The worse victims of media’s cold shoulder have been Aam
Aadmi Party and Arvind Kejriwal this election, apart from Assembly
election in Orissa, Jagan Reddy and many others, writes HASAN KAMAL.
Posted/Updated Saturday, May 10, 2014
Did you know that along with Parliamentary elections in
Orissa, state assembly elections are also being held? If yes then we
congratulate you for being well informed. If not then we do not regard
you as uniformed and do not blame you for this. You are among those
innumerable people who do not know that in Orissa not one but two
elections are being held and are being held simultaneously.
Reason? It is very evident.
The sources that provide information to the world have
either sealed their lips or have put the news from Orissa in a safe
lockup. In Orissa it is the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) that is in power. It
so appears that BJP and JDU have not been able to reach to a compromise
and the media has started counting as unreliable each party that is not
floating in the ‘Modi Wave’ or the party it regards as not allying with
BJP, at least for the time being. Possibly there is one more reason that
there does not seem to be much scope for BJP in Orissa. Therefore to
ignore the news from Orissa in the first place is thought to be a better
solution.
You may surely say that we are just assuming as such or
making wild guesses. We will not deny this. Like you we have not been to
Orissa. And because like you we too are hungry for the news about
Orissa then what else can we do besides making assumptions?
This situation is not limited to Orissa. We are starved of
the news from Punjab as well. It is said that presently out of
proportion increase of intoxicants and drug use, especially liquor, is
the biggest problem in Punjab. Rumour is that the tide of liquor is much
stronger there than Modi’s wave. Perhaps this is the reason why media
has bottled the news up from Punjab saying, ‘It is a useless discussion
intoxicated with the best and the purest wine.’
Let’s go a step further. There was a time when Jagan Reddy
and his party YSR Congress dominated the media. That was the time when
he was aggressively attacking Mrs Sonia Gandhi and was accusing her of
projecting Rahul Gandhi at his cost. Along with this Jagan Reddy was
swearing that he will not let Andhra be divided; nor will allow the
creation of Telengana as a separate state. In those days media used tell
us that Andhra had engulfed in Jagan Reddy tide up to its neck. We were
also told that except Jagan Reddy and YSR Congress no other political
force could survive in Andhra and that together both of them will
completely wipe out the Congress from there.
Like elsewhere in the country Andhra is also having
elections but does anyone hear Jagan Reddy’s name anywhere now? Has his
party suffered political death? Or has Jagan Reddy renounced politics?
Or could it be that the media has cast him as untouchable because before
the elections he had declared that in no way he will ever shake his
hands with communal (read BJP) forces? Now it seems that there is
nothing else in Andhra except Chandra Babu Naidu and Telugu Desam. As of
today Chandra Babu is a BJP ally. And [interestingly] media does not
feel it necessary to remind him that there was a time when he used to
say that supporting the BJP was one of his biggest mistakes.
And now that we are discussing the issue let it go as far
as it warrants. Let’s also remind our readers the time when 2G issue was
exposed. On the floor of the parliament BJP had launched full scale
attack on UPA Government while outside the parliament Jayalalithaa was
taking on UPA Government, specially the DMK, with full force. Those were
the days when Jayalalithaa was much more popular with the media than
the days when she used to be Tamil films heroin. Perhaps MGR’s affection
for her had played a major role in making her so popular.
However, she remained popular with the media for as long as
hopes were alive that ultimately she will come and join in Narendra
Modi’s camp. And there was a reason for this: Narendra Modi had
travelled all the way to Chenai to attend her ‘crowning’ ceremony in
Tamil Nadu. Jayalalithaa too had sent one of her cabinet ministers to
represent her at Modi’s third time swearing in. But lately, for some
unknown reasons, she has fallen with Narendra Modi and has ridiculed him
and his Gujarat Model publicly. With the help of facts and figures she
has also tried to prove that from economic point of view conditions in
Tamil Nadu are better than in Gujarat. Perhaps media has not taken it
well and that is why Jayalalithaa’s name is being mentioned but
superficially. In Tamil Nadu polling has finished almost in all
parliamentary constituencies. But except the news that polling there has
been 80%, no more mention of Tamil Nadu has been made. However, it was
surely reported that Jayalalithaa has lost her strength and Waheera DMK
has become stronger. To ignore Mamata Banerjee seems difficult.
Pundit Nehru used to say that when an Indian loses his
temper he starts swearing in English. When Didi [elder sister] is cross
she bursts out in Hindi and Hindi media cannot ignore something said in
Hindi. She is always in the news because she does not spare the media
and does not hesitate in taking it on. It is because of 30% of Muslim
votes in West Bengal she shows no mercy to Narendra Modi at all. How can
she forget that it were the Muslims who freed West Bengal from the left
wing and brought it in her control? It is therefore media as well does
mention this but only when there is no way out. Mulayam Singh, Nitish
Kumar and Mayawati too often remain deprived of media’s attention.
The worse victims of media’s cold shoulder have been Aam
Aadmi Party (AAP) and Arvind Kejriwal. One may recall the days when
elections were being held for Delhi Assembly. Kejriwal had pledged to
uproot Congress and Sheila Dikshit from Delhi and had become an apple of
media’s eye. Media had taken AAP’s broom up in their hands and had
started to use it to clean sweep Congress’s house. The media was singing
tunes in praise of AAP giving it the credit that it was because of it
that corruption had come on the political agenda, though the wise ones
in the media were not aware at that time that in addition to Congress
AAP was thus going to destroy BJP as well. A common view at that time
was that AAP will ruin Congress’s vote and this will benefit the BJP; Dr
Harsh Vardhan will be Delhi’s Chief Minister in place of Sheila
Dikshit. But the results bulldozed all speculations and assessments. BJP
was left far away from winning majority. Even at that time media was
speculating that some people in AAP will break with their party and join
BJP. To achieve this objective help of the media was also sought but
this could not materialise. It was though for few days, but the AAP,
with Congress’s support, did form a Government.
AAP and Arvind Kejriwal still continued to find space in
the media. To ignore the winners is difficult indeed. But when out in
haste (something that Kejriwal now admits) he tendered his resignation
media got the chance [it was looking for] and when it became obvious
that he was serious in challenging the BJP fault finding in him ensued.
For quitting the government he was called a learner and inexperienced.
When Kejriwal challenged Narendra Modi [in his own territory] Gujarat
and chased him in Varansi as well, the media forgot that Kejriwal was
its creation. If anyone threw a shoe at, punched or slapped him the
media showed it with a sense of suppressed amusement.
National media did not ever think that Kejriwal and AAP
will dare challenge Narendra Modi. Well, this has at least made Kejriwal
aware of how much reliable national media is. If one were to believe
the media, Ajit Singh has taken to Sannyasa (Renouncer). According to
the media the Jats are fully behind BJP. What it is unable to tell is
why it is so [this change and the background of]. Ajit Singh has been a
Jat leader for the last three generations. His late father Choudhry
Charan Singh was considered to be the greatest leader of Jats. His
ancestor Sir Chhotu Ram was a Jat leader. National media believes, and
is trying to make us believe, that Narendra Modi is India and India is
Narendra Modi. [Surely] Never before had money spoken so loudly [as it
is now].
Reprinted from Rashtriya Sahara as translated on Urdu Media Monitor.Com
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