The sad fact about India’s television news is that there is no ‘Amrit Kaal’. The picture they project looks gloomy, murky, even scary with deep-rooted conspiracies against the State and India every day.
TV news is dominated by ‘dangals’, spy stories, scams, raids, attacks on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and that meddlesome ‘foreign hand’ grasping at the very heart of the country.
Things have come to such a pass that self-styled ‘gurus’ and ‘babas’ are headline news for days, weeks on Hindi channels.
Is this really news or scaremongering?
Where shall we start?
What about this statement by a leading English news anchor, Rahul Shivshankar: “The NDA government… has been fairly open about suggesting that it is the victim of a slander campaign run by an ecosystem run by ultra leftists, Marxists in India and abroad…(there are efforts) of not just destabilising the government but also by doing so undermining India’s democratic credentials.” (Times Now).
Or shall we lower the bar and go to the ‘Snoopgate Dangal’ (India Today), which erupted at a BJP press conference in Delhi just hours before the election of a new mayor–mere coincidence? The BJP alleged that Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia had diverted government funds to ‘spy’ on all manner of people and that he would be “prosecuted” (CNN News 18).
Or what about Ramdev, who Aaj Tak told us now wants to rewrite history? And Dhirendra Krishna Shastri of Bageshwar Dham who has suddenly become a star on channels like India TV.
Too trivial?
Well, we could tell you about the outrage, across English news channels, over Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera, who along with Jairam Ramesh, runs the “Vadra Congress” – as per Republic TV anchor Arnab Goswami. Khera “attacked the PM” and “dragged” his father’s “fair name into the mud” by ‘name-calling’ the PM “Narendra Gautamdas Modi”, said a Times Now anchor.
The “insult” became the topic of prime time debates on Monday – the same day the Gujarat government SIT’s preliminary report on the Morbi bridge collapse tragedy last year that killed 135 people came out, revealing serious technical lapses in the maintenance of the bridge. That wasn’t breaking the headline on news channels but #CongGautamDasBarb was – all of Monday.
Then there’s ‘The 2024 plot’ (News X). This exercised the news channel all Monday after a story in The Sunday Guardian claimed there was a conspiracy to undermine the Narendra Modi government with a “foreign embassy link”.
And this would lead us back to where we began — to the machinations of an “Enemy of India” (Times Now), “a bitter 91-year old billionaire”, and possibly the “dark hand behind attempts at anarchy” (Republic TV), who has “come out into the open” to take on the Modi government “because he (Modi) is a nationalist” – or so Anand Narasimhan, CNN News 18 anchor, thinks.
US businessman and philanthropist George Soros, the gentleman in question, “believes India is not democratic…Is that not an outright insult of the mandate of the people of this country?” demanded Narasimhan. Channels like Republic TV, Times Now, CNN News 18 then listed out the individuals, media outlets or other organisations which had allegedly received “funding” from Soros to “destabilise the Modi regime”. Worse, it might “spark” anarchy and even civil war in the country (Times Now).
“Why is this happening?” asked anchor Vishnu Som on NDTV 24×7. Why indeed. News channels were critical of Soros, Sisodia and Khera but by giving each one so much airtime, by repeating clips of their statements, frequently, they ended up giving them plenty of free publicity.
Also read: In week of BBC documentary, Parchi Baba and his ‘chamatkar’ was ‘breaking news’ on Indian TV
News on TV news, sometimes
Wouldn’t you rather watch some real news? Well then, watch DD News. Whatever else you may say about the channel, it gives you plenty of news from around the country and the globe. Besides its emphasis on PM Modi and government news, it goes where other channels don’t. For instance, while private news channels were consumed by Pawan Khera’s ‘insult’, DD News had live coverage of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and other finance ministry officials’ interaction with the media in Jaipur during a discussion on Budget 2023. Very good.
It’s also the only channel that can genuinely claim to have ‘no noise’.
To be fair to other news channels, they sometimes see the news bulb flash green before them – and then they respond. Even that, however, does not quite explain why all private news channels in Hindi and English abandoned their sensational stories to broadcast, live, Vladimir Putin’s state of the nation speech on the first anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on Tuesday. It was a long speech – over two hours – but news channels faithfully stayed with the Russian President, to the exclusion of all else. Interesting, eh?
No other foreign head of state has received such an honour — that too in their own country. Hindi channels led by TV9 Bharatvarsh have stationed themselves in Ukraine and report extensively on the war, daily, but this was something else — there was a simultaneous Hindi translation of the speech, too. Well, well, our eyebrows certainly shot up: were news channels being responsive to developing news? Had this something to do with the government’s realpolitik towards Russia?
Or are we reading too much into this, like news channels do into most news?
US President Joe Biden’s surprise Monday visit to Ukraine’s capital Kyiv was also given pride of place that afternoon by the news channels — we’re not complaining, merely pointing out how unusual but refreshing it is to see international affairs take the lead on India’s TV news.
Interviews were also hitting the headlines, none more so than External Affairs Minister S. Jaishanker’s Q&A with ANI – which became the topic of discussion on Tuesday evening. However, there were two other interviews that were good to watch, primarily because the correspondents didn’t duck asking difficult questions.
ABP News climbed into a vehicle with Upendra Kushwaha, erstwhile Janta Dal (United) leader, a little before he broke away to form a new party. Among other questions, the reporter asked him what he thought of PM Modi’s nine years in power. Kushwaha looked uncomfortable before saying this was not the time to ask such questions.
On Aaj Tak/India Today, former Maharashtra governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari was asked searching questions on his divergent rulings during the governments led by Uddhav Thackeray and Eknath Shinde. Good show.
Please, news channels, can we have some more?
The author tweets @shailajabajpai. Views are personal.
(Edited by Prashant)