Nora Chopra writes in The Sunday Guardian:
A major fight has broken out among some Trinamool Congress leaders. Mamata Banerjee‘s blue-eyed boy, Rajya Sabha member Kunal Ghosh was thrown out of the office of Pratidin newspaper by its staffers last week.
Ghosh, who used to be the deputy editor of Pratidin, was told that his service had been terminated.
The newspaper is owned by Trinamool’s Tutu Bose and his son Srinjoy Bose, the party’s Rajya Sabha member. Tension between Srinjoy Bose and Kunal Ghosh has been rising over a period of time, and various allegations had been levelled against the latter.
The immediate reason was the campaign unleashed by Ghosh holding the father-son duo responsible for the three-year ban imposed on the Mohun Bagan football club by the all India football federation. Tutu Bose is the president of Mohun Bagan, Srinjoy is the vice president and Ghosh is looking for a foothold in the club.
It is believed that before sacking Ghosh, the father-son duo had taken the CM into confidence. But soon after, during Mamata’s trip to Jangalmahal, Ghosh was by her side.
Read the full column: Buzzword
Also read: How a Hindi newspaper editor became an MP
How Rajeev Shukla became a minister
External reading: Mamata‘s men flaunt their degrees
22 April 2013 at 4:11 pm
JFA expresses concern at newspaper closure notice
Guwahati: Journalist Forum Assam (JFA) has expressed serious concern at the closer notices issued by the management of two Assam based daily newspapers and urged Assam government to take initiative for possible re-launching both the newspapers owned by the Kolkata based by Saradha Group. The forum also asked the management to release the outstanding salaries to the journalist and non-journalist employees at the earliest.
In a press statement issued by the JFA president Rupam Baruah and secretary Nava Thakuria, the organization revealed that the management of Sakalbela, a Bengali daily and Seven Sister’s Post, an English daily published from Guwahati had issued closer notices recently from its Kolkota office and since the first week of April 2013 both the newspapers have not been circulated and printed.
Mentionable is that Sakalbela had employed nearly forty working journalists and another hundred media employees and similarly Seven Sister’s Post had around fifty working journalists and hundred other employees. The sudden closer notice issued by the Saradha Group of companies chairman cum managing director Sudipta Sen has rendered all these newspaper employees jobless.
The media reports from Kolkata suggest that all the newspapers and television channels owned by the Saradha Group have been closed down. More ever, the Saradha Group chief Sudipta Sen remains absconding for many days. The affected employees of the group have also lodged FIRs in local police stations.
The media employees based in Assam have alleged that they have not received their monthly salaries for the last two months. The JFA has asked the Saradha Group management to immediately release their outstanding salaries and other due benefits (including the PF). The forum also appealed to the State chief minister Tarun Gogoi and State labour minister Prithvi Majhi to pursue with the concerned management for reviving the production of both the newspapers and also providing due-financial benefits to nearly three hundred worried employees at the earliest.