Hindi television news channels are playing the Trump card. They don’t care too much about what’s happening in India right now. Their love affair with the US President continues to flourish and to deepen.
Of course, there have been ‘exclusive’ interviews with Mahayuti leaders in the Maharashtra cabinet on most news channels—beginning with Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar—prior to the Bombay Municipal Corporation elections.
However, Hindi channels like R.Bharat, News Nation, Times Now Navbharat, TV9 Bharatvarsh believe US President Donald Trump has the most screen appeal to attract viewers. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is just inches ahead of Trump in TV coverage—but only just. Trump has even managed to replace Hindu-Muslim narratives, BJP-Congress and BJP-Opposition confrontations.
TV9, which had pioneered 24×7 news about Ukraine-Russia, has relegated Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukraine leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy to third or even fourth place on the news while
Channels will pick up anything and everything they can about Trump—and his world today.
Be it Greenland, Venezuela or Iran, Hindi news channels are fascinated by what Trump might do—or say. Nothing is too little or unimportant: Times Now headlined a viral video of Trump’s joke about not “grabbing” his Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.
More seriously, no sooner had he described himself the ‘Acting President of Venezuela’ on social media, than Hindi news pitched it as ‘breaking news’ all morning.
News Nation carried an “alarming” report about a US “sonic weapon”—”world in tension”.
Next, it was Greenland: Once, Trump said the US needs to “own” Greenland, India TV’s midday discussion on Monday, dwelled on the “frightening” scenario there. Trump’s ‘Operation Greenland’ was underway—and this could lead to “world war”—a prospect Hindi news channels have talked about since the Ukraine-Russia conflict began in February 2022.
In Greenland, it’s ‘US vs NATO’, ‘US vs Europe’—as the allies are on a “collision” course. All because of what Donald Trump wants—”Trump’s Regime Roulette” India Today called it.
On Wednesday morning, TV9 shared a photograph of the US President seated inside the Oval Office in the White House. He is seen looking at a file. The TV9 news anchor claimed this was the “secret file” prepared on Iran.
You gotta be kidding, right? How does the channels know that—was it looking over his shoulder?
And, by the way, TV9 Bharatvarsh has taken `breaking news’ quite literally. When it was announced that 12,000 people had died in public protests across Iran, the ‘breaking news’ was accompanied by the sound of shattering glass!
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Trump’s trigger
The claim of 12,000 dead in the violent protests was bandied about across Hindi news channels. R. Bharat said this figure was cited on an international website, Iran International.
Violence on the streets, ‘Trump v/s Khameini’ (R.Bharat), ‘Trump and Iran’ (India Today), have led the news cycle on several Hindi news channels. The prospect of a US attack on Iran seems to excite several Hindi news channels. They see it as a ‘World War’ (NewsNation). Even the usually sober NDTV India has rung the ‘alarm of war’.
In a ‘burning Iran’, ABP News thinks a “mahayudh” is in the offing.
News channels tell us that ‘Trump is ready’ with a ‘plan’ to ‘invade’ Iran (R. Bharat).
Even English news channels sense that ‘Washington’s wrath’ is about to descend on Iran (Times Now). ‘Iran imploding,’ said India Today, ‘US to strike Iran’, ‘US jet increase activity in Qatar’.
“Operation Tehran by US forces will take place in 12 hours,” said Zee News on Tuesday afternoon. Er, not quite…
“How can US attack Iran?” asked TNNB and then supplied the answer with a detailed description of its fire power. “What will happen in Iran?” asked R.Bharat.
“Trump ka trigger ready hai,” declared R.Bharat on Wednesday. It had been saying this since Monday so either Trump’s trigger has jammed or he’s not ‘ready’.
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Are they really showing Iran?
Regarding the battle on the streets of Iran, news TV channels have tried to give us a sense of the violence that had erupted over the last three weeks.
However, with the internet and satellite communications blackout imposed on the country by its leaders, this is an impossible task.
We constantly see grainy visuals or photographs of fires leaping out of the camera frame, buildings blackened by smoke, people running hither and thither—and we hear shouts in a language that could be Persian but could also be Greek for all we know.
The footage could be of protests anywhere—you’d need a magnifying glass or perhaps an AI reality check to verify them.
NewsNation announced that “100 cities burn in Iran” and the accompanying visuals show us fires everywhere.
Times Now Navbharat says the protest continues and that the Iranian militia—IRGC—is firing on protesters. First, it showed us a huge gathering of people and then some men running down a street with other men on motorcycles in hot pursuit.
All of this might indeed be scenes from the protests in Iran but we can’t be certain.
As Hindi news entertains the idea of ‘war’, you get the sense that they would be disappointed or feel let down if President Trump doesn’t attack Iran or ‘own’ Greenland.
Now, that’s a frightening thought.
The author tweets @shailajabajpai. Views are personal.
(Edited by Theres Sudeep)