Mrinal Pande is a respected
journalist and hindi writer, who also happens to be the head of Prasar Bharati –the
apex body of official Indian Broadcast Media. I was surfing through the Net I
came across an article on “Rambogiri”. An article written in bad taste must add
with extreme political undertone. It almost read like an anti-BJP pamphlet.
She writes “The fanatical defenders of any carnage finally come to exist in a
different dimension, a twilight zone of half-truths and lies, while those of us
who try to defend the people’s right to know the whole painful truth must
continue mucking about in the dimension of facts”
I am not aware of “inner details”
of happenings in Gujarat, including the riots, nor do I have the clairvoyance
that some journalist seems to be having. We go by the Facts, and that is: What does
the Judiciary has to say on matters of disputes, including riots. What are the
evidences and verdicts of the Court. If Mr. Modi is guilty he should have been
punished, so even after a decade if there is no prosecution, it means, for us
common people who may not have divya
shakti, that he is not guilty. Media is nobody to pass judgment and has no
business to act prosecutor. Media’s role is to investigate and report the case,
they may pass opinion and comments. Politicians can work overtime to create
perception through market media but a professional journalist is not expected
to stoop.
If anyone is to be blamed then it
is the Judiciary as also the Executive for the tardy attitude towards the
judicial reforms, politicized investigating agency and sloppy methods. The
reason why facts are always reduced to the realm of subjective as it gives the
powerful people space to manipulate and play their game of creating perception,
for which market media is a conduit. Everything is reduced to speculation and
conjecture, and tussle of obnoxious politicians. It is here in this mucky world
of thoo thoo meh meh, journalists are
recruited by the politicians to create an intellectual fervor to the ‘debate’, the
art of twisting the arguments into palatable ideas to serve the influential upper
class, as also the international audience. It is the game of perception that
has absolutely nothing to do with troubles of common people. These journalists
(sometimes even the whole media group)/intellectuals are extremely adept in
these matters, surely there are many who are on the payrole of the political
parties. It is also not a coincidence that “defenders of truth” generally dwell
in the lobbies of power, if not are seen hobnobbing with powerful people in the
big cities of Delhi, Mumbai…. It is also not a coincidence that these very
“defenders of truth” write columns in newspapers that carry casteist
matrimonial column as means of earning! As also gives views on serious matters
in the TV channels interrupted by amazingly puerile ads (many a times asserting
feudal norms)!! The whole framework stinks and lacks sincerity. Its foul and
lacks trust or empathy. It is a joke.
Ms Pande, meanwhile anchors a
program in Prasar Bharati channel, I am not going into the merit of these
programs but would like to know whether rules were followed in selecting her to
anchor or is it a case of conflict of interest and nepotism? She may find
problem with the way the word media is pronounced (“midiah” as Mr. Modi does
according to her). Most people in this
country have accent when they speak english, to point it out in a serious
discussion is travesty and smacks of classist arrogance which is not very
unknown where she is located.
It also brings us to a very important
question on what motivates a senior journalist to take the government bait? Is
it the power and perk? Exaggerated presence? I guess it is a personal choice,
but once you are heading an organization you are expected to follow some norms.
Clearly Ms Pande has crossed it. She should quit.
It is unfortunate that these
visceral reactions are not only leading to polarizing the society but also
obfuscation of issues. It unnecessarily focus attention on a personality who
may benefit from these, as people know that these are unfair and motivated, if he
had done anything wrong then courts would have prosecuted him. Everything said and done I find it astonishing
that Mr. Modi find it difficult to express regret or own responsibility of the
happenings of 2002. He is undoubtedly responsible for anything going wrong
under his administration, including riots, as much as he is working overtime to
claim credit –I gather many a times exaggerations, for things going right.
Taking responsibility of riots as head of government machinery is definitely
not same as being culpable or part of criminal conspiracy, otherwise the Court
would have prosecuted. Nor is it any victory of ‘secularism’. I guess Mr. Modi problems
begin here; he needs to take responsibility of failures. He is surely coming
out, in the game of perception, as man prone to stake hyperbolic claims
(reflecting deep rooted insincerity) and arrogant in an exclusionary way (which
seems divisive). Clearly with this
attitude and ambitions Mr. Modi will find it difficult to elicit support from
wider audience. Also India is too big and diverse a country to be
comprehensively driven to a corner or a section, simplistic solutions may not
have significant impact. It looks like he will be used and at the last moment
we will see some somersaults, and everything tumbling down like a pack of
cards. But one thing is clear things are getting nasty.
To ponder: when so many incidents
of children getting killed or becoming sick eating mid day meals at school what
is amazing is nothing of this sort is reported from Jails where prisoners are
fed three times a day. It is just amazing or is it that the system knows whom
to take care!!
So while Indian media is breaking
over two hindi actors meeting “is chath ke neeche itihas racha” reminisces a rather excited “journalist”,
while BBC “journalist” assures that he will show “royal birth as it happens”. Crude woman tweets “biriyani ka swad tadke se nahi murge se atha hai”. It’s all
happening in planet earth. Over and out.
