MxMIndia

Category: COLUMNS

  • Ranjona Banerji's found Rajya Sabha TV the best for election results given its latest figures and the studio being filled with journalists and analysts, not politicians and the discussions were robust but polite and interesting.

    Ranjona Banerji: Tweedledum, Tweedledee, Twitterdom

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    Sunday was a busy day for the media and my heart goes out to all newspaper and web columnists whose profound writings are scheduled for that day. For just about anyone who was interested in the news was of course watching TV and tracking the results of four crucial Assembly elections.

     

    Also, some may have been there for the entertainment. Because news channels can sometimes top their counterparts in the general entertainment category when it comes to drama, melodrama, tension, denouements, overacting, hamming, emotion and any other over-the-top human reaction you can think of. Humour, outrage, sneering and jeering are to be found on social media, however.

     

    I started Sunday morning with NDTV, Prannoy Roy and Dorab Sopariwalla for old times’ sake and it was a soothing, enlightening, gentle humour-filled experience. This was marred somewhat by the presence of Meenakshi Lekhi of the BJP who may be many things but she is not a soothing experience. I switched between all the channels and watched the big guns at work. The most electrifying was of course Times Now which like is all the other channels combined plus a huge dose of amphetamines or maybe whatever Lance Armstrong was so fond of. Terrifying to watch actually.

     

    My vote then goes to Rajya Sabha TV. It has the latest figures. The studio was filled with journalists and analysts, not politicians and the discussions were robust but polite and interesting. I really admire Indian news addicts who crave the tamasha that is news television. I find it jarring and at the end of the day, extremely hollow. Several people I spoke to said they were happier tracking the elections results on Twitter, which is usually the first with information anyway. I myself was on Twitter while watching TV for most of Sunday.

     

    **

     

    By Sunday evening, discussions were about the demise of the Congress and the phenomenal success of the Aam Aadmi Party. The “Modi wave” was also discussed and on Sunday and Monday morning many commentators felt that the Gujarat chief minister and the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi had made a difference to the BJP’s four victories. By Monday evening and Tuesday morning, the “wave” had become a “ripple” as vote share and constituency wise figures trickled in.

     

    The lobster quadrille being danced out between the BJP and AAP in Delhi – where no one has a majority – dominated the news however. The whiting, the snail and the porpoise were not sure where to tread. There was and still is a sort of Carrollian air to these elections. Cheshire cats everywhere, Tweedledum and Tweedledee in usual combat and with the calls for leaders like Indira Gandhi, some Red Queens shouting “Off with their heads” will soon pop up.

     

    Tuesday’s newspapers are full of advice for both the Congress and Arvind Kejriwal and his Aam Aadmi Party. The BJP won four states and will form a government in three but it is a bit eclipsed by the Congress’s remarkable losses and the AAP’s spectacular showing. Such is India that the results of the Mizoram assembly elections got a little lost.

     

    Anyway, the show, ladies and gentlemen, has just begun. Get a drink, settle down and enjoy the ride.

     

    **

     

    MS Dhoni has to thank Arvind Kejriwal because no one has noticed India’s dismal performance in South Africa except for diehard cricket fans. Columns however are undoubtedly being written to blame Sachin Tendulkar. Oh, wait, of course…

     

    **

     

    Tarun Tejpal too has been knocked off the headlines. Intriguing however is this massive defence of Shoma Chaudhury in The New York Times by well-known columnist Roger Cohen. Far be it from anyone to tell a columnist what to write about but a few more facts may have helped him to understand why Chaudhury faced as much flak as she did: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/10/opinion/the-beast-in-indias-midst.html?_r=0

     

    **

    And finally, this is a personal crusade and a little out of my territory. Sunsilk Shampoo has an ad on the front page of The Times of India’s Mumbai edition headlined: “Love your Straight Baal?” The copy goes on to read, “Every girl knows that there is one magic moment just after a shower when your hair is wet, aligned and perfectly straight.”

     

    This ad is a direct attack on people who do not have straight hair and especially people with curly hair. On behalf of all curly-haired people, I object. Nor do I know anything about this stupid supposedly “magic moment”. So there!

     

  • Television, which makes epics out of gossip, just about blanked the story out. There are allegations that some newspapers have taken critical stories off their websites, notes Ranjona Banerji

    Ranjona Banerji: Cagey media and the curious case of the Aston Martin accident

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    The curious case of the Aston Martin accident in Mumbai continues to interest social media even as newspapers and news channels are tiptoeing around it. The reason for this discretion in an otherwise hysterical media is simple: the car belongs to Reliance. Even more, er, terrifying, is the fact that there are allegations that it was being driven by Mukesh Ambani’s son.

     

    Here’s the story so far, according to the cagey media – barring very brave all out coverage by Mumbai Mirror: At 1.30 am on Sunday morning, December 8, a speeding Aston Martin hit two cars on Peddar Road. Both cars suffered damage, the first moving across the divider to hit a bus on the other side. What is curious is that the Aston Martin was apparently followed by two other cars which bundled the driver out and away. There were, according to newspaper reports, no casualties: minor injuries all around. The car, said the police, was registered to Reliance Ports and Infrastructure.

