An Antidote Worth Trying

The decision by the opposition INDIA alliance not to send their representatives to TV debates anchored by 14 prominent TV journalists has not come a day too soon.

It may be termed undesirable. But it had become inevitable as most of these debates had turned blatantly one-sided with barbs reserved exclusively for the parties opposed to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Not merely this.

Most of these anchors seemed promoting partisan propaganda targeting minorities, twisting facts, manufacturing myths, peddling government narrative, spewing hatred and bigotry; sidestepping main issues that would have put the ruling dispensation on the mat, inserting diversionary ploys, turning a Nelson’s eye to the Centre’s initiatives to undermine democratic institutions and intolerance towards dissent.

And the charade had been going on for the last nine years ever since the BJP came to power.

No wonder that some of these channels earned the sobriquet ‘Godi Media’ (or lapdog media) for general reference. In their eagerness to be pliant, they had hailed the three farm bills ‘masterstroke’ and termed the protesting farmers ‘Khalistanis’; chided the women wrestlers agitating against sexual misconduct by BJP MP Brijbhushan Singh and ranted “Ek Khab, Ek Akhada” relentlessly pursuing their misguided mission to please the political masters and ‘reminding’ the women that they owed their medals to money spent by the Government rather their mettle; coined Islamophobia terms such as ‘Love Jihad’, ‘UPSC Jihad’ etc; spewed venom against minority Muslim and Christian community; portrayed Tablighi Jamaat in negative light for its conclave at Nizamuddin but maintained total silence on officially sponsored Kumbh mela et al.

Often dubbed ‘a battle of babble, hawkish’, the TV debates were described as ‘noisy, chaotic places where no coherent discussions were impossible’ and sane voices were drowned under the rants and chants by experts selected for their sycophantic credentials with the BJP and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).