By Ranjona Banerji
The fallout of the Pathankot attack appears to remain at the top of the news cycle in India which is hardly surprising. Although I have written last week about our sycophantic media, unable by instruction or inclination to show the BJP and the Central government in bad light, one has to salute courageous publications like The Telegraph, Calcutta for instance. Not only has it called the entire operation “Pathanblotâ€,(http://www.telegraphindia.com/1160106/jsp/frontpage/story_62434.jsp#.Vo5IXfl97IU) , the newspaper has also written a very strong editorial arguing against the “martyr†status given to every fallen soldier. This is a common practice by India’s most well-known TV anchors who have absolutely no concept of the meaning of the word “martyrâ€, inasmuch as they understand concepts at all.
In the hyper-nationalistic atmosphere that prevails in India now, where words like sedition and treason are thrown around very lightly, you have to admire a newspaper which can question the actions of a slain officer during a terrorist attack. Yet, the concerns raised here are pertinent and need to addressed urgently. http://www.telegraphindia.com/1160107/jsp/opinion/story_62467.jsp#.Vo5JVvl97IU
The website thequint.com also carried a letter by Lt General HS Panag (retired) to Major General Pradyot Mallick (retired) on the Pathankot attack. It is a scathing analysis of what happened at the Air Force Base in Punjab.
http://www.thequint.com/opinion/2016/01/06/the-pathankot-attack-was-a-disgrace-for-us
There is some hope for the media if at least some media houses, old and new, are willing to look for facts rather than toe some party line. The last two years have shown the most abysmal standards in Indian journalism for all that everyone who is not pro-BJP is sought to be presented as a Congress stooge. The evidence at the moments points in quite another direction.
What India needs very urgently is TV programmes which analyse the way news is presented. I write this sitting here in the UK where there are any number of shows, serious and funny, which examine newspapers and television news. Personally, the shows which mock the news are top of the list. Of course, Jon Stewart’s Daily Show in the US, now fronted by South African comedian Trevor Noah, set the standard. And John Oliver is also superb – if you have not watched his take on Indian television news, Narendra Modi in America and how the American media ignored the Indian general elections, you should do so at once.
The All India Bakchod has taken on the news on Youtube and now on television. And there’s always The Week That Wasn’t. But neither of them is as strong, as confrontational and as in-your-face as they need to be. India has a tendency to get stuck in morass of over-baked notions of self-respect and we need to be taken down frequently. Journalists are no exception and some are far too full of themselves.
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Having said that, the illness of concentrating on the trivial and fluttering past the substantial is a worldwide media disease. The often mindless and meaningless potterings of the latest pop star are far more important than any world even unless you count US presidential hopeful Donald Trump, who may qualify as both.