     

    On December 9, a driver presented himself to the police and claimed responsibility. The problem started when the witnesses and victims claimed that the driver they saw was a young man not a portly middle-aged man with a moustache. The company claimed that the car had not been used so was being taken on a customary spin. The “rescue” of the driver by two cars following the Aston Martin was downplayed.

     

    Soon after this, mention of Reliance vanished from the papers and the story vanished too. Television, which makes epics out of gossip, just about blanked the story out. But social media has another more sinister version: various blogs and Twitter accounts claim that two people were killed that night and the deaths are being covered up because the man driving the car was Mukesh Ambani’s son.

     

    There you have it: a classic cover-up, “mistaken” identity or just an ordinary hit and run?

     

    There is no proof so far that anyone was killed. But there is ample proof that the media has not played up the story and there is ample suspicion that the facts don’t match the stories. This is from a Mumbai Mirror story of December 10: “One of the most vital questions that the police are seeking an answer to is that why were two Honda CRVs, with a large security detail, tailing a car driven by a chauffeur and not carrying any Ambani family member. They also want to know why the security personnel whisked the chauffeur away in one of their cars and did not report the matter to cops immediately.

     

    Foram Ruparel, 25, who was driving the Audi that was first hit by the Aston Martin, said she had a good view of the man driving that car. “I could see in the rear-view mirror the car was moving at a high speed, weaving left and right. And then, in a flash, it hit my car. I had a decent look at driver’s face. He was a young man,” she said.

     

    Foram said the driver of the Aston Martin tried to flee, but the car stalled a little distance ahead. “In seconds, there was a swarm of security men around the car and they bundled the driver into one of the SUVs and sped off,” she said.”

     

    There are also allegations that some newspapers have taken critical stories off their websites. There are some who claim that the same Aston Martin Rapide, which apparently costs Rs 4 crore, was seen at the party held by the Ambanis for Sachin Tendulkar. The fact is, Reliance has not denied owning the car. The questions being raised have to do with the driver.

     

    So far, this much is certain: the deaths have not been corroborated even by the witnesses who have been quite belligerent. And the media has definitely not been as diligent as it needs to have been. Has pressure been put on the media here to downplay the story? The evidence points that way… The enormous influence of the Ambanis and Reliance notwithstanding, some independent thought and action here would be most welcome. And all kudos to Mumbai Mirror for sticking to its guns.

     

  • The biggest coming-of-age aspect in Bigg Boss 7 comes in the form of two very real love stories that have unfolded this season, writes Shailesh Kapoor

    Shailesh Kapoor | Bigg Boss 7: The Coming-Of-Age Season

    By Shailesh Kapoor

     

    Since its start in 2006, Bigg Boss has acquired cult status in certain sections of the Indian audience, driven by youth and the urban elite. In today’s age of paid news, the programme gets sizeable free publicity in mainstream media, and has been a runaway hit with the social media in the last 3-4 years.

     

    Historically, Bigg Boss has not been a high-rating show, with the 3-TVR mark being considered a very good result. But there are many other factors that compensate for this, none less than the huge opportunity the programme offers for in-programme product placements and integrations. Colors has also invested well in the property over the last six seasons, upping the scale every time. The big leap, of course, was in Season 4, when they brought in Salman Khan as the host.

     

    If Season 5, which started with Shakti Kapoor in the house with a dozen women, was the worst Bigg Boss season till date, the current season (7) is what I’d call the coming-of-age season for the Bigg Boss franchise. It may lack a pivot like Dolly Bindra or Imam Siddiqui, who can single-handedly deliver content, but it breaks new grounds, which may impact Indian television itself, not just Bigg Boss.

     

    The biggest coming-of-age aspect in Bigg Boss 7 comes in the form of two very real love stories that have unfolded this season – Gauhar-Kushal and Tanisha-Armaan. In the past, Bigg Boss seasons have only hinted at romance, without much meat to chew. An episode in Season 1 ended with Aryan Vaid kissing Anupama Verma on her forehead. That, and a few massages apart, there hasn’t been much else in the name of love (or lust, for that matter) that registered.

     

    But the public display of affection this season has been heart-warming. Some may argue that it’s done on purpose to garner mileage and propel careers, but as an avid viewer, I’d pass that off as baseless cynicism. When Kushal proposed to Gauhar on screen, rather spontaneously, and she accepted, it was for real. They lived like a couple thereafter, till Kushal’s eviction this week.

     

    Armaan and Tanisha may not have formally announced their status, but it’s there for all to see. And the element of lust is apparent too, with rumours of their lovemaking in the house doing the rounds on social media. Both couples have also used the camera-free washroom rather brazenly at times. Full credit to the channel for telecasting at least some such portions.

     

    For me, this is a far cry from the kid-glove handling of romance and man-woman relationships that we are used to seeing on our television. Bigg Boss 7 pushes the envelope, and in a smart way that doesn’t allow for any silly protests or moral policing. After all, who can object to consensual love? (Oh wait!)

     

    In many of our serials, the hero and the heroine may well have been brother and sister, the way they maintain safe distance from each other, even in private moments. Perhaps Bigg Boss 7 will embolden the channels and producers to relook at what comes across, at least at times, as a playing-it-safe strategy.

