There’s Ram, there’s Narendra Modi, followed by Yogi Adityanath—and then there’s Rahul Gandhi offering a biscuit to a dog.
These images on TV—of commercials promoting Ayodhya, and the Congress leader on his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra—pretty much sum up the media’s assessment of the political situation in the country, weeks ahead of the Lok Sabha election. It’s a done deal for news channels—‘abki baar, 400 paar’ for the BJP.
Their coverage reflects this belief: while they tell us how Modi ‘roars in Parliament’ during his reply on ‘Motion of Thanks’ in the Lok Sabha, Monday, ‘smashes parivarvaad’ in his ‘most scathing speech since 2014’ (Times Now), we listen to Rahul Gandhi’s explanation of what really happened with the biscuit. That this was the only moment from the yatra that channels such as Times Now chose to focus upon, tells you everything about their opinion of the 2024 Lok Sabha election.
The Prime Minister, with Ram `ki guarantee’, has been declared the outright winner while the Congress and the INDIA coalition are fighting over whatever morsels are left over.
That’s when they are not planning to abandon ‘INDIA for NDA’ (Times Now). Across news channels, there are stories about Chandrababu Naidu’s Telugu Desam Party, Jayant Chaudhury’s Rashtriya Lok Dal, and even Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena looking to jump onto Modi’s bandwagon. “Will this help ‘abki baar 400 paar’?” asked India Today.
Elsewhere, the opposition coalition is shown to be ‘corrupt’—one of Modi’s major talking points during his Parliament speech—with the arrest of former Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren, and the Enforcement Directorate knock-knock-knocking on Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s door. Last Sunday, we spent most of the day standing outside Kejriwal’s office and AAP minister Atishi’s residence, along with TV news reporters—and, of course, ED officials.
So the picture of INDIA that emerges from this coverage is of a splintered bloc that cannot be glued together—it’s Humpty Dumpty once more.
Also read: How Mandir, Modi, & Media played their roles in Ayodhya for BJP ahead of Lok Sabha election
The only speech that mattered to TV news
The BJP and PM Modi, on the other hand, have the media, literally, eating out of their pockets—and off Ram. Notice the number of advertisements since 22 January’s pran pratishtha on Ayodhya, featuring Ram, Modi, and Yogi: ‘Ram has come to Ayodhya’, ‘Ayodhya mein Ram’ and ‘Shri Ram Utsav’ are the most frequent TV commercials on Hindi and English news channels. They are followed up with lengthy promos featuring people in Ram Nagari at ‘Ayodhya chaupal’ who are filled with “joy”. “It’s all the doing of Modi and Yogi,” they say (Bharat 24).
Other advertisements, that run throughout the day, promise us ‘Modi ki guarantee’ for a ‘Viksit Bharat’ (developed India). These are accompanied by TVC’s advertisements promoting Uttar Pradesh as an industrial hub and agricultural haven—with Modi and Yogi firmly planted in the middle.
Meanwhile, the once ubiquitous AAP advertisements—especially for the Bhagwat Mann government in Punjab—have all but disappeared. No other opposition party advertises on the leading Hindi and English news channels.
The news airwaves ring out with, ‘it’s Modi once more’. On Wednesday morning, they anticipated the PM’s Rajya Sabha speech, his final one in this Parliament, with victory trumpets: “Modi’s 370 mantra from the horse’s mouth,” said Times Now—not sure the PM ought to be compared to a horse, though.
“Modi confident, INDI’s broken alignment…Modi to reveal how he will achieve 370 today…400+ assured,” declared India TV.
“2024 mein 400 paar…PM ka plan taiyaar (PM’s plan to cross 400 seats in 2024 election is ready),” added Bharat 24.
As he thundered against Congress, mocked ‘Kharge ji”, they welcomed ‘Modi ka trailer’ (Aaj Tak). When he outlined his next term’s agenda, they spoke of his ‘Modi 3.0’ declaration (Republic TV).
By the way, news channels were happy to ignore Parliament speeches of opposition leaders—there was no live telecast except on Sansad TV. Congress’s Mallikarjun Kharge and Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury were neither seen nor heard.
As for Rahul Gandhi’s Nyay Yatra, and his travels through West Bengal and Jharkhand, it was reduced to a biscuit.
The absence of the Congress and other opposition parties in the news—besides being targets of the BJP—indicates how poorly the news media rates their chances in the forthcoming election.
Instead of relaying Kharge or any other opposition leaders’ speeches, TV news displayed a rare interest in state politics: the trust vote in Jharkhand assembly, where victory for the ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha-Congress coalition was all but assured, received blanket coverage on Monday—jailed ex-CM Hemant Soren was heard out live by all news channels. Weird.
Also read: When channels aren’t chanting ‘Jai Shri Ram’, they are following Modi—ignoring Rahul Gandhi
TV channels have declared the 2024 winner
Weeks ahead of the general election, TV news is applauding the BJP. An interview with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar by Rahul Kanwal on India Today was promoted on the channel with headlines such as this: “His only concern is Bharat.”
On NDTV, anchor Sanjay Pugalia ended his conversation with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman by saying, “We hope…in the month of July, you will bring in a very innovative and ambitious budget…our best wishes.”
Should channels and anchors so openly fete the BJP’s return, is a question that clearly doesn’t bother either the channels or their anchors—in their defence, they will argue they simply reflect the political reality of today.
What to make of this? Well, if there is a ‘hat-trick ki guarantee’, as Zee News said, viewers might as well switch off the news and watch football or, better still, the India-England Test cricket series currently tied at 1-1 with three matches to go.
The author tweets @shailajabajpai. Views are personal.
(Edited by Prashant)
Well written article!!. Glad that there are some unbiased journalists still remaining in the country. I have stopped watching news channels and watching sports instead, as you rightly pointed out in the last paragraph. !!.
People like to see winners, not sore losers. Modi sells, Rahul is acidity from yesterday’s foul Chicken Tikka that no one wants to think about
The media is completely ensuring the victory of the ruling party. This is unavoidable situation for them also as they had to run their business.
The TV news channels show only Modi speeches out of fear and also of sycophancy. Such news channels and BJP do not care about democratic principles, they just want how to stay with power.
Rahul Gandhi is a true example of a failed human being. Good for nothing. Didn’t excel in academics or sport or politics.
what an irony, while I was reading this beautifully laid out Article about the capture of media by the ruling dispensation, there were ads of Modi ki guarantee “mhatari vandan yojana” all over the web page.