Who is the face of India today? Is it Prime Minister Narendra Modi? Is it Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge? Could it be TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee or Don Dawood Ibrahim?
Indian television news was, admittedly, confused, this week, following the high jinx in Parliament with the suspension of 141 Opposition MPs and INDIA leaders’ meeting in Delhi where Mamata Banerjee suggested Kharge as the coalition’s candidate for PM in the 2024 general election.
Don’t laugh at the inclusion of Dawood’s name in this list: India Today and Aaj Tak splashed images of “What does Dawood look like today” on their channels Tuesday – never mind they were facial images generated by artificial intelligence. Truth be told, he looked like any other ageing man.
And while we are on the subject of faces, did you ever think of Shah Rukh Khan in the same vein? Well, that’s what it looks like right now: Currently, SRK is the face of Times Now — and India Today. The actor appears on both news channels as part of his promos for his upcoming film Dunki. First, he hails India Today for “making sense of India’’; minutes later, he advises us that for all the “action’’ in the news, “keep watching Times Now’’. Wonder what he will say for Republic TV…
Also read: News anchors playing musical chairs on TV. And it’s giving us a real identity…
When news became Comedy Central
Talking of actors, what do you think of Kalyan Banerjee’s comic talents on display outside Parliament to entertain his fellow Opposition MPs? India Today anchor Shiv Aroor thought highly of them: Banerjee had “prospects in theatre’’, he declared after a video of the MP mimicking Vice President Jagdish Dhankar went viral on social media and TV news.
In fact, re-runs of his mimicry for 24 hours have elevated Banerjee above the pack of 141 suspended Opposition MPs and gained him immediate fame and “universal jeering” (India Today). It’s also won him interviews galore with the media: Wednesday, news channel reporters rushed to question the mimic who was beaming back at them—“Kalyan Banerjee unapologetic”, stated Republic TV as the TMC MP described his act as “art’’.
The presence of Rahul Gandhi and his video recording of the act increased its importance. It also provided the media with another reason to lash out at the Congress leader, this time for the “mockery of democracy” (CNN-News18). The issue became the talk of prime-time debates, with indignant news anchors hanging their heads in “shame’’ or shaking them in disapproval at this “theatre of the absurd’’. (Navika Kumar, Times Now).
To the average viewer, Banerjee’s mockery of the Vice President was unbecoming and discourteous of the high office Dhankar holds. It might have raised a few laughs, but for MPs “to be doing comedy’’ (TNNB), when they had been suspended, diluted the seriousness of what Hindustan Times called “An Opposition mukt House’’. Banerjee had diverted the attention of news channels to the sideshow outside Parliament and Rahul Gandhi, “videographer’’ had given BJP a “walkover”, said India TV. “Opposition will remain in opposition,” concluded Zee News.
Luckily for INDIA, Mamata Banerjee played her “masterstroke’’ (Zee News) at the meeting of the alliance leaders by proposing Kharge’s name as PM candidate. Within minutes, we went from Comedy Hour with Kalyan to “Kharge v/s Modi?” (NDTV 24X7).
In a tizzy, dizzy with excitement, news reporters and anchors listed out the Congress president’s strengths and weaknesses. He’s a Dalit, he experienced—and he’s not a Gandhi, analysed TV9 Bharatvarsh. He’s not Nitish Kumar either, pointed out TNNB – the Bihar CM has been identified as one of the aspiring challengers to the PM.
It’s no surprise then that the story quickly turned to Nitish and RJD’s Lalu Prasad Yadav who are apparently “miffed” at Mamata’s proposal (Republic TV).
There followed a calendar chart of meetings where one or the other leader of INDIA had been “naraaz”, including Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, Nitish Kumar, Mamata Banerjee, added Zee News. TV9’s headline had an undertone of doubt: “Was Kharge the face or the pawn?”
Mamata had “ruffled many feathers’’, wrote TOI; there was “silent disagreement from others” over her suggestion, it added. TV9 summed it up best: “INDIA V/S INDIA’, it said. As the media saw it, nothing was agreed upon at the meeting: “Na sharing, na daring,” announced India TV.
Also read: For once, TV news chose sensitive over sensational—Uttarakhand tunnel rescue coverage shows
Why suspend Opposition MPs?
Kharge, Banerjee, and Rahul Gandhi became the news and allowed TV pay less attention to “Sansad, Security, Suspension” (Republic TV). A question raised by a Zee News anchor was virtually ignored: The Opposition asked for a statement by Union Home Minister Amit Shah on the security breach in Parliament on 13 December and protested when the government didn’t appear to respond. “Why suspend the Opposition over this?’’ she asked.
Opposition MPs said it was to stop them from asking awkward questions on Bills introduced by the government; BJP said the Opposition misbehaved in Parliament. Either way, it was a “worrying trend”, said the NDTV 24×7 anchor.
Indeed.
Finally, let’s return to Dawood. He’s fascinated the media for decades, and rumours of his death found their way from social media to TV news. `Is he dead? Was he poisoned? Did he have food poisoning?’ asked Aaj Tak. “Has the Pakistan government got rid of Dawood?’ TNNB wanted to know. Nobody knew, and nobody seemed to care. His AI-generated face was enough for them.
Views are personal.
(Edited by Humra Laeeq)