     

    Only time will tell if this season was a real trendsetter, or just a flash in the pan when the channel got lucky because real people fell in real ishq wala love on the show. But for those who complained that Bigg Boss was way too sanitized compared to Big Brother, we have now officially moved on.

     

    Signs of a changing India?

     

    Shailesh Kapoor is founder and CEO of media insights firm Ormax Media. He spent nine years in the television industry before turning entrepreneur. The views expressed here are his own. He can be reached at his Twitter handle @shaileshkapoor

     

  • We have this bizarre tendency to accrue to ourselves credit for any action or achievement of a person of Indian origin, even if those achievements have nothing to do with India, rues Ranjona Banerji

    Ranjona Banerji: Ground keeps shifting on Devyani Khobragade case

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    The affair Khobragade is getting stranger and stranger. The media seems to be divided between patriots and human rights activists. But this is still a case where the ground keeps shifting beneath your feet, so yesterday’s position can become today’s embarrassment.

     

    The first reaction upon hearing that Devyani Khobragade, part of the Indian consulate in the US, was arrested for not paying her maid fair wages according to US law was to bemoan this practice of ill-treating domestics which is rampant in India. Then the news said that Khobragade had been arrested and handcuffed in front of her children and strip searched and “cavity searched”. The pendulum promptly sprung to outrage against the US. Add to that dark conspiracy mutterings about how the maid in question, Sangita Richards and her family had been spirited away to the US to “save” them from harassment by India, how Richards’s in-laws worked as US embassy staff and you have a story fit for Lawrence Durrell’s Esprit d’Corps.

     

    There was much cheer that the Indian government – usually depicted as wimpish on news channels especially since we do not declare war on Pakistan and China every third day or on the whims of the anchor – had actually taken a tough stand. In between Arvind Kejriwal and Anna Hazare and the Lokpal Bill and Justice AK Ganguly, TV news carried footage of the barricades in front of the US embassy in New Delhi being demolished. Certainly a seminal freedom fighter movement for Indians born post-Independence.

     

    This was also a great time for foreign affairs experts to lend their weight and experience to the matter. The general consensus was that the US was high-handed, good that India stood tough and that domestics are routinely ill-treated in foreign lands. The Times of India in an edit said that had India been economically stronger, the US would never have done this to us. The Hindustan Times on Thursday had an excellent foreign affairs page which covered all aspects of the case. The Indian Express told us how the Khobragades, daughter Devyani and father Uttam, Maharashtra bureaucrat owned several properties, including in the controversial Adarsh building in Mumbai.

     

    I have one more take on this. The man responsible for taking all this strict action against Khobragade is a public prosecutor in New York called Preet Bharara. Bharara is of Indian origin. When he became prosecutor, the Indian media fell all over him as if he had singlehandedly found a cure for HIV/AIDS. We have this bizarre tendency to accrue to ourselves credit for any action or achievement of a person of Indian origin, even if those achievements have nothing to do with India. It is as if we are so insecure in ourselves that we need anything at all to give us solace or succour or just make us feel good about being Indian.

     

    But Bharara does not want to be Indian. He is an American. In fact, he seems to have insistently and steadfastly pursued erring South Asians, perhaps for reasons of his own. There was no need for the Indian media to fete him in the hysterical manner in which they did. This worship of NRIs and their doings has to stop. In 2009, when Venkataraman Ramakrishnan won a Nobel for Chemistry he made it very clear that he did not owe the Nobel to India, much to the embarrassment of a salivating media.

     

    One understands that there is a need to address the large Indian “diaspora” as they are called these days, regardless of the implications of the term, if only because many greedy Indians and governments want their foreign exchange. But there is a need to be circumspect and sensible, as the adulation of Bharara shows. And if we the media are really so concerned about addressing NRIs, why not investigate those who suffer the horrors of human trafficking and slave-like conditions when working abroad? Not all NRIs are aunties in polyester saris 40 years out of date carrying free diapers for poor relatives or aunties dressed in some abomination of a TV soap outfit who come to India only to shop for more ugly shiny clothes or even a New York prosecutor who wants to be more loyal than the king.

     

  • One can't really expect cynicism against their own government from the American media which made “embedded journalism” into an accepted form of the profession, writes Ranjona Banerji

    Ranjona Banerji: Patriotism rules in US media in Khobragade case

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    The Devyani Khobragade and Sangeeta Richard case continue to dominate headlines mainly because it still remains so confusing. Every time you feel that the diplomat (or consular officer if you prefer) was the victim, some new bit of information surfaces that makes it clear that the domestic “assistant” was the one being mistreated. And so on. I watched Barkha Dutt’s ‘We the People’ on this subject and it answered none of the questions.

     

    Uttam Khobragade, Devyani’s father, was in a rage. The former Indian diplomats on the show dismissed the US’s actions and brought up their double standards. The diplomats said that the US had no jurisdiction on anything that happens in a contract between two Indians on what can be considered Indian “territory”. The academics and activists brought up the issue of the ill-treatment of domestics in India and by Indians. The sole American, a journalist with the New York Times, tried to defend his country’s actions in arresting Khobragade and brought up the issue of domestics.

     

    The audience, except for one person who said the US had to follow its own laws, was furious, although a few did accept that domestics were not treated well. Meanwhile, allegations have surfaced that Richard may be a CIA agent! On the face of it, this sounds a little far-fetched although it will give conspiracy theorists much to fulminate about.

