Yet again,Indian news television has resorted to unprovoked firing across the Line of Loss of Control. But let us not give them even more mileage by talking about it. The talks with a new civilian government in Pakistan are already endangered. Instead,lets look at the collateral damage of coverage of the firing from the Pakistani side in Poonch Bhim Singh,rural works minister of Bihar who couched a truth in rather unfortunate terms and had to eat crow when Nitish Kumar called him up and gave him an earful. As usual,both Times Now and CNN-IBN practically claimed that they had cooked the crow themselves.
If this had happened in pre-cable times,the story would not have made the front page in a single newspaper. If you look at the footage twice,it isnt impossible to understand the ministers intent. He could have phrased it better,of course. There is a world of difference between saying that people in the military and the police are aware of the occupational risks and saying that they sign up in search of martyrdom. But maybe its hard not to be peeved when a gadfly of a reporter is snapping at your heels for an admission that your government is inhuman.
But even so,it was a sidelight story which did not merit the airtime it got. The real story was the Defence Minister beating the retreat. Suhasini Haider said that in 24 hours,A.K. Antony had gone from the militants and Pak army version via men dressed as Pak army to Pak army specialist troops. Times Now,which is usually less liberal,cut the minister some slack and said his story had matured over three days.
What happened to the other stories of the week? Indian company law went through its first major upgrade in half a century,but only CNBC-TV18 really seemed to focus on it. And the US withdrew staff from embassies around the world anticipating Al Qaeda action,an obvious opportunity to take stock of the organisation,which is not on the back foot at all. But only Al Jazeera ran a full-length programme looking back on the 15 years since the network launched its career with embassy bombings in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam which left 224 dead and over 5,000 injured. Nairobi correspondent Mohammed Adow took viewers back to the original Ground Zero.
But whats that compared to a minister who shoots from the lip? Times Now was still milking the story a day after the minister surrendered. Singh had freely said that he was apologising on the instructions of his chief minister,and no man could do better. But the apology only emboldened the channel,which began to insist that Nitish Kumar should sack his minister. Bit excessive,isnt it?
Personally,I wish I was in Darjeeling,where all cable TV access has been cut off by the indefinite bandh. The going is really tough up there but this is one hardship theyre being spared having to watch low-brow entertainment masquerading as news.
pratik.kanjilal@expressindia.com
