By Onkareshwar Pandey
This is the BBC World Service I am Mark Tully in New Delhi.
For decades those eight words delivered in a calm yet authoritative baritone were the most trusted sounds in the Indian subcontinent From the tea stalls of Lutyens Delhi to the remotest hamlets of Bihar millions would huddle around small flickering transistors In an era when state media was often a mouthpiece for the establishment the thundering reports of Mark Tully were the ultimate stamp of truth
Whether it was his harrowing eyewitness account of the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War his reporting as Operation Blue Star unfolded in 1984 or his steady voice amidst the smoke of the Bhopal Gas Tragedy Tully was the man who told India her own story.
The Era of the Watchdog vs The Era of the Milch Cow
My association with Tully was forged during a pivotal era of Indian democracy In the mid 90s the political soil was shifting the Congress was receding the Third Front was an ambitious democratic experiment and the BJP was steadily carving its path to the center I was first introduced to the legendary Vinod Dua by Nandan Saxena during the era of Parakh on Doordarshan Later during the 1998 Sony TV show Chunav Chunauti I worked alongside Tully and Dua at the latters Prithviraj Road office
Historically the media was respected as a Watchdog Tully much like Vinod Dua belonged to this original school He asked the toughest questions of the ruling elite not with noise but with a steely politeness He would look a Prime Minister in the eye offer a humble smile and deliver an incisive question that left no room for evasion
Today we see the rise of Reverse Journalism In a tragic metamorphosis the media Watchdog has been replaced by the corporate Milch Cow These modern media houses are bought to milk narratives that suit their masters But there is a fundamental flaw in this alchemy you cannot milk a watchdog When you try to force a Kheer of propaganda out of a Khichdi of lies the result is a poisonous acidic discourse This Tejabi milk is not only toxic for the public but often backfires on the masters themselves as the media frequently gets its own engineered narratives embarrassingly wrong
The Philosophy of the Muddle
Tullys deepest thoughts on democracy were rooted in what he called the muddle In his seminal works India in Slow Motion and No Full Stops in India he argued that Indias strength lay in its refusal to be homogenized He viewed the attempt to impose a singular rigid narrative on India as a threat to its democratic fabric He believed that once journalism abandons the slow process of verification for the fast reward of viral narratives it becomes a tool of propaganda
The Pain of the Digital Shadow
It is a tragic irony that in his final years the voice that once cut through the fog of state propaganda was hijacked by the machinery of Fake News Tully was frequently targeted by social media trollers who authored toxic biased commentaries most notably the viral termite ridden Banyan tree piece and falsely attributed them to him These fabrications were the antithesis of the man I knew Tully never sought to uproot the Indian tradition he sought to protect its diversity from the narrow mindedness of modern narrative engineering
As I look back on my time with him and later my years anchoring for Vinod Dua on Pratidin I realize that Tullys greatest lesson was simple To be a great journalist one must first be a humble human He lived a life of profound meaning leaving a mark on the global horizon that no amount of digital misinformation can erase
A Necessary Clarification Setting the Record Straight
As someone who worked closely with Mark Tully I must issue this clarification Mark Tully was NOT the author of the viral political posts circulating on WhatsApp and X The widely shared article claiming he wrote about the termite ridden old Banyan tree is an absolute fabrication Tully did not have a personal social media presence and repeatedly denied these biased commentaries Let us honor him by sharing the truth not the narrative
Goodbye Mark Tully You taught us that in a world of loud full stops the truth often lives in the commas
About the Author
Onkareshwar Pandey is a veteran journalist, academician, and institution builder with over 35 years of leadership in the global media and knowledge sectors. A multi-platform pioneer, he has served as Group Editor, Managing Editor, and CEO across ten premier media organizations, including ANI, The Sunday Indian (14 languages), and the Sahara Group.A prominent face of Indian television’s golden era, Mr. Pandey was the opening anchor for Sahara TV and the lead anchor for the daily show Pratidin. His career is distinguished by historic collaborations with legends such as Mark Tully and Vinod Dua on landmark programs like Parakh and Chunav Chunauti. Currently he is the CEO and Editor-in-Chief of Observer Global Media Group.