     

    The US media however has sided firmly with their government and severely scolded India for forgetting the “other victim” – as in the domestic assistant. Edits and opeds in The New York Times, the Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and for all I know the Poughkeepsie Bugle have all rapped us on the knuckles. Some of these have been written by well-known American columnists like Roger Cohen. Others have been written by the vast army of non-resident Indians who are all experts on India, having lived here until they were six and returned at 26. Good to know that the patriotic journalist is alive and well. I however would have expected more cynicism against their government from American journalists but perhaps not from a media which made “embedded journalism” into an accepted form of the profession?

     

    In India, however confusion or freedom of speech reigns and different columnists and editorial writers have taken different stands on the issue.

     

    **

     

    How do you spell “aam aadmi” as in the common man as in the name of India’s newest and most definitive political party? The general consensus would be “aam aadmi” but The Times of India has bucked the trend and gone with “aam admi”. Sounds and looks odd.

     

    **

     

    Is it because of sustained social media pressure that mainstream newspapers have started covering the Aston Martin accident on Pedder Road again? After silence for a few days, the name “Reliance” has surfaced again in newspaper reports. However, these are just tiny little single columns…

     

    **

     

    I was part of a panel discussion at the St Pauls Institute of Communication Education in Mumbai’s Bandra area on Saturday, December 21, where the subject was, “The Media vs Tarun Tejpal: Activism or Selective Conscience. My fellow panellists were Bharat Kumar Raut, a senior journalist and currently a Rajya Sabha MP, Dilip D’Souza, author and columnist and Swati Deshpande, legal editor of The Times of India. The discussion was moderated by Shashi Baliga, a senior journalist, columnist and executive director of Literature Live.

     

    It was a lively chat where each of us had our unique perspective but the general consensus was that the media was right in the way it covered the Tejpal case, even if there was some overstepping of boundaries. Heartening was the fact that the media knows that it has been lax about dealing with internal cases of sexual harassment.

     

  • Shailesh Kapoor on the gamechangers that stood out on the content side in Hindi general entertainment channels this year

    Top 5 Gamechangers on Hindi GECs in 2013

     

    By Shailesh Kapoor

     

    For the television industry, 2013 will be best remembered as the year of digitization. Similarly, we hope to remember 2014 as the year of a ratings system overhaul, with the industry shifting to the new system being developed by BARC. We are evidently in a period when technology and not content is emerging as the gamechanger.

     

    Yet, there were gamechangers that stood out on the content side in Hindi GECs too. Here’s a look at my list of Top 5 such shows. Established successful shows like Diya Aur Baati Hum, Saathiya and Balika Vadhu are not a part of this list, as their ongoing success is simply a continuation of what they promised in the last few years.

     

    5. 24

    The much-hyped 24 did not deliver high ratings. But it makes it to this gamechangers list for simply trying. As the Indian television market matures, we are bound to see fiction experiments beyond the regular family-based shows that currently rule the roost for the right reasons. When one such idea clicks, the floodgates will open. But 24 on Colors will always be remembered as the pioneer that brought this change. Here’s hoping for a more-Indianized second season.

     

    4. Qubool Hai

    Launched in late 2012, Qubool Hai scaled great heights of popularity in early and mid 2013, before losing some of the steam towards the end of the year. Driven by good casting that combined eye candy with solid performances, this Muslim social offered cultural variety, but with a contemporary and youthful treatment that had the college girls asking for more. Along with Sapne Suhaane Ladakpan Ke, it gave Zee TV a younger audience base that in turn helped the channel grow during the year, and sizably so.

     

    3. Mahabharat

    Star Plus challenged the status quo on production of daily fiction shows this year. After a rather half-baked attempt with Saraswatichandra, Mahabharat saw a real shift of scale. The show is easily the best-mounted fiction show ever in the history of Indian television. Its perspective on the epic tale is applause-worthy too, with considerable focus on the grey, than just the black and the white. Uneven pace and language comprehension issues may have limited its viewership in the early period, but the serial is now set for a creditable finish in 2014.

     

    2. Jodha Akbar

    Zee TV’s Jodha Akbar is a live case study on how to make a historical theme engaging by giving it a contemporary treatment. Story-wise, the programme uses the tried and tested elements of family and romantic dramas, exploited earlier to hilt in shows like Pratigya and Saathiya on Star Plus. It keeps the language simple, allowing for easy, fun viewing of what could have been an otherwise-overbearing show. Yet, the period look makes the show stand out in the crowd, offering the best of both worlds.

     

    1. Comedy Nights With Kapil

    This has to be a one-horse race if there ever was one. The success of Comedy Nights With Kapil on Colors cannot be measured by its ratings alone. Its consistently top-notch and flawless execution, combining fiction with live entertainment, has left me amazed episode after episode. How can you get something so right, I have often wondered. The show delivers two popular genres, which were beginning to look a bit jaded on television, in a refreshing avatar – Comedy and Bollywood.

     

    The comedy stays away from being crass or lowbrow at all times, yet manages to focus on popular culture and mass themes. The celebrity interaction is nothing we have seen before. It is audience-indulgent, not celebrity-indulgent. By now, it is common knowledge in the industry how celebrities aspire to be on the show and nervously prepare for it, so that they can match up to Kapil’s wit and timing.

