By Ranjona Banerji
The bulk of India’s English media remains focused on the Congress Party’s internal elections. Apparently, Mallikarjun Kharge or Shashi Tharoor hold in their hands the entire future of India.
In fact, what they do hold is the future of India’s cowardly media. The more the media concentrates on the Congress Party and everything that is wrong with it, the less chance of a vindictive government hitting back at them. And for some important media influencers, anchors and commentators of course, more party invitations and more access and more schmooze time. For less important wannabe influencers, anchors and commentators, maybe, just maybe, the Lord and Master will have one more selfie session. O joy! When will that day come???
You may ask, “What is happening in India that the Indian media needs to concentrate on?”
Where to start?
How about the Global Hunger Index?
India has ranked at 107 in the annual list, out of 121 countries. With a score of 29.1, India is marked as serious.
https://www.globalhungerindex.org/india.html
The Government of India, to whom image is everything, has gone on a massive PR spree to discredit the Index. The media is also more interested in protecting India’s image than the problem of starving Indians, as has thus echoed the Government in the name of nationalism. If the media had really cared, news bulletins would have been full of starving people because journalists don’t really need an index to know that people are miserable.
At least this editorial in The Indian Express refers to the Government’s own surveys which corroborate the problem with hunger, malnutrition.
https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/editorials/what-is-wrong-with-indias-reaction-to-the-latest-global-hunger-index-8214592/
How about the economy?
Everything is apparently hunky-dory. An average Indian battling with inflation and unemployment may not know this, but India is set to become the world’s third biggest economy in 2028, behind the US and China.
O wow!
Are we not so great!
Rupee versus the dollar? All good, the lower it falls. Anyway, the Honourable Union Finance Minister has clarified that the rupee has not fallen, instead the dollar has strengthened.
Lack of employment?
Fry pakoras. You’ve been told this before.
Inflation?
That Reserve Bank of India is so wicked. Telling lies that there’s inflation in India!
How about the judiciary?
Quite simply, a glory.
Your bail application comes up after years. You are denied bail. Then you get bail. But you never get out of jail. The Honourable Supreme Court lectures lower courts on the importance of bail and so on. That’s where it ends.
Or you get acquitted after years in jail. Then the Supreme Court overturns the High Court and you’re back in jail.
https://scroll.in/article/1035163/deeply-troubling-why-experts-criticise-sc-order-suspending-bombay-hcs-acquittal-of-gn-saibaba
How about the death of children in Gambia because of faulty Indian-made cough syrups?
I’m an old-fashioned person. I believe that this constitutes news. Or should or would. Relentless coverage is needed.
But you and I now know that India’s image is everything and the idea is to protect India’s image. So it is not important that children died or India made a faulty harmful drug which was exported. It is important that we bury this news so that India’s image is not harmed and try and wiggle our way out of culpability. And with a chained pet media, this is not difficult at all.
And after all this, what do you want me to say about the Ministry of Home Affairs filing an affidavit in court to speed up the release of convicts sentenced for gangrape and murder during the 2002 Gujarat riots, known as the Bilkis Bano case?
What can I say?
Ranjona Banerji is a senior journalist and commentator. She writes on MxMIndia on Tuesdays and Fridays. Her views here are personal