FPJ Editorial: Battle Of Lists A Mug's Game

Apropos the controversy over the 28-party I.N.D.I.A bloc releasing a list of 14 prominent television anchors whom they will boycott. Of course, the decision is extraordinary for a grouping that claims to respect liberal values. Instead of injecting a modicum of sanity and sense in television newsrooms, the impact may be quite contrary. The 14 have been virtually declared personas non grata by the Congress. But the question goes beyond the public images of the fourteen anchors supposedly spreading hate and division in the society. In a democratic polity to seek to divide the media between “our anchor” and “their anchor”, “our journalist” and “their journalist” smacks of sheer intolerance and a refusal to put up with discordant noises which are an integral part of any democracy. It is a mockery of the Gandhian protest that the Congress-spearheaded party is practising. And in the process revealing its imperial pretensions to hear only courtiers’ dulcet voices cooed in their ears. Boycotting the listed anchors is unlikely to make them come in sackcloth and ashes knocking at their door, seeking forgiveness for the high crime of questioning them and their minions in rather strident and often unbecoming manner. The latter may reflect the coarsening of the political discourse in general and the nightly political theatre in particular. Because the nightly “tu-tu-main-main” shows have gone on for years and we are told that these are the high points of news TV’s daily fare, it is clear that there are takers for extreme partisanship on television.

Let us face it. In all democratic countries media outlets barring a few exceptions are known to root for one party or the other. Newspapers in the UK and the US and other western countries tend to tilt in favour of one or the other party. But no democratic administration in the US has proposed to blacklist journalists from Fox News inside or outside the White House. The channel’s journalists freely ask the President and other officials in the Biden administration tough questions. If Modi has not opened himself to be interrogated by the media in such a manner it may be that it was the rank partisanship of the media during and after the 2002 Gujarat riots which made him into an ogre, pronouncing him guilty while no court or judicial commission had even remotely suggested that. If decided to do without meeting the press formally it was his decision. And as the events have turned out, his decision has not in any way hurt his electoral prospects. But the point to remember is that even Modi did not release a list of journalists who had hounded him for the 2002 riots. The thing is that the Congress Party could have boycotted whichever anchor it wanted to boycott without publishing a whole list of names. It smacks of arrogance. It is undemocratic.

Besides, an equally long list, or maybe even longer can be drawn of media persons who spew venom daily against Modi and the government. In fact, if there is a Modi Godi Media (MGM) there is an equally large Congress Godi Media (CGM). It is a level playing field, in that sense. You can watch covenanted members of the CGM ranting day in and day out against Modi on YouTube, spotlighting, for instance, a puddle of water due to unseasonal rain during the G20 summit, to pan the government for mismanagement and disorganisation, sidestepping the all-round success the summit achieved despite several external and internal obstacles. It is not abnormal for journalists to be drawn into the orbit of politicians they are supposed to meet for news and views but for some of them to sing their paeans daily because it brings them international awards from fishy organisations does not bestow greatness on one. Instead it calls into question one’s objectivity and fairness.

Back to the list. We believe a larger list of print and website journalists is doing the rounds on social media which names the viscerally anti-Modi anti-BJP pen- warriors. The business of lists and counter-lists is a mug’s game. It jeopardises the safety and well-being of those named, given the loonies teeming in the innards of every political formation. Recall how one Bhola Pandey had hijacked an Indian Airlines plane apparently to protest the arrest of Indira Gandhi. There is ample democratic space for everyone to ply his trade, be they pro-Congress or anti-Congress. Why, look at the way Mamata Banejree has subdued her State’s biggest media group into complete submission. Or the way the new AAP government suppresses press freedom trading ads for positive coverage and charging an occasional journo who refuses to fall in line. Ditto for the Congress-ruled states. So, why play the victim card and issue a list of your alleged tormentors. Instead, don’t send your megaphones to those channels who question aggressively. But issuing lists is highly objectionable and sets a bad precedent. It puts a low premium on peoples’ intelligence as well. Apologise and withdraw the list immediately. This much you owe to press freedom.