     

    Comedy Nights With Kapil is the unifier show we have missed since KBC in 2000 – a show that various sections of the family and the society have an equal appeal towards. Thankfully, its success is not replicable, so we may not see too many clones coming out. Meanwhile, another 100+ delicious episodes await us in 2014.

     

  • The internet has busted everyone and there is no protection for journalists any more, as public pressure makes cover-ups difficult, writes Ranjona Banerji.

    The Year in News Media

     

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    It’s Tarun Tejpal, right? I cannot think of a bigger media story of 2013. The outrages before that had been layoffs, ill-treatment by employers, closing down of publications. Network 18 and Outlook group were most talked about on those issues.

     

    We even had a few high-profile sackings. The Hindu suddenly decided that it no longer wanted the services of editor-in-chief Siddharth Vardarajan. This was a bit of a surprise since Vardarajan had been appointed the year before with much drama: highlighting the immense family feud which is the Hindu board, where N Ram had overridden everyone else. Ram had then claimed that the newspaper had to employ professional journalists for the top posts and not keep it all in the family. However, along the way he changed his mind, and some of the siblings joined forces, ousted Vardarajan and took control of the paper again. It should be noted that some family members disagreed with this decision and against Ram’s claiming two votes for himself.

     

    Hartosh Singh Bal, political editor of Open magazine, was also “let go”, he said because the owner (Sanjiv Goenka) didn’t like his political leanings. Goenka said he didn’t and never had liked Bal. Manu Joseph said he had protected Bal as long as he could but could not do so any more. Bal said he was going to sue Open because for too long had owners taken journalists for a ride.

     

    Forbes magazine saw the exit of its top editorial staff as well as its CEO, seen by many as part of Network 18’s downsizing drive. The senior staff also said they would take legal action against the group.

     

    Television saw many sackings but few of them were high profile. Hundreds of nameless and faceless video journalists and support staff were not interviewed by top television anchors and who knows if they have exercised the option of a judicial solution.

     

    The stomach-wrenching gangrape of a young photojournalist out on assignment in Mumbai brought the issue of women’s safety in public places back to the front pages. The young woman was accompanied by a male colleague, it was still daylight and although they were in a deserted mill, it was situated in a crowded part of the city. The nation mourned at one more heinous assault and marvelled at the courage of one more woman.

     

    And then there was Tehelka. The story about editor-in-chief and founder Tarun Tejpal and his “alleged” assault on a young reporter who worked for him broke suddenly and each passing day provided new shocking material. The assaults happened in Goa, during the ‘Thinkfest’ which is some sort of a Tehelka subsidiary. The reporter complained to Tehelka managing editor Shoma Chaudhury that Tejpal had assaulted her 10 days before and then within days, the Tehelka story was over, nothing was secret or hidden and Tejpal was in judicial custody.

     

    The lessons for the media seem pretty clear. For one, there is no protection for journalists any more, especially from fellow journalists. Public pressure if nothing else will make cover-ups difficult, if the supposed transgression causes enough outrage. For another, the internet has busted everyone and it is in control in its own crazy haphazard way.  The way information spreads (or even misinformation for that matter) and the way the sender can be anonymous, you cannot be surprised that the word given to it is “viral”.

     

    So Tarun Tejpal and Shoma Chaudhury became “victims” of this new world where little can remain secret. And set a message to the media that while it must highlight everyone else’s misdemeanours, it cannot ignore its own. How effectively we take that into the future remains to be seen… my bets are on more mistakes before better sense hits people on the head.

     

    Ranjona Banerji is a senior journalist and commentator based in Mumbai. She is also Contributing Editor, MxMIndia. She can be reached via Twitter at @ranjona. The views here are her own

     

  • The political news on TV and in the papers was getting way too predictable of late and Arvind Kejriwal is the man with the twist, writes Shailesh Kapoor

    Kejriwal Is News, News Is Kejriwal

     

    By Shailesh Kapoor

     

    On Koffee With Karan last weekend, a seemingly innocuous question left Varun Dhawan and Alia Bhatt stumped. When asked to name the President of India, their answers were Manmohan Singh and Prithviraj Chauhan respectively. If they were made to sit and watch news channels for a week as punishment, their answer would have probably changed to Arvind Kejriwal.

     

    Why just Dhawan and Bhatt? The way our news channels are covering Kejriwal these days, even the aam aadmi can be excused for believing that Kejriwal has replaced Manmohan Singh as the Prime Minister of India.

     

    2014 has arrived. We are in the year of the General Elections. Every political news story, across channels, is invariably trying to find a link with the General Elections. The news media have three poster boys in this pursuit: Narendra Modi, Rahul Gandhi and Arvind Kejriwal.

     

    Narendra Modi’s speeches are interesting, bordering on mild entertainment, and hence make for good live coverage. Rahul Gandhi makes news for leaving his party wondering if he’s on their side. His “personal” views may be heartening, but they come across as pontification at most times.

     

    Faced with entertaining but stereotypical competition, Arvind Kejriwal has managed to create a league of his own. A new style of governance is on display. It’s like Anil Kapoor’s Nayak playing out in real life. Even Salman Khan is creating aam aadmi songs against corruption. Idea created a commercial within days of AAP going to the people of Delhi for a referendum on whether they should form the Government in the capital. ‘What an idea, Sirji’, it acknowledges.

