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Bemoaning Indian Media
Mansukh Kaur
 India
is on an austerity drive big time. Rest of the world! Watch out.
India is saving. It is saving big time. There is drought, and there
is some economic downturn. So, savings and spartan life is in.
That explains
why Sonia Gandhi flew economy class to Mumbai. She saved around Rs
10,000. On Tuesday, Rahul Gandhi went from Delhi to Ludhiana in the
Shatabdi train, travelling AC chaircar, not executive class. He
saved Rs 500. Well, a little bit less. At this rate, in a year or
so, top Congress brass would save quite a sum.
After a newspaper reported that the country's senior and junior
foreign ministers are putting up at five star hotels, they were
thrown out on grounds that five-star luxury does not go with the
drought and famine-like crisis being faced by millions of
impoverished Indians.
The assumption
seems to be that if they are both given Lutyens’ bungalows in Delhi,
that may possibly cost tens of crores if put on the market, they
will become less ostentatious. That the entire focus is spurious,
misleading, is something that the entire media knows. But who does
not enjoy a good story as long as it gives the thrills.
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If you did
not know better and depended only on TV channels and newspapers,
you would have thought that
China
has invaded India and painted the words "Republic of China" all
over India. |
This is the
fictitious idealism that
New Delhi
gloats about. The newspapers and TV channels are happy to report the
chaircar ride to Ludhiana and easily fail to notice the cavalcade of
Mercs and pricey SUVs of the Congressmen that lined up outside the
railway station. It helps escape responsibility of throwing light on
years of neo-con policies that have led to farmers’ suicides and
boundless misery for so many Indians.
It takes a lot
to make Rahul Gandhi austere, just as Sarojini Naidu once quipped
about Gandhi: ‘Bapu, it costs us a fortune to keep you poor.’
Clearly, Indian
media has learnt how to think small, plan small, report small, and
be small. Flip through any Indian newspaper in English and what do
you see? Instead of any visionary line or unbiased coverage or
reflection of society, you will get a rehash of the official or
demi-official propaganda about Pakistan or Nepal or Bangla Desh or
China.
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Indian media has learnt how to think small, plan small, report
small, and be small. Flip through any Indian newspaper in
English and what do you see? Instead of any visionary line or
unbiased coverage or reflection of society, you will get a
rehash of the official or demi-official propaganda. |
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The Hindu, known
as the so-called independent newspaper, went gaga over the great
arrangements at the refugee camps and actually wrote that "they are
testimony to the Sri Lankan government’s efforts, with international
assistance, to care for a brave and resilient Tamil community, which
will be resettled and rehabilitated in the next few months through
an ambitious programme." The words came from the quill of no less
than the editor N.Ram. Good arrangements at the camp were enough for
him to forget what happened to the Tamils just a week back.
If you did not
know better and depended only on TV channels and newspapers, you
would have thought that
China
has invaded India and painted the words "Republic of China" all over
India. Official dope on Pakistan and Kashmir is of course a regular
thing to carry for all newspapers. Some channels, led, of course, by
Times Now, are forever painting a picture as if India is a victim of
all the smaller countries around it.
Most English
language newspapers are even more aggressive than the government's
apologists in suggesting that
New Delhi
should have still closer ties with Israel and the United States. The
Indian Express is a relentless mouthpiece standing for relentless
privatization. India TV is a channel that seriously reported that
Ravana’s dead body has been found in a coffin and that it has found
the airfield where Ravana had parked his plane. Rest of the channels
and newspapers happily follow such news.
Where is the
idea of a serious, objective newspaper?
16
September 2009
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