TeaThe sad fact about India’s television news is that there is no ‘Amrit Kaal’. The picture they present is gloomy, bleak, even scary, with dark conspiracies being hatched against the state and India every day.
TV news dominated’Dangal‘, espionage stories, scams, raids, attacks on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and a ‘foreign hand’ interfering in the heart of the country.
The situation has reached so far that self-styled ‘guru’ and ‘baba’ make headlines on Hindi channels for days and weeks.
Is this really news or scary?
Where do we start?
What about this statement by Rahul Shivshankar, a prominent English news anchor: “The NDA government… has been quite open about suggesting that it is part of a slander campaign being run by extreme leftists, Marxists in India and abroad. The victim is … (there are attempts) not only to destabilize the government but by doing so India’s democratic credentials are also being undermined. (times now,
Or let’s lower the bar and go to the ‘Snoopgate riot’ (india today), which erupted at BJP’s press conference in Delhi just hours before the election of the new mayor – mere coincidence? The BJP alleged that Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia used government money to “spy” on all kinds of people and would be “prosecuted”.cnn news 18,
Or what about Ramdev, who Till today Told us now want to rewrite history? and Dhirendra Krishna Shastri of Bageshwar Dham who has suddenly become a star on channels like India TV.
too trivial?
Well, we can tell you about the outrage in English news channels over Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera, who runs the “Vadra Congress” along with Jairam Ramesh – as republic tv Anchor Arnab Goswami. Khera “attacked the prime minister” and dragged his father’s “proper name” in the mud, calling the prime minister “Narendra Gautam Das Modi”, one said. times now anchor.
The “disgrace” became the subject of prime-time debate on Monday – the same day the Gujarat government’s SIT’s preliminary report on the Morbi bridge accident that killed 135 people last year revealed serious technical lapses in the maintenance of the bridge. It wasn’t breaking headlines on news channels, but #CongGautamDasBarb – was the whole of Monday.
Then there’s ‘The 2024 Plot’ (news x, After a news, this kind of exercise was done on the news channel for the whole Monday. Sunday Guardian Claimed There was a conspiracy to weaken the Narendra Modi government with “foreign embassy links”.
And this will take us back to where we started – to the conspiracies of the “enemy of India” (times now), “a bitter 91-year-old billionaire”, and possibly the “dark hand behind the anarchy efforts” (republic tv), who has come “openly” to take on the Modi government “because he (Modi) is a nationalist” – either Anand Narasimhan, cnn news 18 Anchor thinks.
American businessman and philanthropist George Soros, the gentleman in question, “believes that India is not democratic… Is this not an insult to the mandate of the people of this country?” demanded Narasimhan. like channel Republic TV, Times Now, CNN News 18 It then listed individuals, media outlets or other organizations that allegedly received “funds” from Soros to “destabilize the Modi regime”. Worse, it could “spark” chaos and even civil war in the country (times now,
“Why is this happening?” asked anchor Vishnu Som ndtv 24×7, why indeed. News channels were critical of Soros, Sisodia and Kheda, but by giving each one so much airtime, by repeating clips of their statements over and over again, they gave them plenty of free publicity.
Read also: In the week of BBC documentary, Parchi Baba and his ‘miracles’ were ‘breaking news’ on Indian TV
news on tv news, sometimes
Wouldn’t you rather watch some real news? well then look DD News, Whatever you say about the channel, it gives you a lot of news from the country and the world. Besides its emphasis on PM Modi and government news, it goes where other channels don’t. For example, while private news channels were consumed by Pawan Khera’s ‘insult’, DD News There was live coverage of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and other Finance Ministry officials’ interaction with the media in Jaipur during the discussion on Budget 2023. Very good.
It is also the only channel that can truly claim to be ‘no noise’.
To be fair to other news channels, they sometimes see the news bulb flashing green in front of them – and then they react. Even this, however, does not fully explain why all private news channels in Hindi and English abandoned their sensationalist stories to broadcast, live, Vladimir Putin’s state of the nation. speech Tuesday marks the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It was a long speech – more than two hours – but barring all else, the news channels faithfully stayed with the Russian president. interesting, eh?
No other foreign head of state has received such an honor – that too in his own country. led by hindi channels TV9 India He himself is stationed in Ukraine and reports extensively on the war, daily, but this was something else – the speech was accompanied by Hindi translation. Okay, okay, our eyebrows definitely raised: were news channels responsive to developing news? Did it have anything to do with the government’s actual policy towards Russia?
Or are we reading too much into it, like news channels do with most stories?
US President Joe Biden’s surprise visit to Ukraine’s capital Kiev on Monday was also given pride of place by news channels that afternoon – we’re not complaining, just pointing out how unusual it is but it’s refreshing that International affairs should be seen prominently in TV news of India.
Interviews were also making headlines, External Affairs Minister S. None other than Jaishankar’s Q&A ANI – which remained the subject of discussion on Tuesday evening. However, there were two other interviews that were good to watch, mainly because the reporters didn’t shy away from asking tough questions.
ABP News The former Janata Dal (United) leader got into a vehicle with Upendra Kushwaha before they parted ways to form a new party. Among other questions, the reporter asked him what he thought about PM Modi’s nine years in power. Kushwaha looked uncomfortable before saying that this was not the time to ask such questions.
But Aaj Tak / India TodayFormer Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari was asked questions on his different regimes during the governments led by Uddhav Thackeray and Eknath Shinde. good show.
Please, News Channel, can we have some more?
The author tweets at @shailajabajpai. Thoughts are personal.
(Edited by Prashant)