     

    It is easy to understand why Kejriwal and AAP have caught our fancy. It’s a radical departure from the politics we have all seen for years on end. From politics of greed, arrogance and corruption, we are now seeing the virtual other end. We would have been excused for thinking this happens only in movies. Till about a month ago, that is.

     

    The Delhi Government is getting coverage even the UPA Government at the Centre has rarely got. In the debate on the trust vote, Dr Harshvardhan, whom Arvind Kejriwal certified as a good man in the wrong party (BJP), commented on how even he has taken the Delhi Metro several times, but has not used it as a photo-op.

     

    But isn’t that precisely the point? What’s a “photo-op” to Dr Harshvardhan is “innovation” to the rest of the country. Tokenism and symbolism may come across as shallow words, but they hold so much relevance in this context. By traveling in his Wagon R and declining a luxurious bungalow, Kejriwal is giving messages, however symbolic, that may have far-reaching consequences in the shaping of the history of our polity.

     

    AAP is in a honeymoon phase with the media right now. It is difficult to fault their intentions. Their ability to execute will be realistically known only in six months or so, assuming the Congress doesn’t pull the plug. In fact, how openly AAP ridicules Congress even now, after having their outside support, itself makes for delicious copy.

     

    We needed the Aam Aadmi Party. We needed Arvind Kejriwal. Not just as citizens of India, but as media houses and media consumers. The political news on TV and in the papers was getting way too predictable of late. But here’s the man with the twist. If he can manage to translate even 20% of this euphoria into results in the General Elections, and win about 50 seats, I can assure you we are in for a rollercoaster ride on the political news front for several years ahead.

     

    Meanwhile, Alia Bhatt and Varun Dhawan may as well declare him the Prime Minister of India right away.

     

    Shailesh Kapoor is founder and CEO of media insights firm Ormax Media. He spent nine years in the television industry before turning entrepreneur. The views expressed here are his own. He can be reached at his Twitter handle @shaileshkapoor

     

  • The problem is the positioning of the Headlines Today sting as a failure of a nine-day-old government and the insinuation that the new party has already fallen apart on its promises, notes Ranjona Banerji

    Ranjona Banerji: Knives out for AAP & Kejriwal as media tries to be judge, jury & executioner

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    When the India Against Corruption movement started two years ago, I like so many else, watched its genesis with amazement on TV. I got so amazed in fact at the crowds that I dragged a friend of mine, who is interested in political affairs, to Mumbai’s Azad Maidan to see these massive crowds of people coming out in solidarity against corruption.

     

    Alas, like corruption is endemic in the Indian system so is exaggeration in the media. There were barely 500 people at Azad Maidan. Luckily for disappointed journalists, the Press Club is pretty close to Azad Maidan and we could drown our murdered amazement and toast our inherent cynicism with plenty of gin, vodka and as other friends joined us, rum.

     

    Reporters I spoke to who had spent more time at the rally said crowds rose to about 1000. At the basis of a journalist’s mindset is cynicism or for those of a kinder mien, scepticism. And the reason for this long-winded personal recounting is that I could no longer look at the India Against Corruption movement with anything but a questioning air after that day in Azad Maidan.

     

    If I had believed TV news, I would have thought this really was comparable to the Independence Movement, to Jayaprakash Narain’s revolt against Indira Gandhi and so on. And when the last India Against Corruption meeting in Mumbai’s MMRDA grounds in Bandra fizzled out one December, it seemed to be in the fitness of things.

     

    However, even cynics like me must acknowledge that Arvind Kejriwal and the Aam Aadmi Party have pulled off a coup in the Delhi Assembly elections. They have shaken the political establishment and sent strategists running for cover. But the media reaction is most curious of all. The media built both IAC and AAP, and in the run up to the election gave more coverage to the candidate for Delhi chief minister than even to the BJP’s prime ministerial hopeful.

     

    But as soon as the government was formed, the knives were out. The same TV channels which had lauded Kejriwal and the AAP as the greatest political invention since democracy was established by the ancient Greeks now decided to expose their somewhat extravagant promises. Let’s take Headlines Today’s latest sting operation on corruption in various government departments in Delhi. By itself the Headlines Today sting was a brave and necessary act of journalism, even for someone who is ambivalent on sting operations which create news rather than report on them.

     

    The problem is the positioning of the sting as a failure of a nine-day-old government and the insinuation that the new party has already fallen apart on its promises. Maybe the government will fail and maybe it won’t. But this judge, jury and executioner attitude of the media does not do it credit. Moreover, it sounds both childish and churlish.

     

    By all means do a sting operation but present it as just that – the continuing shameless manipulation of the system by petty government officers and bureaucrats. Sentencing can wait. It ruins a perfectly good expose of government corruption if nothing else.

     

    The rest of TV seems unable to get out of a Congress-versus-Bharatiya Janata Party mindset. Everything that happens is seen through that prism and it is definitely tedious and boring now. The same faces saying the same things everyday and the same accusations being exchanged. There has to be something more to a journalists’ life than this.

