Influence of media on Indian politics

The journey of the media in India dates back to the days of the freedom movement. It would never be exaggerating to say that Mahathma’s ‘Indian Opinion’ , Aurobindo’s ‘Navashakti’, Bharathiyar’s ‘Swadesamithran’, etc, etc were considered to be the real threats to the British rulers during the independence struggle. The media in India, just like in any other developing or a developed nation of this world has always deeply connected with the political system of our country.

The technological advancement in the communication domain brought into the society what has become an indispensable part of every house, the television. Doordarshan, the public television network started its broadcasting in 1965. The arrival of cable television and private broadcasters paved way to a great paradigm shift.

A significant percentage of Indian population today enjoys a great variety of television channels, satellite radios and internet. Most of the daily newspapers have already made themselves available in electronic form for the internet users- thanks to the latest Information and Techonology tsunami. The rapid growth in the media in last 20 years has created an immense competition among the players which has its own payoffs. The common critique about the media in the recent past is that the television channels and the newspapers have started moving away from playing a critical role for the goodness of the nation to being a mere entertainers. While partially agreeing with this vox populi, I would also like to say that it is we, the people, who decide what is interesting and what is not. We should accept the fact that there are certain things that we cannot avoid.

We might skip the news on a recent satellite launch and Editorial talking about the infiltration, to quickly move to the last page of a daily to see how much Sachin scored against Australia the last night. Or keep surfing the channels in TV to get on time for the “Indian Idol” while not worrying too much about “The Breaking news” or “The Prime time”. This is completely understandable but, again, it is important for us to realize that it is WE who make a program or a channel a successful one or otherwise.

One of the episodes of the popular talk show “We the people” aired in NDTV right after the Mumbai massacre is something I came across recently which stayed in my mind for a long time. Everybody had different emotions to share on the show and different opinions on the unbelievable attack to put down. But what I believe was really an eye opener was, if not all, at least most of the viewers must have realized that there lies a piece of job, a need for a sense of responsibility and a necessity for an immediate action and more importantly an element of danger in front of every single Indian. It was really thought provoking when a celebrity said he would never ever complaint the security checks even if he had to wait in queues in airport for hours. The other touching part of this program was when a taxi driver, happened to be a Muslim, talked about how his family became the victim of terrorism in various tragic incidents. Our media has been our vehicle to carry our stands and opinions to the rest of the world, more than that, to a common man sitting and listening to a radio somewhere deep in a deserted village – and my opinion is, we have done a decent job in achieving this over last two decades.

Having said that, there is no question that the recent trend in media has made itself look what I think nasty and often unacceptable. The private television channels and radios owned or supported directly and indirectly by the political parties have done a great damage to the public respect on the media. It is certainly obvious that this situation prevails even in developed nations such as America. We all know which political party the CNN supports for and which one the Fox channel endorses. But the difference here is, when it comes to a real problem facing a common man or working class people or certain industries or underprivileged communities or women, the very same channels which are viewed as rivals, come together and try to shed some light on the details of the issue to help the government solving the problem rather than making it even bigger and harder to handle.

Is it not shameful that we see bunch of thugs mobilized and motivated by the political parties brutalizing the news reporters and burning the press offices? Is this how our great ancestors perceived our democracy would be? Is this what Gandhis, Nethajis and Patels expected us to do with the freedom they hard-fought for? Any Indian who watches these embarrassing events would agree that we, as a nation stand an example for how badly and improperly a nation can handle the democracy.

One might think that imposing rules, standardizations and regulations on media would help earn the credibility back. I think this would make a very insignificant change and often adverse effects. Any restriction imposed on media and press will have its own repercussions.” A complete freedom of press” is a vital aspect of any democracy – something that we cannot compromise for anything. The current situation, in my opinion, will only change when the channels such as NDTV, CNN IBN which provides public with unbiased news and views should start penetrating the regional languages and state politics. People with astute knowledge on political and social sciences, with the ability to discuss and provide solutions for our deep rooted political problems should come forward and enlighten the common public, more than anything else, a few sensible leaders who can turn the tables and set things right.
Fingers crossed!!