The newcomer in the media industry- Harvest TV- has run into many problems since its inception. The news channel is having a name issue, a logo problem, an unclear shareholding pattern, and there are rumors of partisan political affiliations as well. And, now Barun Das, a consultant to news organizations, has ended his association as a consultant with the English news channel Harvest TV. According to the letter of resignation he submitted, Barun Das was in-charge of the entire organization barring the editorial.
According to Exchange4media report, fortnight, Barun Das fell out with the promoters of newly launched Harvest TV, including Deepak Choudhary and also with a firm controlled by Mrs. Kapil Sibal.
According to Exchange4media report, the letter that Das wrote about ending his relationship with the Harvest TV was directed to senior Congress leader Mr. Kapil Sibal- who is backing the channel. When exchange4media contacted Deepak Choudhary about the recent development, he said, “Barun Das stepped down after mutual settlement.”
Barun Das, in his letter to Kapil Sibal, expounded the reasons behind his decision. He began his letter by congratulating senior Congress leader for his channel going on air and then went on to add about things which were ailing him and ultimately forced him to end his relation as a consultant with the channel. He was not happy with Mrs. Sibal’s behavior. In the letter accessed by exchange4media, Barun Das writes, “Over the past few weeks, an issue has caused some practical inconvenience and some psychological distress for me, personally. Kindly accept this as a humble submission in your interest and pardon me if I convey anything else with my words and expressions.” He further writes, “This is about the way Mrs. Sibal has been coming to office and holding her meetings with staff members without involving me. She has mostly been very disdainful, rather disparaging, towards me in front of my team and even outsiders, when I had tried to involve myself in any discussion that she was holding.”
As per the contract, Barun Das supposed to be the in-charge of the entire organization except editorial, but the contract was breached. Barun Das writes, “While the breach of contract is an issue, I could’ve still lived with it.” He further added, “Then comes the insult and ignominy that I’ve faced because of her disdainful attitude towards me in front of teams and at times, outsiders. That has been a blow to my mental state of being and I strongly feel it is difficult to put up with that.” ‘Chain of command’ was the biggest issue faced by him at Harvest TV.
It would interesting to as to what would be Harvest TV’s response to Das’s letter and how long it would survive in media industry after attracting one controversy after another in its initial days.
There are many other big faces of media industry that are associated with Harvest TV. To name few, controversial journalists such as Barkha Dutt and Karan Thapar have a show each on Harvest TV. Some other prominent faces like Seemi Pasha (ex-India Today) and Vineet Malhotra (ex-Times Now) have already joined the venture.
Kapil Sibal, who is backing Harvest TV, had earlier played an instrumental role in establishing the ‘Tehelka’, controversial magazine, well known for its hit jobs on BJP leaders. Tarun Tejpal, the Editor-in-Chief of Tehelka was later arrested and imprisoned over rape charges. Shoma Chaudhury, the then editor of the magazine tried to defend Tejpal. Chaudhury is currently with Catch news, a left-liberal outfit of Rajasthan Patrika group.
For more details: Barely after one week of its inception, Harvest TV struggles to sustain
