Carrots for the loyal boys

A more insidious method of media manipulation which has gone largely uncommented upon is the policy of rewarding loyalist journalists. No government has doled out as many favours — from Rajya Sabha tickets, to chairmanships of high-flying committees and boards and ambassadorships — to their supporters in the media. The fact that today there are the largest number of journalist MPs ever in Parliament, and several hopefuls are in the queue for a Rajya Sabha nomination, is reflective of a disturbing phenomenon: a journalist’s writings and interviews can actually serve as an indirect job application. Just as the Congress government once offered government advertisements and patronage to its own publications such as the National Herald, the BJP now provides government largesse to party publications and newspapers which do its bidding. The recent controversial decision to award a contract for a duplicate in-flight magazine on Indian Airlines to a favoured publication, to replace another that was given even more special treatment by earlier governments, is part of this ‘carrots for the loyal boys’ syndrome.

Doordarshan’s Kashmir channel and the ‘on again-off again’ 24-hour news channel have doled out programmes worth well over Rs 100 crore to the favourites of this regime. The channels which are heavily in the red command a minuscule share of the TV audience and their real purpose seems to be simply to subsidise the friends of the BJP. The manner in which the powerful press accreditation committee, which is meant to comprise of respected, senior members of the profession from across the entire spectrum, has been packed with sangh sympathisers, is further evidence of this mindset. This cynical media strategy of reserving the plums for the faithful can, ironically, backfire badly. The fellow travellers of the BJP in the media act as unofficial advisers to the government, but since their primary concern is usually settling scores with rivals within the fraternity, their advice is often more self-serving than helpful. They are key players in the sangh parivar’s internecine warfare and are usually the secret source of anti-government and anti-party reports floated in an attempt to undercut political rivals of their benefactors in government or the party.

Control of the media can also be effected by shutting out legitimate sources of information. Today, several ministries at the Centre have been inspired by the example of the ministry of external affairs, which has, over the decades, mastered the art of house training its beat correspondents. Background briefings, exclusive information and interviews with the minister are reserved for those who toe the line. It is legitimate for a government to favour those who project its point of view, but a fair-minded administration cannot simply cut out from the loop of information those whom it dubs unsympathetic. Political leaders today tend to club the media into two categories: those who are with them, and those who are against. With the media itself often playing along by taking sides stridently on the basis of ideology and personal predilections and not individual issues, the middle ground of objectivity in journalism is shrinking fast.

Intolerance of the media generally begins with the inability to accept legitimate criticism gracefully. The political leadership would prefer to target the messenger. For instance, when the Indian Express investigations into the petrol pump scam broke, a minister waxed eloquent at a cabinet meeting on the alleged motives for carrying the report. At a Delhi BJP meet last month, BJP president Venkaiah Naidu dismissed investigations into land scams as the Congress’s attempts to stoop to conquer. Even the usually circumspect Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani rubbished the exposes as another slander campaign launched by the Opposition. This paranoia about any negative publicity, enthusiastically attributing it to a deep-rooted conspiracy to unseat the government, was the very same mindset for which BJP leaders had mocked Indira Gandhi. But then, as we know, power plays havoc with a politician’s value system and absolute power alters it absolutely.