Opinion Polled into exhaustion
Partly due to election fatigue, TV news’ coverage of the assembly election results was less than riveting.
Listening to TV news, viewers formed the impression that the BJP was somehow a loser, although it had won.
If it hadn’t been so tragic, it would have been a spectator’s delight. On Tuesday evening, the TV screens on news channels were lit up with fireworks — and fire — in a breathtaking display of festival lights. Alas, this was no celebration, but the burning and gutting of over 200 firework stalls at the Dussehra ground, Faridabad.
The Hindi language news channels provided the most comprehensive coverage — what is it with English news channels that they shy away from in-depth coverage of such incidents and stick to their scheduled programmes? Channels such as Aaj Tak, Zee News, IBN7 stayed with the story during the evening/ night. IBN7 was a little alarmist, saying thousands of people were present at the accident site, dozens were injured and that two were critically injured. But really it was the visual spectacle of the evening sky blazing a smoky orange that had everyone riveted.
Somewhat less riveting was coverage of the assembly election results in Haryana and Maharashtra, partly due to the exhaustion factor. Since the middle of May, this is the fourth time we have watched poll counts. The fourth time in six months that the morning begins with revoltingly cheerful anchors greeting you a breezy “good morning” over your first cup of morning tea; the fourth time that before you’ve had a chance to even figure out the day ahead, multiple figures are hip-hopping, waltzing and changing with dizzying regularity before your bleary eyes. You want to jump out of bed and shout out, “Hang on a sec, let me have a bath, breakfast and come to my senses before you start throwing mathematical equations at me!”
Unfortunately, the counting of votes, like time, waits for no one. Not even for the TV news anchors and expert panelists who find themselves saying one thing in the morning, another by the afternoon and the complete opposite by evening.
So, on Sunday morning between 10 am and 11 am, the leads led anchors and experts to conclude that while the BJP was first past the post in Maharashtra, it would “have to go back to the Shiv Sena” (Siddharth Varadarajan, NDTV 24×7). While everyone acknowledged the BJP victory in Maharashtra, its enormity was lost in the ensuing debate across news channels on how the party would approach Uddhav Thackeray for support: “Uddhav is not going to purr like a cat,” said Pankaj Pachauri (NewsX) of the BJP’s predicament, he would wait and watch. It was after all, not a divorce, but simply a case of the wife (Shiv Sena) having gone to her parental home for a short while — as one panelist on Rajya Sabha TV put it. A sort of “lovers’ tiff” according to Siddharth Bhatia (Headlines Today). Rajdeep Sardesai had the “BJP struggling to form a government on its own.” On Times Now, Arnab Goswami riled the BJP spokesperson, saying the victory was not maha big enough. And while the BJP insisted there were no immediate talks between it and the Shiv Sena, Goswami revealed that there had been a 10 pm meeting on Saturday between the former allies but he did not know if this “included, precluded or excluded” Narendra Modi.
Listening to TV news, viewers formed the impression that the BJP was somehow a loser although it had won, or that it was the supplicant who would go to the Shiv Sena with a begging bowl. By afternoon, as the leads gave the BJP over 120 seats in Maharashtra, the anchors and experts changed their opinion. Now, it was even between the allies, with both needing each other equally. However, the NCP had other ideas and when Praful Patel announced his party’s outside, unconditional support for the BJP in the evening, the talk turned to Sharad Pawar and Modi as natural allies. Why don’t news channels wait till the final vote has been counted before jumping into the deep end?
And did anyone hear anything much about the BJP’s unprecedented, clear-cut victory in Haryana?
Finally, the prize for the busiest, fussiest-looking TV screens is shared by Times Now and Headlines Today for their extraordinary array of figures, graphs, leadings, positions, breaking news, photos, studio discussions, interviews, celebrations showing at the same time in the brightest colours on view.
shailaja.bajpai@expressindia.com
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