Modus operandi and Modus vivendi of media

It has become fashionable for the media – print, electronic as well as entertainment – to portray in bad light politicians as a whole as a class, being the root cause of all evils afflicting the society, and for the degeneration of culture and other moral values . In turn, they make tall claims of fearlessly exposing the rot in the political system of the country and cleansing the society of corruption and decay. If only they collectively and individually make honest introspection of their existence and growth they would come across many a skeletons in their cupboards and black sheeps that they would at least stop preaching scriptures.

Is politics as a profession a bane or are politicians as a class decadent? Certainly not. As in any other section of the society there will be good and bad in politics too. But the perception that was sought to be created about many tall leaders, who are now idolized, during their lifetimes, was the same as or even worse than those ascribed to the present day leaders. The media as a whole and the so-called educated elite sections abhorred Thanthai Periyar, Arignar Anna and Perunthalaivar Kamarajar. The newspapers and periodicals either imposed a total blackout of news relating to Periyar and Anna or gave distorted versions so as to evoke public apathy. They rose up in public esteem not because of but in spite of the media and the elite. The DK and DMK were branded as outfits of lumpen elements of the society. At the national level, even the first Prime Minister of the country, Jawaharlal Nehru was not spared from caustic ridicules of the media and the elite. One Baburao Patel published a monthly journal called ‘Mother India’ exclusively catering slanders in the personal life of Nehru. But Nehru was such a great democrat, that it was said he used to ring up to the ‘Times of India’ office and enquire about the health of popular cartoonist R.K. Laxman (of ‘common man’ fame) if the daily on the day did not carry his cartoon, which invariably used to be a loaded fun of the Prime Minister or his government. So also neither Periyar nor Anna bothered themselves about the indifference of the media and their biased criticism. In fact Periyar used to advise his followers and functionaries that “as long as media was indifferent to us, you can make sure we are on the correct path, if they give publicity or praise us it implies that we are on a wrong course.” Of course, Anna had his own sarcastic way of answering critics. To make fun of Kamarajar a columnist of a leading daily quoted Shakespeare, “Some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them” and cited Nehru, Lal Bahadur Sastri and Kamarajar respectively as examples. The same writer and the daily now adore Kamarajar and his rule.

So, historically there had been great and cultured politicians who had not been acknowledged during their lifetimes but sung paens after they passed away. Media in general and the so-called elite in particular still believe they have nothing to change in their mindset and continue to decry of all respected popular leaders – simply, remain mediocre.

Last week, BJP patriarch L.K.Advani apologized to Congress President Tmt. Sonia Gandhi after she protested to him about the charge in the BJP Task Force Report on black money that she and her late husband Rajiv Gandhi had secret Swiss bank accounts and challenged them to provide proof if they had any. Responding to her letter of February 15, Advani, on his return from Kolkata on February 16, promptly expressed his regrets to her. “On my return from Kolkata last night, I found your letter dated Feb.15 awaiting me. I am happy that you have denied the reports relating to you and your family allured in the Task Force Report on black money.” To that extent Advani’s response was a very noble gesture from a senior politician of his standing. But the very next sentence, “If these had been denied earlier where reports to the effect appeared in the media, the Task Force would have taken your denial  into account. Even so, I deeply regret the distress caused to you” dampens the credibility of Advani’s gesture! However, even this qualified regret expressed by Advani is indigestible to the hardcore Hindutva ideologues in the BJP and the Hindutva hawk S.Gurumurthy, convener of the task force. This dubious Hindutva ideologue, brandished as a ‘commentator on political and economic issues’ by the likes of ‘The New Indian Express’ (TNIE) and Cho S.Ramaswamy, has said “the contents of the report are drawn from facts in public domain mostly media reports” – and cites two reports in two foreign magazines in 1980s and 1990s. He has written an article again in the TNIE on Feb.21 where also invariably he alludes the word ‘alleged’ for every reference to and charge against Sonia Gandhi, who had called them as ‘scurrilous allegations’ against her family which she treated with contempt. Gurumurthy advances a strange logic asking why she had not sued and disproved the charges. Is it the responsibility of the one who levels a charge on some other to prove it or the later to do so? Even after 30 years the ‘credible sources’ he cites had not come out with any evidence to prove their allegations and does it require a Task Force comprising of ‘domain experts’ to quote from other unsubstantial press reports?

There are any number of scurrilous allegations against leaders of high repute in media reports every day that it is practically impossible for them to initiate legal proceedings on every one of them. Moreover, no newspaper or magazine or news channels take responsibility for their stories and take shelter under jugglery of words such as ‘alleged’, ‘they said’, ’reported’ etc., or use the cover of ‘sources’, which need not be disclosed by the media, by convention.

There were times when the number of dailies and magazines were limited and their credibility was also high. But with the mushroom growth in the number of dailies and periodicals and with the advent of round-the-clock news channels, there is obviously an unhealthy competition among the players in the media to sustain and increase their readership/ TRP ratings. An immediate result of the cut-throat competition at first resulted in the reduction of prices of the dailies. When all players reached bottom most price levels, the competition turned to sensationalism to sheer sensationalism to cheap sensationalism. Degenerated culture, unethical business practices, manufactured news and sensational politics have become the order of the media as a whole; even those with enviable traditions have started shedding traditional values lest they can’t survive.

One latest instance for the craze of media for sensation is the so-called Antrix-Devas ‘scam’ involving the country’s prestigious swadeshi premier space organization ISRO. Details of the agreement signed between ISRO’s commercial arm Antrix Corporation and the private company Devas Multimedia Services, Bengaluru were reported just like any other business news in the business daily ‘Business Line’ of ‘The Hindu’ publications group on May 31, 2010 which was not seriously taken by any other daily/ periodical/ news channel including ‘The Hindu’. But the Space Commission itself look serious note of it in the month of July last year and advised the government for its annulment and the government was also in the process of canceling the deal. In the meanwhile, when the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) in a missive put the figure of ‘presumed’ loss to the exchequer at Rs. Two lakh crore (just like in the 2G spectrum allocation issue) and asked for explanation, the entire media led by none other than ‘The Hindu’ itself, woke up and ‘found’ another Himalayan scam. The irony is that the satellite in question has not yet been designed, leave alone not launched and the agreement was not operational. So the media outcry is not only preposterous but also sheerly absurd. Nevertheless, the media took pride and pulled up its collars for having exposed yet another monumental scam forcing the government to cancel it!

During the last four months the media as a whole is obsessed with scams terribly shaking the confidence of the people. There are developed countries, with vast global reach and potential, which are averse to India and China emerging as economic super powers. They have a design in weakening and destabilizing these two emerging challenges to their monopoly (such designs and maneouvres in the past were later revealed by agents who worked in them in their memoirs after decades). There are some reasonable grounds to infer some externally instigated design in this sudden flare up of such a concerted campaign – from Adarsh Housing… to Black money slashed in tax havens – on so-called scams. Are the media willy-nilly serve the designs of external forces?

Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh had been candid during his interaction with TV editors last week (Feb.16) He said:

“Let me say that this sort of atmosphere is not good. It saps our own self-confidence, it also spoils the image of India and therefore I urge each one of you that in reporting these events, while opinions are a matter of speculation, facts are sacred. And facts should not be distorted. Opinions, you can freely express views, which are one’s held convictions, but we owe it to our country that when it comes to reporting country’s affairs, at least when it comes to dealing with the facts, they should be as objective as possible.”

The sagacious words of the Prime Minister sums up to a learned critique of the modus operandi and modus vivendi of the media and hopefully better sense of responsibility prevail over!