Talk:Palagummi Sainath

The line on Manu Joseph
Who is Manu Joseph and why is an arbitrary case of criticism notable in the biography of a living person? This case of satirical comments is not widely reported or culturally or historically notable. This seems like a slanderous attack on the living person in this biographical article. Alberun (talk) 19:19, 4 January 2021 (UTC)


 * Sir/Mam, how is it slander? Every book has a review to it and this appears to be the only review to his work. You can't censor negative reviews of someone's work on the grounds of it being a biography of a living person. In that case, one should stay away from the public domain if they do not wish to have any negative reviews written about them. There is a section even in the Noam Chomsky article that focusses on the negative reviews and criticism that he has got. This material here has been published/cited from India Today magazine, which is one of the most well-known and prestigious publications in India. It is a reliable source. If you have a problem with the content, you need to sue India Today, not Wikipedia. 203.212.217.47 (talk) 11:56, 6 January 2021 (UTC)
 * The argument about it being an advertisement for Joseph's book does not hold meat either because Sainath's page hardly gets any hits for that matter (roughly 300 a day at its peak). India Today, on the other hand, has a robust circulation that goes up in millions and billions of readers. 203.212.217.47 (talk) 12:52, 6 January 2021 (UTC)


 * Ive removed the duplicate entry from the second paragraph. Since Manu Joseph is not notable appropriate weightage will be given Vikram Vincent 22:14, 8 January 2021 (UTC)


 * Repharased sentence to address advertisement issues. Also renamed section and moved it down below to address WP:DUE. Vikram Vincent 14:04, 10 January 2021 (UTC)


 * before undoing my edit, please read this section and see what it says. Also sees WP:BRD. Vikram Vincent 18:17, 21 January 2021 (UTC)

Farmers agitations
That link about something he wrote in NYT about farmers ("In India, Farmers Face a Terrifying Crisis") is from 2018. The farmers' protests against BJP have begun in 2020. How can he be supporting them from before they even began unless he has been involved in them? MumbaiMedia (talk) 18:03, 5 January 2021 (UTC)
 * Even his book is from 1996. MumbaiMedia (talk) 18:04, 5 January 2021 (UTC)


 * changed to remove appearance of causality. Vikram Vincent 22:15, 8 January 2021 (UTC)

This article and its state
Hello everyone. You may have noticed I gutted this article and edited it so it aligns with Manual of Style/Biography. The number of non-reliable sources used in this article is overwhelming and they need to be replaced. Primary sources should be used sparingly, including things like op eds he has written. Whomever is interested in this subject - please re-examine the sourcing and do some research into replacing them with as many reliable secondary sources as possible.

He's won a lot. It's evident. I highly suggest someone remove the cruft - remove the less notable awards and stick to the big guns. While Sainath hasn't had as robust of a career of Noam Chomsky, I suggest you use the Chomsky article for inspiration - the sections, the sourcing, tone, etc. Do you see every single award and chair he's held in his article? No. Think about content that an encyclopedia cares about - not a resume. Does the average reader care about every single award ever given that they've never heard of? No.
 * Awards

Here's something I removed from the article. Again, this is Wikipedia, not a resume. We don't need TWO sections devoted to awards. They should be dotted in his career section chronologically. So, think about (1) there are no citations; (2) does the reader care? Is this encyclopedic? You can decide, but here you go:
 * Uncited content

"In 1984 he was a Distinguished International Scholar at the University of Western Ontario and in 1988 a visiting lecturer at Moscow University. He was also a Distinguished International Professional at Iowa University (Fall 1998), the first McGill Fellow and lecturer at Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut (Spring 2002), and visiting professor at University of California, Berkeley at the Graduate School of Journalism (Fall 2008). He has participated in many international initiatives on communications such as the second and third round table on Global Communications sponsored by the UNESCO (1990 and 1991) and in the UNHCR sponsored World Information Campaign on Human Rights (1991)."


 * Claim about him being only journalist to have won these awards..

Another uncited claim. I would not state "he is the only" without having multiple reliable secondary sources to back it up. Here's what I removed - most of this repeats what is already in the article. Use as you wish:

"He is also the only journalist to have won awards from his newspaper's rivals in the north, south, east and west of the country: from the Indian Express in Delhi, the southern edition of the Indian Express now known as the New Indian Express, the Statesman in Kolkata and the fellowship from the Times of India based in Mumbai."


 * Finally

Just remember - this is an encyclopedia. Not an academic resume. Also please use Manual of Style/Biography for reference and keep it neutral, boring as hell, and avoid using primary sources as much as possible, only when absolutely necessary.

Thanks everyone for your edits and happy new year. Missvain (talk) 18:08, 5 January 2021 (UTC)

Request for comment: Amartya Sen quote - NEVERMIND!
Based on my 14+ years of writing biographies, I think it's acceptable to have a notable stable or quote about the subject in the lead. I moved this one from the body to the lead in my overhaul:

"The economist Amartya Sen called him 'one of the world's great experts on famine and hunger'."

While that is primary source, an interview with Sainath, the quote comes from the Times of India. For example, I just overhauled the article about Barbara Tropp, who was called - while she was alive - the Julia Child of Chinese food. I included it in the lead.

I'd like to know if any contributors here oppose or support having the Sen quote in the lead - or anywhere else in this article. Please comment below and we'll proceed accordingly based on consensus. Thank you. (cc: User:MumbaiMedia who removed my addition of it to the lead). Missvain (talk) 18:27, 5 January 2021 (UTC)
 * I had not removed the Amartya Sen quote from the lead,, I simply moved it to the place where it is more connected (the second paragraph on his work). It also helps to have the intro split into two equal paragraphs rather than one long one and another short one, and hence my edit had tried to sort those issues. MumbaiMedia (talk) 18:32, 5 January 2021 (UTC)
 * Even the other line about his book. Same holds. MumbaiMedia (talk) 18:35, 5 January 2021 (UTC)
 * Ah! I must have misread the edit diffs, my apologies! Nevermind! :) Missvain (talk) 18:55, 5 January 2021 (UTC)