     

    Meanwhile Lok Sabha TV had an excellent and informative discussion on the recent elections in Bangladesh and the skewed attitudes of western powers when it comes to South Asia. You know Bangladesh? That country next door?

     

    Ranjona Banerji is a senior journalist and commentator based in Mumbai. She is also Contributing Editor, MxMIndia. She can be reached via Twitter at @ranjona. The views here are her own

     

  • The TRAI guidelines on TV ratings, while well-intended, have a "meddling" feel to them, which fear may slow down BARC’s progress, fears Shailesh Kapoor

    Shailesh Kapoor | TV Ratings: Take It Easy, TRAI. Come Soon, BARC

    By Shailesh Kapoor

     

    The words that best describe the TV ratings scenario in India over the last year are confusion and uncertainty. TAM has been under constant attack, for mostly right and some wrong reasons, for the last two years in particular. BARC has been moving ahead at good pace to bring in a neutral, more robust ratings measurement system in India, which we hope sees the light of the day before 2014 ends.

     

    With BARC round the corner, TAM is virtually on a time bomb, in the last leg of what has been a rollercoaster ride of almost two decades. Trust TRAI to add to the confusion. The regulatory body has come out with guidelines for ratings agencies in India, to ensure fair and accurate measurement.

     

    You can’t fault the intent behind most of the TRAI guidelines. They seem designed to address the concerns of broadcasters and advertisers in all earnestness. But wasn’t BARC created towards exactly the same purpose? Surely, TRAI should be aware of what BARC is hoping to achieve and how the progress is going. The guidelines, while well-intended, have a “meddling” feel to them, which I fear may slow down BARC’s progress.

     

    Take the point on sample size for instance. TRAI guidelines say that the minimum panel size should 20,000, and should be increased by 10,000 every year till it reaches a figure of 50,000. Correct as this may sound, this guideline challenges the idea of a free market, where the panel size would be an outcome of what the stakeholders are willing to pay for the service. Will TRAI subsidize the balance panel if the industry is willing to pay only for 30,000-40,000?

     

    Then there are some micro-level points that TRAI could have easily stayed away from, such as defining the panel rotation rate at 25% per annum. If they were indeed stepping into the domain of research design, they would much rather have put down the most glaring gap that exists as of now, whereby error margins are not reported or published.

     

    There is a guideline that suggests that I&B ministry and TRAI can audit the systems of a ratings agency at any point of time. I don’t need to spell out how this can fast turn into a bureaucratic tangle, and encourage corruption.

     

    Another vaguely-worded guideline says ratings should be “technology neutral”, in that they should be able to address delivery platforms like cable, DTH, terrestrial etc. Never before has an “etc” interested me so much. Does it include Internet, mobiles and DVRs? If yes, we are in for a challenge for another degree altogether.

     

    The “toll free number for complaint redressal” is the comic relief in the guidelines. Imagine a Thursday morning when your show opens below your expectations and you get a research executive to call the toll free number to “complain”. That’s a phone call I’d love to hear!

     

    Dear TRAI, take it easy. TV Ratings is a private affair after all, and the market will find its answers.

     

    Dear BARC, come soon now. And till you come, keep the announcements going. There is a whole industry waiting with bated breath.

     

    Shailesh Kapoor is founder and CEO of media insights firm Ormax Media. He spent nine years in the television industry before turning entrepreneur. The views expressed here are his own. He can be reached at his Twitter handle @shaileshkapoor


     

  • Watching Arnab Goswami and Rahul Kanwal makes Ranjona Banerji feel for the star anchors. What they really want is a platform where they can share their opinions with the world, she writes. Instead, they’re stuck in a format where they have to ask other people for their opinions

    Ranjona Banerji: Debauchery UnLtd on News TV

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    There are few things in the media as amusing as the manufactured outrage of TV anchors as they work themselves into a state over some burning issue of the day. In this case, the case was that of freezing but the anger was far from cold. Imagine this list of horrors: people freezing in riot-relief camps in Muzaffarnagar, UP. Children dying from the cold. And UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav and his father Mulayam Singh Yadav got Bollywood stars to dance at a function at their village, Saifai. And 17 UP legislators including several ministers skipped off on a “study tour” of Egypt, Venice and the UK amongst other destinations in spite of strict proscriptions from news channels.

     

    The sheer disobedience of these politicians is not to be countenanced. It was not for nothing that Arnab Goswami informed a Samajwadi politician from Mumbai in stentorian tones: “It is time you politicians learnt to listen.” The “to me” was implied and not missed by anyone.

     

    Arnab Goswami, I have to say, was at his best. His lip curling, his constant use of the word “debauchery” to describe Bollywood dances, the utter contempt in his voice as he spat out the phrase, “nagin dance” to describe the “snake dances” so popular in Indian cinema: these were all gems that had the making of a classic News Hour debate. In fact, debauchery was the word du jour as it was repeated across channels to explain what was happening in Saifai, with images of Madhuri Dixit and random starlets (at least I think they were starlets) wiggling their hips and bosoms across our TV screens.

     

    It is true that the extravaganza at Saifai was inappropriate and deeply lacking in compassion in light of what was happening in Muzaffarnagar. But everything that happened in Muzaffarnagar was an abomination from the riots to the post-riot reactions. The song and dance at Saifai was just one more example of this.

