Every year, the monsoon affects us in damaging ways. Both too much and too little are catastrophic. The news from the months of June to October is full of disaster, outrage and despair. For city people, potholes, waterlogging, commuting mishaps and general discomfort. For the rest of India, devastation of crops and fields from water and/or no water, rivers in spate or too dry, major road links broken, collapsed bridges and destructive landslides.
But because the news cycle has changed so much and drama and sensationalism has taken total hold, the nitty-gritty of local reporting has taken a backseat. Old necessary beats like civic issues in cities, which is what would cover monsoon damage, or rural coverage, no longer gets consistent space. Environmental reporting makes up for some of these lapses, especially outside urban centres.
The tragedy for consumers of news and for the news media is that boring as civic issues maybe, they affect people the most. Often voters will talk about drains or roads when they are interviewed about their voting choices, even if it’s for the Lok Sabha elections and these municipal issues cannot be fixed by Members of Parliament. It makes for a huge dichotomy between hope and reality. And in the middle falls the shadow of an errant media.
Because if these issues are constantly covered and highlighted, if pre-monsoon measures are diligently tracked, if government’s ill-advised forays into destruction of forests and mountains get consistent mainstream coverage, if one falling bridge is enough to bring people to the streets, then yes, we have some little hope of less disaster in the coming year.
This morning, one train accident in Jharkhand, another in Mumbai and a massive landslide in Wayanad dominate the news. Train accidents have become distressingly common, but you do not see the legacy media demanding accountability in one voice. You mainly see a parroting of the BJP line about past errors by the Railways under other governments – and this is a Central government in its third term – and PR photos of a railway minister scooting about on someone else’s two-wheeler. No responsibility and therefore no future action.
As for landslides, apart from natural calamities outside the domain of human interference, well, we all ought to know that we are responsible. The Wayanad incident has got massive space – as it should – but two similar happenings in the Himalayas have not managed to capture the imagination of a caged TV media quite in the same way. I leave you to work out the political benefits of attacking Kerala’s governance over Uttarakhand’s dismal record and wilful destruction of the environment. Religious tourism has led to a constant assault on the Joshimath area, thanks to the construction of unwanted dangerous roads. Rivers have changed course leading to more turmoil and pain. Local people have suffered but they do not matter as much as tourists. To give the local news media its due, these problems have been covered locally. But for the national legacy media, it is sensationalism and protectionism that counts. And the protectionism is of such depth that even when a vital road used by the Indian Armed Forces near the China border collapses, it is less important than Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh getting upset with the Congress’s Rahul Gandhi over the Agnipath/Agniveer scheme. Therefore, all news that is negative to those in power gets scant treatment.
Remember, this is a media which can barely stand up for itself, even when access to Parliament is blocked, when journalists who do actual work are attacked. This is a media which obediently spreads BJP propaganda without any fact-checking. This is a media which cannot bear for the public, including its own customers, to question the Union finance minister on problems which her Budget have caused for them. It cannot of course ever question the finance minister directly either.
I understand that civic news is boring and time-consuming. It requires diligence, vigilance and consistency. A change of hats by a waving Prime Minister, a dog-whistling speech and attacks on Opposition members is so much more exciting. Add some Islamophobia and caste hatred into the mix, and you have a show. Wow!
O, look, that mountain has just collapsed. Now who should we blame???
Some dead Prime Minister, obviously.
You choose.
Ranjona Banerji is a senior journalist and commentator. She writes on MxMIndia on Tuesdays and Fridays. Her views here are personal.