Let me give you an example. The other day, Yogesh
Bhatia of SG Corporate Mobility Pvt Ltd unveiled three good looking electric two
wheelers at a glittering function in Gurugram. He launched it under the LML
brand name. The concept vehicles were the Orion electric bike, Moonshot
electric hyperbike and Star electric scooter. Now who is Yogesh Bhatia and what
does he do? Is there a company by the
name of LML Electric or LML Emotion? Did this company make these three concept electric
two wheelers?
CLICK
HERE TO READ: LML UNVEILS THREE CONCEPT ELECTRIC TWO WHEELERS- ORION, STAR,
MOONSHOT
Every
auto journalist in the country wrote or talked about these products saying that
these were unveiled by LML Emotion and these belonged to the company and the same
would be manufactured at a plant in Bawal where once the popular Harley
Davidson bikes were made.
Motown
India is the only media outlet in the country which talked about the
truth behind these two-wheelers. These so called LML two wheelers were made by
a company that goes by the name of Desmania Design Pvt Ltd owned by Anuj
Prasad. They are professional designers of automobiles and have a great
experience designing and making everything from a “jar to a car”, as Prasad
says. You can watch the video on the real story of LML Electric on the Motown
India YouTube channel.
The
OEM largesse is so abundant and attractive today that auto journalists,
influencers and almost every Tom, Dick and Harry are keen to be part of these
drives and rides sponsored by OEMs. Motown India felt that this entire exercise
of inviting the so called journalists had reached a stage of ad nauseam. I mean it’s too on-the-face and has got a very
disgusting character to it. Perhaps, I am the sole journalist out there trying
to bring about some kind of “ethical cleansing” to this system of invites. But sadly
there are no takers for it. Rather those in my fraternity have absolute contempt
for me for trying to topple a well oiled system of “give and take”.
I
have always maintained that we auto journalists need OEMs to give us their
products to review. We need them to take us to their plants and showcase their
manufacturing abilities so that we can tell our readers and viewers about the
great work being done by the company. But all this needs to be acknowledged by
the journalists. They need to write a line (clearly and boldly) in their story acknowledging
the hospitality extended by the company, be it the free air tickets, the free
five-star stay, the free gifts, etc. The readers and viewers need to know how
the auto journalist went about doing the story, as to what extent they were cajoled,
coaxed and bribed into doing a report. If they start doing that, it will bring
a bit of sanctity into this “stinking” profession or else the auto journalists will
continue to look and sound like pretty little cheer girls with their pom poms!