Opinion Feeding Frenzy
The media is on a fairly strict, leak-free diet that puts an edge on hunger.
The film on Indira Gandhi’s assassinations, Kaum de Heere (Diamonds of the Community), has been banned for fear of exciting precisely whose passions? Congressmen? Their animal spirit could use some rekindling after the recent defeat. Live India tried to liven things up by misreporting the title as Kaum de Hero, but this would only agitate the filmmakers. And then, along with News Nation and a couple of other channels, they showed footage from the film, including the assassination scene. That will agitate the censors, unless they’re benumbed by the arrest of their CEO.
TV news needs free spice. It had freeloaded heavily off Narendra Modi’s campaign, snarfing up party-generated footage, and now has a habit to feed. Besides, this government has managed the media with implacable efficiency, keeping it on a fairly strict, leak-free diet that puts an edge on hunger. So there’s a feeding frenzy every time the PM appears in public. There were three TV-ops last week, ending with the landmark Independence Day address. It’s been a hat-trick this week too, with the CMs of three opposition-ruled states being drowned out or heckled when they shared the dais with the prime minister.
Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren is the latest victim, jeered at for going on about his background, as Modi did scant months ago. Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Prithviraj Chavan had retired hurt earlier. CNN-IBN focussed on the hat-trick but it wasn’t a show-all. They went all artistic with a freeze frame of an off-colour Hooda, ironically offset by a festive flower vase. Everyone made much of Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah statement that he would relate with the PM according to protocol. But he wasn’t breaking ranks. Former UPA ministers in Delhi were saying precisely the same thing — do the minimum, but follow protocol.
Across the border, Imran Khan and Tahir-ul-Qadri created a South Asian Tahrir Square that provided even livelier programming than free Moditva. But having watched Khan in the role and garb of inspired prophet, one realised that to understand what exactly was going on, one would have to switch to the BBC or, better still, switch on All India Radio.
The journalism of outraged dignity had something real to go on this week — the shameful police action in Assam’s Golaghat district. Times Now had disturbing footage of the incident, from its own crew and from Live News, which showed police firing directly and deliberately at unarmed protesters. The brass casing of a spent cartridge was shown as evidence that live ammunition had been fired, while the government claimed that rubber bullets were used. A guest on Arnab Goswami’s show said that rubber bullets go with pump-handled guns, while automatic weapons were clearly visible. However, varieties of riot control ordnance are designed to be fired from regular firearms, and only the projectile is made of rubber or plastic. A casing just isn’t bulletproof evidence.
In unison, all channels rose in outrage when the Modi sarkar allowed AIIMS vigilance officer Sanjiv Chaturvedi to be axed. Flipping through news channels in at least half a dozen languages, one found them equally agitated and rebellious. Interestingly, while the health minister was trying to make the issue pettily procedural — Chaturvedi’s posting had not been cleared by the Central Vigilance Commission — TV was all about the big picture: after telling bureaucrats to soldier on fearlessly into India’s glorious future, how could the Modi government cashier an officer for doing precisely that?
And to appreciate the enormity of the re-arrest of Irom Sharmila, one just had to see CNN-IBN’s footage of the high feelings that preceded it. It’s sobering to think that if the government had not intervened, we may have witnessed a death — and the birth of a saint.
pratik.kanjilal@expressindia.com
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