Free Media in a Democratic Nation? Really? - A Pre-Election Special !
gprasadrao@hotmail.com
The TV Media is at it again. Fomenting political divisions - real and imagined, projecting mood swings and vote shares, even alternate party alliances to suit viewer tastes in the masses. But as different they are, or seek to be, most harp on common, familiar themes: Dynastic politics, Personality politics, Judgement Day rhetoric, and even Voter ignorance, if not apathy. Let us examine them each.
Those were the days when a united India resonated with the vision of Patel, Nehru's leadership, Gandhiji's steely resolve and the patriotism of Sarojini Naidu. There was but one primary, over-imposing concern among the masses - Freedom. 67 years, two wars, and three assassinations since, and for good or bad, we are today an over-populated democracy skirting the fine line between spiralling unsustainability and a ramp to the future.
But, as incongruous as it may seem, some things never change. Dynastic politics has not disappeared, it is today more widespread, and perversely, even accepted by the masses. Political capital and family trust and goodwill, are apparently worth something across generations ! The case for personality-based politics, however, is weaker. India, today, is a globally-integrated nation - almost. Our businesses have invested abroad, we have exported business leaders beyond automobiles, and indeed are more open to foreign technology than ever before. But this capitalist, market-based revolution has brought with it a plethora of new issues and problems - from land-use and over-stretched natural resources to public safety and pollution, enlarging financial- and hierarchical-inequity to educational injustice, and a society that is yet gender- biased, over-populated and unsafe. And while the media does debate them, our leaders are, by and large, silent on anything that might anger big businesses, the friendly Sheikhs, or the unfriendly capital markets. Campaigns are long on promises and vision, but short on well-defined policies. Our political parties claim to fill the entire spectrum from Right to the Left, (and I am no believer in populist subsidies in an over-populated nation) but show me a party that says Left-Green and means it with policies. Perhaps Personality-based politics is but a cover for what political parties don't intend, can't achieve, and don't wish for the people to enjoy? So why is the media glorifying it with personality-based coverage.
These past few weeks have been hectic on the airwaves, what with the media channels competing for viewer attention. And it is even prudent to evaluate the performance of the Government on its track record and promises. But should that inquiry extend to the exhumation of the distant past, of assassinations and shamefully-inhumane venge-riots that etched into our memory and the nation's history. What and whose purpose does the exhumation achieve? True, the assassination changed the course of the nation as did the riots reduce the families of victims. But to time and exhume them to re-ignite cooled-passions, recharge the anger and sway the masses - educated ones at that - into altering their vote prior to the projection of the electoral outcome? No ulterior designs...or sponsors, I hope. And while at it....Did I miss a prime-time on the Population issue? Or, Transportation-related accidents and fatalities? The impact of RTI on equity in school admissions? An answer to the 'Diesel-soot in your face' problem? Holding back 'save-you-money' energy technologies to subsidise inefficient and failed energy technologies? Economists label it 'crowding-out'; apparently, the media is well aware of it. Focus on a deep wound of the past while pushing back and ignoring the real issues of today, and risks of the future.
And if the media is indeed the cop it claims to be, why does it not reveal the issues with the 'real-moolah'? Inform us the no-war 'Hangseng deal' the Congress and the Opposition made with the Chinese. Is it set to expire, come May? Inform us the politics around the India-Pak-Iran gas pipeline. It wasn't held back for supplies from Cove Point, MD? Reveal the economics and policy behind grid-based and wind power. It wasn't held back in a zero-sum against solar? Tell us about unholy electoral adjustment behind the scenes (beyond accommodating and hedging in one another). Reveal who post-processes the votes, and in whose presence. Be they Country-Directors of the World Bank and the IMF or CEOs of FIIs. Reveal to us the politics of delay and timing that has reduced POSCO@Odisha to a question-mark, the belated issue of Inflation-bonds, even the timing of the connecting the Northern power grid to the Southern grid. Surely, the delay was entirely administrative? If it filled the baskets of the less-efficient technology resellers and party coffers, you wouldn't call it Corruption, would you? Or the wilful participation of the media?
The media is an instrument of democratic free expression. It should take the people's cause, the real and everyday problems they face, inform and impartially educate the public, and stand by them. Let it not turn slaves to the designs of the Rich and powerful and serve the interests of the minority- for that reduces India to a puppet of the Rich, and a country of docile slaves.
Democratic though !
