By Ranjona Banerji
An insightful report on the CNN Business website by Diksha Madhok examines how the hitherto pro-Narendra Modi media has gently changed course. The extent of the second wave of Covid19 in India has made several media houses and outlets wake up to our grim reality.
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/05/23/media/modi-india-media-covid-intl-hnk/
As the report notes: “This reporting has surprised many readers: India’s vast media have become increasingly subservient to Modi’s government since the Hindu nationalist was first elected Prime Minister seven years ago. The ruling party has used a range of tactics, ranging from forcing advertisers to cut off outlets that are critical of its policies to shutting down channels, to ensure the press is reshaped into its cheerleader.”
Those of us who comment on and cover the media regularly have been saying this for years. Sadly it has taken over 300,000 deaths – and that is only from official estimates – and heart-wrenching images of shallow graves along India’s riverbanks for some of the Indian media to wake up.
A few small sections of the Indian media were always awake of course. This in-depth article from The Caravan paints a grim picture of the health crisis faced by India’s most populous and severely neglected in terms of social indices state of Uttar Pradesh, ruled by a Hindu majoritarian temple priest.
https://caravanmagazine.in/news/covid-second-wave-uttar-pradesh-villages-deaths?utm_source=mailer&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=special_reads
This media “awakening”, if one can call it that, is neither overarching nor complete. The most influential sections of the media – primetime TV anchors – continue with their propaganda for the BJP and Modi.
The Modi government itself, aware of the international criticism and increasing dissatisfaction within India, when it comes to its handling of the pandemic has redoubled efforts to increase its propaganda machinery.
In her fortnightly column for The Wire, Public Editor Pamela Philipose, puts it succinctly:
“Amidst the deaths and devastation, there is a desperate scramble by this government and ruling party to control the situation – not through credible health care delivery but through narrative capture. The methods used, particularly on social media, are varied and fairly sophisticated.”
https://thewire.in/media/backstory-narendra-modi-social-media-twitter-palestine
The BJP government’s response to media criticism has been ferocious, frightening and downright ridiculous. The outrage over The Lancet’s May 8th editorial criticising the Centre’s handling of the pandemic led to the most juvenile “jingoistic” responses, even from doctors. The reality is known to everyone where today almost every household in India sees the effects of Covid 19. Vaccines are in short supply in spite of government promises and because of its lies.
The latest attempt to stifle criticism has come with an attack on the social media platform Twitter. Because it marked as “manipulated media” several tweets by BJP members, after the anger came the long arm of the law and a Delhi Police raid on Twitter’s India offices.
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/pranavdixit/police-in-delhi-have-raided-twitters-indian-headquarters
The irony of course is that Twitter India has often succumbed to BJP and Hindutva rightwing pressure, unlike the strong stand it took in the USA against Donald Trump when he was still President. Perhaps that is what has upset the BJP and Modi government even more. That an ally should do this!
The pandemic has not spared journalists. The list of our colleagues and friends who have lost their lives to Covid19, many while on the job, only grows. AS Panneerselvan, Readers’ Editor of The Hindu, wrote this in early May but his words still stand. As the headline says, the image cannot be better than the reality.
https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/Readers-Editor/image-cannot-be-better-than-reality/article34465555.ece
So has the Indian media woken up at last.
Short answer: NO.
Long answer: more parts of the Indian media than, let’s say, two years ago, have been forced to deal with the horrors of the Modi government’s incompetence.
However. Until every prime time news anchor, in every Indian language, presents the extent of India’s suffering, as long as even one news anchor and newspaper columnist continues to find excuses for Modi whether for the pandemic response or the spread of Hindutva hatred and violence, until every news outlet has the courage to apportion responsibility instead of hiding behind euphemisms of “the system” or some unknown entity which has not ordered enough vaccines, our tragic reality is that the bulk of the Indian media remains either a cheerleader or plain terrified.
Ranjona Banerji is a senior journalist and commentator. She is Consulting Editor, MxMIndia. Her views here are personal