MOFUSSIL MAFIOSO

Mofussil correspondents' pay packet?

They probably earn much more on the sidelines then what their organizations offer them.

Know what, receiving haftas is no more the prerogative of cops alone, nowadays. A seasoned correspondent gets his due from all over his fiefdom.

These correspondents are virtually the Mafioso of their own area.

I know of one of one such Mofussil Mafioso (MM), from a town in the North. He’s not only treated with fear by the cops in the region, but is also a terror amongst the matka bookies. and others engaged in slime.

Well without intending to give the English Media a clean chit, this chappie belongs to the vernacular section. This MM has the capacity of even getting a cop -- usually the constabulary -- by using his clout with the seniors.

With matka bookies and other slime-dung activities … his strategy is simple.

Whenever the tap of moolah stops flowing, he just files a story on the purported rise of such activities in the region. The cops are the forced to follow up the issue … (you know what I mean).

There was a Baina based journo, who in fact had imposed a regular hafta on the Baina police outpost. This guy who used to work for Tarun Bharat would regularly extract money from the police in return for not filing any adverse story against them.

Election time is definitely a boom time for journalists of this tribe and stripe.

There was another based in South Goa who belonged to the Herald who used to often drop by at the Margao police station and tell the officers there that his purse had been flicked and would bide time until the officer slipped him a few notes.

Well times have changed and now journalists from the electronic media have taken this act of "making hay" to another level all together.

Remember the Mandarin Hotel attack in Mapusa? Apparently, Anil Lad was the only one who captured the event live. He made a number of copies of the CD and distributed to various stakeholders for a price.

Of course journalists enjoy a symbiotic relationship with politicians. Perhaps it is stronger with mofussil correspondents cause of their ‘localized roots’.

Perhaps the low perks offered by their bosses encourage them to indulge in such extracurricular acitivities. Perhaps no one back at the Panjim headquarters don’t care about them. Newspapers like Goa Times make it very clear that all they are willing to offer a mofussil correspondent an ‘Identity card’ and not a penny more. Perhaps these identity cards are used to blackmail folks back in their territory.

Perhaps there is a need to keep a watch on them??!! Perhaps they need to be paid respectably too.