When you are a cub reporter you learn that news is relative to time and space. Less important stories are squeezed out of the front page to make way for more important stories. As for time, there can’t be a better example than the conferment of Bharat Ratna on Sachin Tendulkar and CNR Rao.
The two superstars – one in the field of sports and another in the world of science – were bestowed the nation’s highest civilian honour on November 16, 2013.
On any other day, the duo would have got similar coverage in newspapers. But November 16 was different. It was the last day of Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar on the cricket field. The whole nation had come to a halt to watch the maestro make his final bow.
It was a defining moment in the history of Indian cricket. No other cricketer is likely to get such a send off. But then Sachin Tendulkar was no other cricketer. He was special. He inspired India with his batting feats for more than two decades.
His farewell speech had the nation, and media, in thrall. Almost a billion hearts missed a beat that afternoon.
The sentiments of the nation were reflected on the newspaper pages next morning. It was Sachin all over. The conferment of Bharat Ratna on CNR Rao took second place.
The New Indian Express placed the CNR Rao announcement in the Front Page Briefs. The Hindustan Times placed it beneath the Sachin farewell story and headlined it as “Scientist CNR Rao too gets tops civilian award”; the Deccan Chronicle headlined it as “Scientist Rao gets Ratna too”; the Telegraph did not have the story on the front page.
Only the Statesman and the Tribune gave equal importance to the two Bharat Ratna awardees.
Here is how the newspapers covered the awarding of Bharat Ratna to the two:
# The New Indian Express
# The Hindustan Times
# The Times of India
# Deccan Chronicle
#The Indian Express
#The Tribune
# The Statesman
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