Indra’s Drishtikona (Viewpoint)

Media and my confusion

Posted : May 25, 2004 at 10:29 am [IST]

I am not a member of any political party. I start liking a party that goes in power and starts achieving some thing that I can be proud of. I do have an instinct for hero worship. I was a great fan of Nehru in my school days. I attended his public meetings with my grandfather. I also attended one of Lal Bahadur Shastri in that famous maidan of the then Calcutta (now named Kolkata). I liked him because he was a commoner. I was very much impressed by his life story written by his wife that appeared after his untimely death. Perhaps I adore personalities more than the party. For the same reason, I liked Bidhan Roy more as doctor than as CM. I appreciated Sidhartha Sankar Ray as an advocate more than politician CM. Their achievements give me pleasure. Their criticism hurt and hurts me even today. I start associating myself with them and then perhaps their party too. I start feeling proud of them. I adored Indira Gandhi after BanglaDesh war. But I never liked her nationalization moves and then her emergency. I also developed a good impression about Rajiv Gandhi, as he could express well at the world forum that gave a pride. In the same way, I developed a liking for Shri Vajpayee whom I had met once at Dumdum airport and tried to talk. I really hated his long pause during speeches. Naturally I depend on media for making my impressions regarding the persons or the party. But nowadays I am totally confused. I am not able to make my own judgment about the authencity of the conclusions drawn by the columnists in the newspapers and magazines. Upto even last week most of the articles were in praise for Bajpai and the NDA- its programmes and policies but for Gujarat affair. With the change brought in from the verdict of election 2004, suddenly I find the same columnists talking mostly about the mistakes of the people and policy connected with NDA.

I am more confused when even a party such as CPI declares that IIM fee reduction was only for curtailing the autonomy of the institutes. After all, IIMs mostly serve very big business houses and MNCs. And as I know, CPI opposes every thing done for or by MNCs. I am also shocked when the new government talks of desaffronisation of education as its first priority and not the extremely poor health of primary education. How can the CPM and RJD improve the primary education in West Bengal and Bihar? It is the party cadre who manages the total primary education in Bengal. All the appointments of primary teachers are political ones to help the party in power during election. Same is true for Bihar. But the new HRD minister does not talk about it at all. The ruling parties in those states are members of the new ruling alliance-UPA

Now all the newspapers are competing to publish articles in plenty giving the total credit of all reforms to Dr. ManMohan Singh without even mentioning the name of the then Prime Minister. Is it because he is now the PM? Is it not sycophancy? Certainly, Dr. Man Mohan Singh is the father of reform in India. I am also one of his fans. But I liked Narasimha Rao who allowed him and encouraged him to take those steps of reform in interest of the country even at political cost. Every one is praising Sonia for her great sacrifice and comparing her with Mahatma Gandhi and Jai Prakash Narayan. Some even compared her with Budhha and Mahavir. It is good that a sane one has also compared her to Bal Thackeray. I do not know whether she will like the last comparison or not. I do not know how much credit should go her children who may be the part of this sacrifice. Should it not be the risk of the profession she has chosen?

My problem is simple: How can a newspaper, without declaring its affiliation with a party, go on praising the party and cheating its readership day in and day out? I do not mind when GanaShakti does that In West Bengal for CPM. I know it is a CPM newspaper. Why should a columnist not declare his leaning clearly at the beginning of an article so that the reader can judge his writing correctly? What is fun in declaring oneself independent, if you are clearly biased? Out of the two most popular daily newspaper of the capital I switched over from one to the other for a change. I did not know that it is having a leaning for a political party. I got really bored with its features and columns in just few days. I came to know about its party affiliation only through a friend later on, when I expressed my doubts to him. Is it right?

On the same line, it is difficult for me to master all the knowledge of the subjects myself at this age or get verify the data that I come across while reading these articles or news features. I am to depend on the knowledge of the columnists and intellectuals who are already in business of writing on the specific subjects. I expect them to be factually correct. I only request them to have the data double checked before putting in the article or provide the reference. I appeal to them to make their opinion and outlook unbiased so that the reader can get a clearer picture of the situation. I am also concerned and worried about the content of these national newspapers. It has gone so much commercial that it is a problem to go through it properly. To share my way with the friends, I go by elimination and finish reading a newspaper in less than half an hour. Only yesterday I wrote to editor of one these newspapers to put all their classified ads separately in a manner they do in its Sunday issue. I take the page out and put it in waste box.

We want to feel happy that 21st century will be the century of India. That is the most important task and must be the mission for all good Indians. And all of us must work towards that in every field of activities. Let media help the citizens.

- Indra

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