A funny thing happened to TV9 Bharatvarsh as it chased after the news — it took a one-way ticket to foreign lands. Seriously.
It must be the only Hindi news channel and the second after WION to devote so much time to news from abroad. Other leading Hindi and English news channels remained in India to dwell on stories like ‘Mega clash for President’ (Republic TV), ‘Droupadi v/s Yashwant Sinha (India TV), ‘Fight for VP post NDA has upper hand’ (CNN News 18), the alleged ‘PFI terror’ camp in Bihar (Aaj Tak), ‘Agnipath politics’ (ABP News), ‘Kerala NEET Shame’ (India Today), or the Supreme Court granting a stay on the arrest of former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national spokesperson Nupur Sharma, and the reported suicide of a girl in Kalakurichi (all channels). But TV9 Bharatvarsh was at ‘China Gate’ with ‘Cheen par camera’ – first, live, and exclusive.
This is just one of many first exclusives from other countries that the Hindi news channel has claimed over the past few months. In fact, ever since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, it has had world exclusives daily.
Now, it may or may not have been the first Indian news channel to invade Ukraine’s airwaves, but it has far outstayed others – and probably it’s welcome too. At any given time of the day, every day, there will be reports from Ukraine, on, by any and everyone who cares to speak about the hapless nation. It’s rather perplexing why TV9 Bharatvarsh is paying so much attention to Ukraine. It claims to be the no.1 news channel amongst viewers — does this mean that its coverage of the Ukraine war has captivated Hindi news viewers and held them in its thrall?
Difficult to believe. However, since the news channel continues to speak darkly of Russia’s wicked ‘plans’, Washington’s counter ‘plans’, and Europe’s assistance to Ukraine all the time, we must believe that there is a Hindi-speaking audience for the latest news from Kyiv that the channel has managed to scoop before anyone else.
And it doesn’t end in or with Ukraine. Besides China, which also receives the channel’s rapt attention (remember it had breaking news that China was on the verge of mounting an offensive against Taiwan while other channels were ‘playing’ domestic politics?), several other countries and their leaders have starred on the channel. Wednesday afternoon, it had ‘World Explosive 25’ stories, largely about Ukraine. But there was news from Pakistan, Nepal, and a joint war exercise of the US, Australia and Japan too.
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Standing out from others
On Tuesday, TV9 Bharatvarsh sweated it out over the heatwave in Europe. Last week, there was coverage of former US President Donald Trump and reports that he may be preparing to announce his bid for the presidency in 2024. This was when former Vice President of India, Hamid Ansari, had hit TV headlines for reportedly knowing and even sharing the high table with a Pakistani ‘ISI spy’ (Republic TV).
Of course, TV9 Bharatvarsh is currently in Sri Lanka, but then, so are most of the other Indian news channels. Like them, the channel’s reporter is wandering about the president’s palace and the prime minister’s office with wanderlust in his eyes. Like NDTV 24×7 and India Today, the reporter spoke to protestors, shopkeepers, and general janta.
TV9 Bharatvarsh has established its identity in the sea of national and regional Hindi news channels. It’s different precisely because it is interested in news beyond India’s boundaries. This makes it unique. And its decision to cover news from abroad tells us something important about the Hindi viewership: Its interest stretches beyond the usual ‘tu-tu main-main’ of Indian politics and the Hindu-Muslim hyphenation, both of which dominate other news channels.
Viewers appear to want news about other countries, so TV9 Bharatvarsh is providing it. This is not to say that it doesn’t cover news about India – sure, it does. On Wednesday, it joined other channels in the coverage of the Punjab Police’s encounter with ‘gangsters’ suspected of involvement in the murder of musician Sidhu Moosewala and then explored the need for a population control policy in India.
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Other channels, other ‘sensational news’
Other Indian news channels also found a foreign angle to one of their main reports on Tuesday. This one apparently came from across the Line of Control and was aimed at Nupur Sharma. First, Aaj Tak reported that she could be on the PFI’s (Popular Front of India) radar. Zee News and Aaj Tak also found PFI’s ‘terror’ camp in Bihar where nefarious plans were reportedly being hatched.
From there, TV news travelled right across the country and discovered another ‘beheading’ threat to Sharma (Zee News) as Times Now reported ‘dire’ warnings by ‘an assassin sent from Pakistan’ – one Rizwan Ashraf – to assassinate her. His photograph was splashed across news channels, and we were told that he had been arrested by the Border Security Force in Rajasthan, carrying a knife.
Not sensational enough for you?
How about the allegation that appeared on several news channels on Tuesday that 200 Hindus had been reportedly ‘thrashed’ in Bangladesh after an objectionable post against Islam appeared on Facebook?
Views are personal.
(Edited by Humra Laeeq)