Pragmatic reacts to a badly researched article in India Today and asks : why can’t we have better defence reporters?

No one can deny that there is a problem with recruitment and retention of officers in the Army, but there are deep-rooted causes to the problem. The issue of shortages in the officer cadre was holistically covered by this blogger long before this orchestrated media campaign started. Whether it influences the Sixth pay commission or not, the Army-fueled media campaign is having the unintended consequence of demoralising and demeaning the serving officers, while putting off a large number of aspirants from donning the uniform.

In this piece, Sandeep Unnithan comes out as another one from the tribe of ignoramus defence journos, who do not hesitate to pass value judgements without even verifying their facts. If this is the level of editorial rigour at India’s premier weekly magazine, one shudders to imagine the plight of other media outlets in the country.