By Ranjona Banerji
The house of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was vandalised on March 30, 2022.
Just let that sink in.
And then consider the media response. Half the newspapers will tell you that this was a “claim” made by the Aam Aadmi Party.
Kejriwal holds a constitutional post. He has security. Why can’t the media just plainly tell us whether his house was attacked or not?
Remember when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was held up, surrounded by his vast security detail, on a flyover in Punjab last year? How many media headlines said that the “BJP claimed” that the PM was held up?
Instead, we were subjected to hours of TV speculation and expert opinion on how Modi’s plight for 20 minutes in a car on a flyover was worse than every assassination attempt on every politician ever. All right, I exaggerate. But not that much.
Even worse, in terms of media complicity, although this makes the cowardice clear, the team of vandals belonged to the BJP (allegedly, reportedly, AAP claimed) led by BJP Member of Parliament Tejasvi Surya and his merry band of paint-chuckers and boom breakers.
Just imagine if this had happened to a BJP Chief Minister’s house “allegedly” and “reportedly” by “activists” from any other political party? Hell to pay, I guarantee you. And no “claimed” either, straight out accusations would run rampant.
https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/bjp-wants-to-get-kejriwal-killed-says-manish-sisodia-after-delhi-cm-house-vandalised-1931464-2022-03-30
https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/delhi/bjp-youth-wing-activists-attack-kejriwal-residence-damage-cctv-cameras-barriers-7844283/
Since then some people have been arrested by the Delhi Police which reports to the Union Home Ministry, but presumably none of them are Surya and Tejinder Bagga of the BJP who led their little group of sweet little “activists”. These boys were upset because of Kejriwal’s remarks about a film which has led to further violence against Muslims in India.
Fear of the BJP’s fury and adulation of the BJP’s toxic bigotry has turned even those sections of the media which are pro-AAP into wee cowering timorous beasties. Forgive me, Robbie Burns.
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And since we’re on “claims”, we get to fuel price hikes and a media and civil society on justification mode. The elections are over say the cynics, “the opposition protested” say the anodyne headlines and the war in Ukraine is the reasoning. Can the Modi government be held to account by the bulk of the Indian media? Is the moon made of green rasmalai?
Read this lovely bland article on the fuel hikes from The Times of India. It manages to tell us that we’re all going to suffer minus any even slight hint of allocation of responsibility.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/fuel-prices-hiked-again-total-increase-now-stands-at-rs-5-60/articleshow/90530371.cms
Aviation fuel has also been hiked to an all-time high, just as we’re opening up post-Covid and international flights have finally resumed. Tourism, heh heh heh. Am sure we’ll gush over another Mind Wanderings from the PM which will touch upon nothing substantial.
Here, some brave reporter decided to question the businessman and yoga teacher Baba Ramdev, who had consistently promised low fuel prices once Modi came to power.
https://indianexpress.com/article/india/baba-ramdev-journalist-fuel-price-hike-7845829/
Ramdev threatened the reporter.
So what are the chances that we’ll have some similar interaction with the Emperor of India?
O ya, he doesn’t talk to the press.
Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman will blame Jawaharlal Nehru and the media will faithfully reproduce that without question. Several public intellectuals will cogitate on how much Nehru is to blame for so many things. And Modi’s incompetence will not even meet some wall paint from activists.
Because the real activists are in jail.
The real journalists are shrinking.
And the media is so excited about how Modi will lecture students on how to do their exams.
Proper PM stuff.
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By the way, I did consider an April Fool’s joke column but then I realised that nothing can top our reality.
Ranjona Banerji is a senior journalist and commentator. She writes on MxMIndia every Tuesday and Friday. Her views here are personal