Let’s do some straight speaking…umm, writing.
The news media coverage of the Cockroach Janta Party’s protest march on 20 June has been confusing.
Television news was at its best when it went live to the protests. They also telecast live visuals of the Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi leading the Opposition parties ‘dharna’ at the Prime Minister’s residence on 21 July.
Then, TV news decided to blame the violence which ensued between police and the protesters on the students. Some news channels looked for hidden ‘toolkits’ and international conspiracies.
This, when all of us had seen the police lathicharge and tear gas the crowds from the beginning of the protest on those very TV news channels.
Also read: Casteist attacks on CJP protesters flood social media, ‘General Category’ told to stay away
Confusing coyness
Most leading English newspapers covered the protests extensively. However, many were reluctant to name the protesters as either students or supporters of the Cockroach Janta Party, which was leading the agitation against the leaked NEET examination papers. They could have said ‘CJP -ed protests’ but they didn’t.
Similarly, on 22 July, the same newspapers did not name Rahul Gandhi in front page stories on his ‘sit-in’ along with other Congress leaders at PM’s house and the almost comical efforts of the Delhi Police to lift him off the ground—although most showed photographs of the struggle. Meanwhile, foreign news media filled in the gaps. Here is the Financial Times Page 1.
Why this curious coyness, when all of us had seen the incidents on TV news or social media? Had the government reached out to the news media to modify coverage or was this self-censorship?
Either way, it made no sense.
TV news ‘unmasked’ CJP
On Monday, TV news did well to reflect the chaos, the violence and the passion of the protesting students and their supporters during a confrontation with Delhi Police. Reporters spoke to the protesters and they didn’t shy away from showing police lathi-charges and tear gas launches or drone visuals that reflected the immensity of the protest snaking its way through central Delhi.
Many reporters said it was the largest protest in five years, since the farmers’ protests.
But as soon as the protest fizzled out by Monday afternoon, TV news abruptly changed track. Headlines appeared, reading, “Police pe hamla [attack]” (Aaj Tak) while the police used “mild force” (India TV).
Visuals of injured policemen and students pelting stones suddenly filled the screens across TV news channels. The day’s events became a report card on violence against police rather than a student protest on the paper leaks.
Some news channels like CNN News 18 and especially Republic Bharat and Republic spoke of a well-planned “conspiracy tool kit”, as allegedly claimed by the Delhi Police. Inevitably, Pakistan was a possible “mastermind”—or was it the US?
“CJP unmasked” was one Republic headline.
All this flies in the face of TV reporters on the ground telling us that the protests were spontaneous. In an excellent report by Preeti Chowdhury and Mausami Singh for India Today, both repeatedly said the protest was “organic”.
On Tuesday evening, TV news decided a good news story was too good a story to be ignored, even if it featured Rahul Gandhi. So almost all Hindi and English news channels went live to the Congress-led dharna and Rahul doing everything he could on the ground to evade the policemen’s outstretched hands
They also showed Samajwadi Party’s Akhilesh Yadav and Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi being detained.
By the way, foreign TV news channels and newspapers covered the protests in news reports and video coverage which also showed the violence for what it was.
Also read: CJP stir ‘rare public challenge’ to Modi govt, has ‘gone far beyond angry youth’—Global media
Newspaper coverage
Online portals of leading English newspapers were on top of the story with regular updates, videos and photos of the violence during the CJP-led protest on Monday.
On Tuesday, dailies like The Times of India, Hindustan Times, The Hindu, The Indian Express, The Tribune reported extensively on the CJP protest, and its political fallout in Parliament.
They detailed the sequence of events during the protests and identified the Delhi Police misreading the expected number of protesters. The Hindu wrote, “Delhi Police and other security personnel were outnumbered and taken aback by thousands of protesters who arrived in and around Jantar Mantar.”
The newspapers were reluctant to name the cockroach movement agitation. So, it wasn’t a student protest or the Cockroach Janta Party-led protest but “protesters’ march” (The Times of India) or a “phalanx of agitators” (Hindustan Times).
The Indian Express, which offered the most detailed and comprehensive coverage by far, was equally shy about naming the protesters in its six-column Page 1 lead headline—“Protesters storm heart of Delhi, police use lathis and tear gas to stop march”.
The Hindu clearly identified the protesters in “Several hurt in crackdown on CJP Parliament march”. The Tribune included CJP in its headline, “Roach rage rattles Capital”.
Sometimes, the photographs tell you what words don’t or won’t.
They can also indicate the editorial approach: On Tuesday, The Indian Express six-column photograph shows police in the act of using their lathis on the crowds, while one protester lay on the ground, while the Times of India’s balancing act between police and protesters is reflected in two single-column photos of stone pelting by protesters and police detaining another.
The Indian Express is also the only newspaper to have carried an editorial on the protest on Tuesday. In a hard-hitting “Can’t have sabka vishwas with tear gas and lathi”, it said that the images of the day were “stark and dispiriting”. The government’s attitude looks “harsh and unyielding towards the young protesters… It kept its back turned, eyes wide shut”.
In keeping with the tenor of their protest coverage, Rahul Gandhi wasn’t named in many newspaper headlines on the Congress-led dharna on Tuesday, either. Only the Express identified him as “LoP”.
Also read: Jantar Mantar crackdown shows CJP has now lost the plot
Hindi media’s take
Hindi newspapers such as Dainik Bhaskar, Dainik Jagran, Rajasthan Patrika, Jansatta covered the protest in a detailed way and were refreshingly forceful too. They didn’t shy away from naming names.
“Cockroach Janta Party’s Parliament march becomes a battlefield,” wrote Dainik Bhaskar in its Page 1 story.
Rahul Gandhi was clearly named in headlines on Wednesday “After Rahul Gandhi’s dharna, government ready to discuss” the paper-leak issue wrote Rajasthan Patrika with a photograph of Rahul being hoisted off the ground.
“Rahul, Priyanka and Akhilesh detained after sit-in outside PM residence,” was the Dainik Jagran take. The newspaper showed Rahul being carried off in one photo and, in another, the PM seated comfortably at the NDA MPs meet on Tuesday.
The author tweets @shailajabajpai. Views are personal.
(Edited by Theres Sudeep)