Confessions of an anti-builder journalist
In the built environment of Indian real estate where give & take culture is deep rooted without questions being raised, it is pretty convenient to label an honest journalist as anti-builder. Ravi Sinha shares his long experience as a real estate journalist where the challenge is to weather the storm of sue you & silence you mindset.
You are an anti-builder journalist.
Builders are scared of your persona; they prefer a safe distance
You don’t stop criticizing even when the builder is not at fault.
You are a journalist or an activist?
Your tone is less of interviewing and more of interrogating.
We have heard of many cases of your misbehaviour with the PR team of builders.
Long list of allegations. Right?
But then I am used to it, and, as a matter of fact, take it as a compliment as an upright journalist. But some of my television journalist friends suggest I should better answer to all that. And they have a point. After all, many within the built environment of Indian real estate recuse themselves of a panel discussion when I am there as a panellist. They feel I can stoop to live expose, if they claim unrealistic or take a moral high ground. I am known to get down to fact check then and there only.
And yes! The most important question is I am with whom at the end of the day. They say I even go all out against the home buyers’ associations, every now and then.
Ok! Let me make it clear: I am with TRUTH. And I don’t care about such allegations. I would care the day someone would claim that I have also been managed, like many other real estate journalists in the country.
But I must mention here that I am not against real estate sector, as believed to be in the collective consciousness of a large number of industry stakeholders. And it is not just because I earn my livelihood with real estate analysis and brand rating of the developers. It is also because I believe real estate is an enabler of Indian economy.
My objection is with the fly-by-night operators in the business. Unfortunately, this business is full of such shady players. I have a strong objection with the builders who treat their buyers as dirt.
If I wish to see real estate as a clean business; if I talk about structural reforms and entry barrier, then I am actually working for the overall betterment of the sector. I am rather helping the clean & reputed builders who bear the brunt of poor perception & projection due to fly-by-night operators.
It’s not that I don’t stand with the builders where the support is due on principled ground. I can easily recall how in the year 2017 I had to stand by a builder who was being harassed by the powerful CEO of a powerful development body. The bureaucrat had demanded one apartment, and denial led to bulldozing over the project boundary walls much after grant of OC & CC. As a journalist, I was with the builder for a sting operation and also sent him to a couple of TV news channels to air his grievances. The officer’s troll army had a field day against me, but I stood my ground till the bureaucrat was transferred. Will an anti-builder journalist do that?
For me, the issue is always the same – what is right and who is on the right side? And yes! I run a small media company, and often pay the price of truth; it’s not just about financial drain but have to weather legal and illegal threats at each and every level. I am facing end number of case against me, as a reward of this honest journalism.
If I say project delay is an act of criminality to buyers, builder claims in the court that I called him criminal. If I say housing delay is like murder of home buyers’ aspirations, I have to face trial for calling builder murderer.
I feel neither I am alone nor exception; truth has to face trial in today’s give & take world. As far as my criticism against various home buyers’ associations is concerned, I have always maintained that the society is what people in the given society are – be it builder or racketeers in the garb of home buyers’ associations. I speak & write what I see on the ground, without fear or favour.
I don’t play into the hands of builders’ PR, or should I say, propaganda machinery. One PR agency had only recently formed a WhatsApp Group of fellow professionals to call for “Boycott Ravi Sinha.” I have many such screenshots shared with me by friends, but it is the strength of an honest journalism that the very same people who called for Boycott Ravi Sinha had to come to me with head held low.
Critics might say I am into self-obsession, or trying to justify self, but my message has a much bigger objective. I wish to make my voice heard by all those who feel honest journalism is not possible into the murky world of real estate. Oh come on! Try it out and this could be your market differentiator and USP.
And yes! You don’t need to be pro-builder or anti-builder to practice an honest journalism. Just be pro-consumer and anti-corrupt practices. It is as simple as that.
Ravi Sinha
X: RaviTrack2Media
Ravi Sinha is a journalist with over two decades of cross-discipline media exposure. He is the CEO of real estate thinktank group Track2Realty. He has been writing extensively on the real estate sector for more than a decade now. Evaluation of real estate brand performance is his core domain expertise and he has immense insight into consumers’ psychograph. He has conceptualised Track2Realty BrandXReport as India’s 1st & only objective & non-paid brand rating journal that is industry-accepted benchmark of brand equity & ranking of the Indian real estate companies.
Track2Realty is an independent media group managed by a consortium of journalists. Starting as the first e-newspaper in the Indian real estate sector in 2011, the group has today evolved as a think-tank on the sector with specialized research reports and rating & ranking. We are editorially independent and free from commercial bias and/or influenced by investors or shareholders. Our editorial team has no clash of interest in practicing high quality journalism that is free, frank & fearless.
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