In a Lok Sabha discussion on India’s economic slowdown on 18 December, Ananth Kumar, a four-term member of Lok Sabha representing India’s main opposition party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), from the Bangalore South constituency, quoted a Mint Views page article, titled An open letter to the PM, which ran on our editorial pages on 10 December.
Also Read An open letter to the PM
The article, which ran under the “Their Views” folio, a page where outside, non-Mint contributors write, ran under the byline of Athreya, who was then identified at the end of the article as: “The author is an IAS officer. The views expressed here are personal.”
In his parliamentary response to Kumar’s statements, P. Chidambaram, the former Indian finance minister and now minister of home affairs, had this to say about the article published in Mint:
Also See
Ananth Kumar‘s speech in Lok Sabha (PDF)
P. Chidambaram’s speech in Lok Sabha (PDF)
“He (Kumar) cited an article allegedly written by an IAS officer. I have read the article. I do not know whether the name of that author given in that article is a true name or a pseudo name. I do not know whether he is an IAS officer. All I know is either he is a disloyal officer or a coward or both. If he had the courage, he should write the letter, sign in his own name and send it to the Prime Minister. But I hope they (BJP) do not encourage such officers; they did not encourage them when they were in power. So what is the point of citing a pseudonymous or anonymous author’s article taking shelter under it and running away when the reply is to be delivered?”
(Source: Parliament’s official reporters’ draft transcript)
Since, on the floor of India’s Parliament, Chidambaram has raised questions about an article published in Mint and since his comments will remain a matter of public record forever, we would like to clarify some facts for our readers as well as the minister.
Mint does not lie to its readers or knowingly mislead them. Period.
Athreya is the pen name, or a literary pseudonym, that the author of that article requested. And, as unambiguously stated at the end of the article by Mint’s editors, he is indeed an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer and the views expressed in that article were the officer’s personal views.
Mint’s journalism is governed by a clearly spelt out Code of Journalistic Conduct that all news employees are required to adhere to. While most of it applies to our “news” coverage and not the paper’s opinion pages, we would still like to reiterate a key tenet from its preamble on What We Stand For: