“A hot mug of coffee waiting for being slurped eagerly, after the glass of water finds its way through the throat”. That’s how one may love to start his day while yawning from the bed. Surely, what follows next is the most important act, following a NEWS PAPER or the Television news, for any common man/woman. This mostly is true for most of the people like me, be they from a village, urban or city. Yes, this common act in the morning not only makes a person updated with the happenings around, but also mirrors a mindset of the society in which he or she lives. It also dictates the mindset of the person right at the start of his day. For example, going around with the society; respond to bring some change in him or the society if possible; or to even decide which people to support for the betterment of his own lifestyle and of society.
Now, think of something like a Will Smith’s movie (MIB) of having an extraterrestrial war, where the world is about to end, while the ordinary citizens of the world living in dark without a hint of what’s happening around. It’s true that some well-thought sci-fi movies (I am not speaking of time travel or even MIB now) are becoming facts with time. We are heading towards such an ignorant MIB sort of situation; only the extraterrestrial is replaced by the proxy war tabled by some politicians, goons, corruption, extortion, scandals, etc. And why is this situation? Because the news which we feed into our minds through various media resources, ensure that White remains Black or Black remains White. In Old days, there was a beautiful proverb which now has become a part of history like the extinction of dinosaurs “I know XYZ happened, I read it in the Newspaper”. Obviously, someone would argue that this is the situation from the last few decades; just people lived in the MIB sort of world for too long to get awakened.
In recent times we find same news with 4-5 different narratives. The media houses are playing the game of “Chinese whispers” with only 3 players in the game which is the News, Media house and Receivers (us). Media house being at the center of this hypothetical game and also in the actual scenario, ensure a guaranteed change in the message/news by the end of the line. One of the big reasons that newspapers have become factories for impeding the truth from the common people, is just for satisfying some political inclination to some elite groups (the deeper reason is kickbacks in many terms, terms left for reader’s imagination). Amidst of all such narratives, truth seems to prevail as the major sufferer.
This sort of blinding of the common people has gone too far in recent times. A press conference held by All India Congress Committee (AICC), Headquarters, where one media house was debarred (Republic news) from attending only reminds of a situation of Emergency faced by our country in 1975. All of this was done for just avoiding some tough questions which were to be put up by Republic reporters. So, why such drama if the court will bring out the truth anyway? Was it just to save some elite person, would be the open question left for readers to contemplate. If the common people do not know the facts and are just fed by false narratives of few, how can we bring him back from the fairy tale imaginary world? The imaginary problems of forcing Hindu religion, Hindi language, forced beef ban, Army goonies in Kashmir, #notinmyname, etc. are being forced into peoples mind to avoid any sort of unity among the Indian brotherhood. Another fallacy of media houses: selective targeting on some issues, which as per them would ensure a comeback of the weak non-credible and opportunistic opposition into power.
The nexus of some of the biased media is not just limited to within India, but an attempt is made to malign the Nations image even abroad. The only problem with our country is that country doesn’t have any credible opposition. Current opposition is making it worst not only by hurting religious sentiments of the majority of the country but also mongering fear within the minorities. These tactics would be counter-productive as the long suppressed corruption charges on them by using delay tactics are coming out, be it national Herald case, Bofors, Benami properties or even the recent IT raids by IT cell in Karnataka.
Finally, let us hope that the day will come when the proverb “I know XYZ happened, I read it in the Newspaper” again becomes common in a true sense.
