fight. According to sources, people in the procession then went on a rampage, gutting 18 shops, seven bikes and five four-wheelers, a mixture machine and a generator.

DIG Upendra Kumar, DC Mukesh Kumar and SP Akhilesh Kumar Jha rushed to the spot and ordered police to resort to lathi charge and disperse the crowds. They also deputed firefighters to douse the flames.

However, DIG Kumar, according to The Telegraph, has steadfastly maintained no one was killed at the Lepo Road violence. Section 144 was imposed at noon on Sunday but changed it to curfew at 8pm

Director General of Police, D.K Pandey spoke at length to Sabrangindia. He said that the deliberate circulation of provocative messages and incendiary slogans on social media and Whats App had led to the administration cutting off internet services which were only restored this morning (Monday). The confusions arose over new smaller processions that were attempting to join the larger Ram Navmi processions, he said. “The Ram Navmi processions take place over several days and they have loudspeakers. Apart from announcements and religious songs (bhajan kirtans)there were some objectionable things said. This and the confusions over the smaller processions caused tensions first at Bokaro but the Hazaribagh problems continued till yesterday. There were scuffles and some homes were arsoned,” he said adding that things were now under control.

“While no visible political leaders were part of this procession, the fact that the MP and Minister, Jayant Sinha had promised to shower the processions with rose petals from a helicopter worked to delayed its passage, through some areas,” Razi Ahmed further explained. Rose petals were indeed showered as the procession wound its way from Kud Revali to Hazaribagh; en route Khilgaon that falls within the limits of the Hazaribgh municipal corporation limits is where the violence broke out.

The abusive slogans led to a violent scuffle between youth of both communities and at spot of the Laxmi Cinema Mandir site, 10-15 shops, belonging to the minority Muslim community were set alight. The CRPF and RAF were deployed some time later, an action that residents felt could have been taken in advance to pre-empt the violence. Sabrangindia has some video clips of the violence which we are  withholding until tensions ease. Sabrangindia has forwarded these to the DGP on his request.

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Curfew was imposed at four places in Bokaro Steel City after a group of youths clashed with a Ram Navami procession.

Ram Navami, which drew a crowd of over a lakh to Ranchi's Main Road, was celebrated peacefully today in the capital, but reports of violence sparked by stone-pelting came in from Bokaro and Hazaribagh in the evening, dampening the festive spirit that had spread cheer across Jharkhand in the last few days.   In the steel city of Bokaro, curfew was clamped at 8.45 pm on Friday, April 15, at four places after police resorted to lathicharge and fired teargas shells to control an angry mob of youths who had allegedly pelted stones on a procession led by Bokaro MLA Viranchi Narain around 6 pm. More than two dozen people were hurt, including Bokaro deputy commissioner R.M. Ray, 10 policemen and three journalists, one of them a photographer with The Telegraph, that newspaper reported.

Barely half an hour later in Hazaribagh, at least six persons were injured in stone pelting when a Ram Navami procession passed through Pandu village, around 60km from the district headquarters. Later, an earthmover was set on fire. Newspapers reported that Hazaribagh SP Akhilesh Kumar Jha reached the village promptly with additional forces. The situation, he said, was now under control. The police were talking to elderly members of all communities to ensure that there was no further flare-up.

Police sources told newspapers that trouble had erupted between two communities in Pandu village during the procession when some people objected to cars being parked along the route. “It was a minor issue which led to an argument and stone pelting. Security forces at the spot managed to control the situation. But some elements targeted houses deep inside the village. As per our information, three houses were set on fire, while a fourth was partially burnt,” said Jharkhand police spokesperson and ADGP (Operations) S N Pradhan.

Curfew was imposed in Bokaro steel city area, Maraphari, Balidih and Sector XII police station areas.
 

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