Skip to main content

India: The Media Question


India occupies a very low rank on the World Press Freedom Index: 150 out of 180 countries. In 2002, the rank was a passable 80. Now India enjoys the company of countries like Turkey (149), Sudan (151), Tajikistan (152), Belarus (153), Azerbaijan (154), Russia (155), Afghanistan (156), and Pakistan (157). The ranking is worked out on the basis of political context, legal framework, economy, sociocultural context and safety. India’s rank fell consistently year after year especially after Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister.

The latest assault on media by the Modi government is what is euphemistically called “survey” of the BBC offices. Everyone knows that the raid (which is what it is) is occasioned by the documentary that the media house produced recently about Modi - India: The Modi Question. We have seen ample examples of media houses being targeted by the government for being critical of Modi. A well-established channel like the NDTV which was doing a remarkable job of journalism with integrity was brought to its knees by Modi. The shocking irony is that an utter chiseler like Gautam Adani became the boss of that channel. A lot of other media agencies have been victimized by Modi recently: Dainik Bhaskar, The Quint, News Click, The Hindu, Greater Kashmir, Alt News, and many other publications and TV channels were assaulted by various government agencies in different ways for refusing to kowtow to Modi.

India is on a dangerous path. There is no opposition worth the name. When the opposition is so effete, the press becomes all the more important. The press should act as the spokespersons of the citizens. The press should ask the questions that the citizens would love to ask. But Modi does not want a free press in the country. He has not even cared to give a single press conference so far. He gives Mann ki Baat instead. What the country wants are not facile platitudes, however. A leader who talks smoothly and acts vindictively is the ultimate national fraud. The least one will expect from a leader is harmony between his creed, word and deed. The question here is: is it about fraudulence or dictatorship?

Modi’s close friend, Mukesh Ambani, owns over 70 media outlets. Imagine Gautam Adani owning an equal number. What kind of information can we expect from such media? What is the use of such media which will do nothing more than propaganda work for the government?

 

 

Comments

  1. Yamini MacLeanFebruary 17, 2023 at 5:56 AM

    Hari OM
    An important question, that. I fear things are ramping up over your way... YAM xx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalFebruary 17, 2023 at 11:32 AM

      The going is getting tougher and the tough are facing extinction.

      Delete
  2. magiceyeFebruary 17, 2023 at 11:48 AM

    Bleak future if any

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalFebruary 17, 2023 at 1:01 PM

      The catastrophe of dictatorship has little light to cheer us.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Adventures of Toto as a comic strip

  'The Adventures of Toto' is an amusing story by Ruskin Bond. It is prescribed as a lesson in CBSE's English course for class 9. Maggie asked her students to do a project on some of the lessons and Femi George's work is what I would like to present here. Femi converted the story into a beautiful comic strip. Her work will speak for itself and let me present it below.  Femi George Student of Carmel Public School, Vazhakulam, Kerala Similar post: The Little Girl
44 comments
Read more

Coming-of-Age Poems

Lubna Shibu Book Review Title: Into the Wandering Multiverse Author: Lubna Shibu Publisher: Book Leaf , 2024 Pages: 23 Poetry serves as a profound medium for self-reflection. It offers a canvas where emotions, thoughts, and experiences are distilled into words. Writing poetry is a dive into the depths of one’s consciousness, exploring facets of the poet’s identity and feelings that are often left unspoken. Poets are introverts by nature, I think. Poetry is their way of encountering other people. I was reading Lubna Shibu’s debut anthology of poems while I had a substitution period in a section of grade eleven today at school. One student asked me if she could have a look at the book as I was moving around ensuring discipline while the students were engaged in their regular academic tasks. I gave her the book telling her that the author was a former student in this very classroom just a few years back. I watched the student reading a few poems with some amusement. Then I ask...
8 comments
Read more

How to preach nonviolence

Like most government institutions in India, the Archaeological Survey of India [ASI] has also become a gigantic joke. The national surveyors of India’s famed antiquity go around finding all sorts of Hindu relics in Muslim mosques. Like a Shiv Ling [Lord Shiva’s penis] which may in reality be a rotting piece of a Mughal fountain. One of the recent discoveries of Modi’s national surveyors is that Sambhal in UP is the birthplace of Kalki, the tenth incarnation of God Vishnu. I haven’t understood yet whether Kalki was born in Sambhal at some time in India’s great antique history or Kalki is going to be born in Sambhal at some time in the imminent future. What I know is that Kalki is the final incarnation of Vishnu that is going to put an end to the present wicked Kali Yuga led by people like Modi Inc. Kalki will begin the next era, Satya Yuga, the Era of Truth. So he is yet to be born. But a year back, in Feb to be precise, Modi laid the foundation stone of a temple dedicated to Kalk...
12 comments
Read more

The Little Girl

The Little Girl is a short story by Katherine Mansfield given in the class 9 English course of NCERT. Maggie gave an assignment to her students based on the story and one of her students, Athena Baby Sabu, presented a brilliant job. She converted the story into a delightful comic strip. Mansfield tells the story of Kezia who is the eponymous little girl. Kezia is scared of her father who wields a lot of control on the entire family. She is punished severely for an unwitting mistake which makes her even more scared of her father. Her grandmother is fond of her and is her emotional succour. The grandmother is away from home one day with Kezia's mother who is hospitalised. Kezia gets her usual nightmare and is terrified. There is no one at home to console her except her father from whom she does not expect any consolation. But the father rises to the occasion and lets the little girl sleep beside him that night. She rests her head on her father's chest and can feel his heart...
15 comments
Read more

The Triumph of Godse

Book Discussion Nathuram Godse killed Mahatma Gandhi in order to save Hindus from emasculation. Gandhi was making Hindu men effeminate, incapable of retaliation. Revenge and violence are required of brave men, according to Godse. Gandhi stripped the Hindu men of their bravery and transmuted them into “sheep and goats,” Godse wrote in an article titled ‘Non-resisting tendency accomplished easily by animals.’ Gandhi had to die in order to salvage the manliness of the Hindu men. This argument that formed the foundation of Godse’s self-defence after Gandhi’s assassination was later modified by Narendra Modi et al as: “ Hindu khatre mein hai ,” Hindus are in danger. So Godse has reincarnated now.   Godse’s hatred of non-Hindus has now become the driving force of Hindutva in India. It arose primarily because of the hurt that Godse’s love for his religious community was hurt. His Hindu sentiments were hurt, in other words. Gandhi, Godse, and the minority question is the theme of the...
5 comments
Read more