Bhubaneshwar: In Odisha, every electoral battle, political observers say, is first played out in the media before it reaches the polling booth.
And there’s a good reason for this observation — in no other state is the local media and politics so entwined as in Odisha. At least nine media barons, running major newspaper and television channels, are also full-time politicians from either the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) or the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress.
Many of them are contesting this time too. Elections are being held simultaneously for the Lok Sabha and the state assembly in Odisha.
The BJD media barons
At the top, it is the ruling BJD that dominates the print and airspace with six newspapers and TV channels owned and run by party MPs and MLAs, both current and former.
The most prominent newspaper from the BJD stable is Sambad, one of the largest selling Odia dailies. It is headed by Rajya Sabha MP Soumya Ranjan Patnaik who joined the BJD in 2018. He is contesting the assembly election from Khandapara seat.
Patnaik is the son-in-law of former Congress chief minister J.B. Patnaik and the brother of Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee president Niranjan Patnaik. Besides Sambad, his Eastern Media Limited also runs the Odia news channel, Kanak TV, and the FM radio station, Radio Choklate.
Another prominent media baron who joined the BJD last year is Achyuta Samanta, whose company, Kalinga Media and Entertainment, runs Odia news channel Kalinga TV.
Political observers in Odisha say that it was part of a very clever strategy on the part of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to get Soumya Ranjan and Samanta to join the BJD ahead of the election season.
“In the run-up to the elections it helped the BJD to build the narrative around the party and shape popular perception,” said a political analyst who did not want to be named. “Kalinga TV, for instance, is more like a BJD mouthpiece in Odisha.”
The move has helped especially after former BJD MP Baijayant Panda, whose wife owns OTV, one of the largest and most popular news channels in the state, quit the party to join the BJP, the political analyst added.
Another Odia news channel, News World — though not as popular as OTV — is owned by sitting BJD MP from Balasore, R.K. Jena. He is seeking re-election from the seat this time as well.
Sitting BJD MP from Cuttack, Bhartruhari Mahtab, runs Prajatantra, one of the oldest Odia dailies. Mahtab is contesting from Cuttack this time too. Prajatantra was founded by his father, the state’s first Congress chief minister Harekrushna Mahtab.
Four-time BJD MP Tathagata Satpathy, who recently quit active politics and did not renew his party membership that lapsed this month, runs the Odia and English dailies Dharitri and Odisha Post. He is the son of the late Congress chief minister Nandini Satpathy.
BJD’s Sanjay Kumar Das Burma, a two-time MLA who is contesting this time as well, is the promoter of Odia daily Sarbasadharana.
Professor R.K. Satapathy, who teaches political science in Shillong’s North-Eastern Hill University and is a keen observer of Odisha politics says that except for Samaja, the oldest and largest circulated Odisha newspaper, which is independently run, majority of the newspapers and TV channels are owned by BJD leaders.
“One hardly comes across anything critical about Naveen Patnaik or his government’s policies in the mainstream Odia media,” Sathpathy said. “The media has been managed successfully to project that there is no alternative to Naveen Patnaik in Odisha.”
Also read: Great helmsman, history’s catalyst, ABCD PM – how breathless media barons hail guest Modi
BJP too reaps the benefit
The BJP, which is trying to expand its footprint in Odisha, got a shot in the arm after Panda, whose wife, Jagi Mangat Panda, runs Odisha Television Limited (OTV) joined the party in March. A former BJD MP from Kendrapara, Panda is contesting in the same constituency on a BJP ticket.
In Odisha’s media landscape, OTV, is now shaping public perception around the BJP.
“It is one of the few news channels that is openly critical of the BJD government and its policies,” said a BJP leader who did not want to be quoted.
Another former BJD leader Damodar Rout, who joined the BJP recently, runs the Odia daily Sanchar. Rout is contesting from the Balikuda-Erasama assembly seat in Jagatsinghpur.
The Congress, with its declining influence in Odisha politics, also has an editor-politician. Sitting MLA Chiranjib Biswal, who is contesting from Jagatsighpur, runs the Odia daily Samaya. He is the son of former Congress deputy chief minister Basant Biswal. Chiranjib’s brother Rajib is the managing editor of the paper.
Media houses manipulate public opinion, say experts
Senior journalist Pamela Philipose says that politicians owning media houses not only use it to build contacts but also manipulate public opinion.
“Odisha has a long history of media houses owned by politicians. It does have an impact on elections as the narrative they build around their respective parties plays a big role in manipulating the public opinion,” said Philipose, author of Media’s Shifting Terrain: Five Years that transformed the way India Communicates.
Internationally, Philipose says, the corporate ownership of media is well-established. “But there the public understands the importance of an independent media much more,” she said. “So there is always a pressure on media houses to be independent or maintain a semblance of independence.”
Tathagata Satapathy said that, historically, in Odisha, the media has been the mouthpiece for political thinkers and their thoughts.
“Unlike in other places, in Odisha, no industry or big business house promoted the media. But in today’s changed circumstances, the local media is being increasingly dominated by big business,” he told ThePrint. “So, I am unable to say whether a politician-backed media or a business-backed media is better for the common citizen.”
Also read: There’s no place for BJP’s Hindutva agenda in Odisha’s temple cities of Bhubaneswar & Puri
- The copy has been updated to correct the designation of Soumya Ranjan Patnaik, who is a Rajya Sabha MP. The name of Baijayant Panda’s wife was spelt wrong and has been corrected.
a very well balanced write up on the issue of ‘independence’ of media in Odisha
I think Congress has no media house owner.
Well this has to happen
None of the media in India or the world are unbiased. Each one of them has an hidden agenda and are run by people in power or people who want to snatch power. Even the print is also a one sided show when it bashes only one party and not others