Ranjona Banerji: Damned if you criticise demonitisation

By Ranjona Banerji

Glory be. After a couple of days of questioning the rollout of the Union Government’s demonetisation scheme to attack India’s culture of black money, some of our renowned TV anchors were back to questioning those questioning the government. Some like Vikram Chandra on NDTV’s Big Fight seemed to take this criticism personally. Others allowed BJP party members and their supporters to get away with obfuscating the issue.

Newspapers are full of stories about how people are not able to cope with this sudden shortage of cash. Here in Dehradun, one has to salute the local coverage. The Times of India and the Hindustan Times especially have extensively covered problems in rural and remote mountainous areas apart from the long queues at ATMs and banks at urban centres.

However, the general focus of the English media has been on lines outside banks and the problems of urban India. And while the reporters have been out canvassing the views of the people and their problems or gratitude at the government’s move, news anchors on their “discussion” shows have done a neat twist on proceedings. The criticism from those who criticise has been of the implementation of the scheme. But for some TV stars, criticism is equal to approval of black money – which is the BJP’s line. It was shocking to see Nalin Kohli of the BJP accuse Meera Sanyal of AAP of knowing nothing about banking on Barkha Dutt’s show on NDTV, when she is of course a banker who has been at the helm.

Karan Thapar on India Today also seemed to take criticism and anger on the implementation of demonetisation scheme as being pro-black money, which is surprising. Rahul Kanwal on non-discussion shows on the same channel however focused on the problems faced by the general public. CNN-News18, Ambani-owned or not, has started to take (retake) some real good shots at actual journalism (Firstpost too, if I must be fair).

I have to admit that I have not watched Arnab Goswami and Times Now for a while but ads for what must be one of his last News Hours seemed to suggest that he had decided to blame political parties which are not the BJP of not being supportive

So while the media, newspapers and news websites and TV, started out looking at demonetisation from the point of view of the people of India, it did not take news channels long to start focusing only on political parties. In language publications and news channels however, you got a more rounded story. Reporters were sent to more remote areas of India where cash is the only currency and suffering is real. Dainik Jagran had broken an interesting story about new Rs 2000 notes. Bengali channels and newspapers picked up on a story in the CPM mouthpiece Ganashakti that the BJP’s Bengal wing deposited crores into banks just before the

This demonetisation idea has created national panic. Whether the panic is justified is another matter. But it must at least be taken seriously when people are dying, when people are running out of cash, when businesses are struggling. Yet, as we have seen so many times recently, too many of our top journalists, particularly in television, find it easier to just kowtow to the government line than use their good

This is in fact is a good time for the media to investigate our various black money processes, procedures and practices. That might be a more effective way to be a government cheerleader rather than pooh-pooh the problems of the poor who have no money to buy food or who are too scared or illiterate to use bank accounts or even too stupid to use debit and credit cards. I am being sarcastic by the way for those who cannot see it. The attitude of the government is bad enough but for top TV anchors to behave in this manner is shameful. Better get out of the studio and take off your blindfolds. India is bigger than one BJP spokesperson, one Congress spokesperson, one AAP spokesperson and one terrified trade representative who is not going to tell you the truth.