Tehelka and ThiNK: Not so separate after all

Two brands or one? That’s the question everyone is asking about Tehelka and the ThiNK Festival, the Tarun Tejpal-run conference-cum-festival that’s now at the centre of  controversy after a Tehelka journalist accused Tejpal of sexually assaulting her during this year’s festival in Goa, on November 7 and November 8. According to the description from the ThiNK 2013 website, “THiNK celebrates the power of thought and ideas as the central driving force of every society. THiNK is Tehelka’s signature annual event, hosted in partnership with Newsweek magazine.” That is unambiguous, you would think. The website states explicitly that ThiNK is Tehelka’s annual festival. [caption id=“attachment_125455” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Tarun Tejpal. AFP[/caption] The Indian Express report said the festival is organised by Thinkworks Pvt Ltd, owned entirely by Tejpal, his sister Neena and the magazine’s managing editor Shoma Chaudhury. And while Neena Tejpal claimed that the two brands are separate, sponsors weren’t really aware of the difference. We contacted Essar, a principle sponsor for ThiNK 2013, on the matter and they too said, “In our understanding the two were one and the same.” Another sponsor Wave said that they would not like to comment on the issue. As far as sponsoring ThiNK was considered, they said that for them it was a business decision. “If we think our target audience is present at the event, we will be there,” the spokesperson said. To the audience too, the difference between Tehelka and ThiNK, if there is one, was unclear. An attendee who did not wish to be named said, ‘The two might be different entities technically and while Tehelka was not officially mentioned, the connection was there for all to see. From Tehelka magazine covers featured in the event environment design to the Tehelka Twitter handle tweeting event proceedings to the fact that each session began with the crow TVC of Tehelka. Also, many founder contributors of Tehelka were speakers." Neena Tejpal might claim that ThiNK and Tehelka only shared advertising space but the two have more in common, including office space. The ‘contact’ tab on the ThiNK site lists its office address as a space in Greater Kailash M-block, the same as Tehelka’s. And of course, Tehelka’s staff also worked at ThiNK, though not all of them. A Tehelka staff member who did not wish to be named said, “Not all Tehelka staff was part of ThiNK festival. Some members of the Editorial team were there. We didn’t get paid anything extra for it, but we were expected to take interviews for the magazine at ThiNK. We were there for the full 3-4 days when Think was on and were expected to look after the guests as well.” Two other Tehelka staff members we contacted said they did not want to comment on the issue. Earlier, Rohit Bansal wrote a scathing piece in the Daily Pioneer on Tehelka and its hypocrisy at ThiNK festival. He pointed out the double standards that are evident when it came to speakers at ThiNK and the kind of reporting that Tehelka did. He pointed out how in February Tehelka’s business editor Shaili Chopra had done an extensive report detailing how Kingfisher as an airline was dead. Tehelka was cruel and accurate in its assessment of Kingfisher, he said of the report, “but that, and Vijay Mallya’s mountain of debt owned to public institutions, didn’t stop KFA owner from being a star at Tehelka’s THiNK2013 do in Goa early November. Ironically, Shaili Chopra after mauling Mallya in her commentary, gave him unedited play on her Twitter.” If one were to look at the list of sponsors, for ThiNK it includes mining corporations (Salgaocar), big real estate giants such as DLF, and other big corporations such as Coca Cola, Louis Phillippe, JSW to name a few. Tehelka’s symbol the ‘Kala Kauwa’ aka Black Crow is also quite prominent on the ThiNK banners. During the ThiNK festival, Tehelka’s official twitter account tweeted extensively about the ongoing festival. And post the festival, ThiNK’s 2013 special edition has pictures of all participants surrounded by a bunch of black crows. Certainly, to say the ThiNK festival loses credibility because of the sexual assault incident would be an overreaction. But simultaneously, while Tehelka and ThiNK might not be run by the same company, Neena Tejpal’s argument that the two are completely different entities and only share ad space is one that nobody can buy.