     

    It was intriguing though that there was no Bollywood rep on the Times Hour debate to explain just why stars like Salman Khan and Madhuri Dixit had agreed to dance for Mulayam and son. And I have to say I have seen senior TV anchors (and this includes Goswami) just snivelling and grovelling in front of Bollywood’s most vacuous and vapid “stars”. If they were so angry with Bollywood for going to Saifai, there’s no point shouting at politicians. Get the whole of civil society involved in the discussion and ask Bollywood point blank why it is so brainless and lacking in compassion. Or even common sense. Don’t just expound on the issue. And try and remember a bit of this outrage the next time you make some movie star your guest editor for the day just in time for the release of his or her new movie.

     

    Watching News Hour and some of Rahul Kanwal’s Centre Stage on Headlines Today, you have to feel for these star TV anchors. What they really want is a platform where they can share their opinions with the world. Instead, they’re stuck in a format where they have to ask other people for their opinions. I would advise Indian television news once again to watch the film Network and craft programmes based on Howard Beale’s long rants (so brilliantly played by Peter Finch). That way, these TV stars will not have to be forced to listen to other people’s opinions when all they want to do is editorialise. I must say us print-wallahs have it much easier because we have platforms available where we can share our opinions.

     

    Of the shows in this format, Karan Thapar’s Last Word on CNN-IBN and Nidhi Razdan’s Left Right and Centre remain the least hysterical. The others? Well, they’re all mad as hell and don’t want to take it any more. So let them tell us freely and openly, no?

     

  • The BBC World Service weather reports on India needs to get real, notes Ranjona Banerji. And the English news channels must think of a world other than Arvind Kejriwal and AAP.

    Ranjona Banerji: No ‘fine and dry’ puhleez, dear BBC!

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    I have spent the last three weeks reading back issues of Time magazine. And I am amazed that their rewriting style (from what I recall, you are not really allowed to have a writing style at Time) has not changed at all. The same inverted sentences. The same twist at the end. The same short phrases to try and be current, even though some go back at least 25 years. This is testament to Time’s covenant with its principles – stick to what you started with even if your readership is shrinking and everyone around you has changed. A tip of the hat to this nostalgia-inducing standard practice: I practically went back to my childhood which was… well, it was a long time ago. You don’t want to know!

     

    **

     

    I have to confess that I have not read too many newspapers (this is a gross exaggeration: I have read precisely two) in the past 10 days. I have kept up with the news through social media and through some television. And by watching English news channels, you may forget that India is such a massive country.

     

    Instead: there is Arvind Kejriwal, chief minister of Delhi. Now New Delhi may be India’s national capital and it may have a state government but it cannot compare to any other state government. The chief minister of Delhi is responsible for about a quarter of the things – I am being generous here – that other chief ministers contend with. Yet, we have national news channels behaving like local cable news channels. What Kejriwal had for breakfast, what he wears to bed, the progress of his cold, how Delhi government officials may well be crooked, how to get a water connection in Delhi and on and on and on. We get it. Kejriwal and his Aam Aadmi Party achieved something miraculous in the Delhi assembly elections. Now move on. Other things are happening in the rest of India.

     

    The rest of TV news however is as blinkered. We are stuck in an endless spiral of Congress versus BJP fistfights. One party says blue so the other says yellow and it never ends. News channels set themselves up as pasties here as shrewd politicians play them for fools so easily. We understand that newsgathering is expensive and laborious. We know that TV has to look for instant gratification. We are aware that fighting for attention is a mug’s game. But still, it would be interesting once in a while to watch television and just get a picture of what’s happening in the world instead of a tailored picture of what might possibly create the most sensation.

     

    **

     

    This is a request to the BBC World Service’s weather department. We understand that the English are obsessed with the rain and crave the sun. But the whole world is not England. India for instance gets most of its rain from the monsoon. It rains sporadically in a few parts of India outside the monsoon – and most of this rainfall follows a very specific meteorological pattern. We in India are taught this as school children. For instance, if it rains in Mumbai consistently after the monsoon is over then it is a possible indication that the world’s climate is undergoing some immediate catastrophic crisis. Similarly, some parts of South India get the retreating monsoon. The North will be affected by westerly disturbances and it will snow in the Himalayas in winter.

     

    So we need some pertinent weather forecasts from the BBC World Service. Like when people are dying of the cold in North India, we don’t need to be told that the weather is “fine and dry”. We need to be told about falling temperatures. We know that it is not likely to rain in Madhya Pradesh in December. So “fine and dry” are tautological. Conversely, when there is a heat wave in summer and people are dying, “fine and dry” sounds like a slap in face. Summer is when we crave for rain, really, we pray for the monsoon. We sing those Bollywood songs your pop culture experts are so fond of.

     

    Also, when you run weather forecasts for the British in Britain on the BBC, you can advise them where to holiday. But for the World Service, it might be nice to concentrate on us. And tell us the weather of the world as well – there could have been more on the polar vortex, on the heat wave in Australia, on flooding in Europe. Please don’t take this badly. It’s just we’re so tired of “fine and dry”.

     

    Ranjona Banerji is a senior journalist and commentator based in Mumbai. She is also Contributing Editor, MxMIndia. She can be reached via Twitter at @ranjona. The views here are her own