For a country, no stranger to acts of terror and incidents that threaten the existence of peace, what can the average Indian expect from his country’s own media?
The media, should it be iterated specifically whilst most of us may be aware, is one of the vital pillars of any democracy.
It is our first window to the larger world out there. In fact, it is the abyss as also the stare- think about it!
Is it not?
And when we speak specifically for India, a land that birthed the great Ramnath Goenka, then kindly dwell on the following piece of truth as an example.
So influential is the field of journalism and its intriguing sphere for the one who preservers that at this very point in time, while some of us may be in a boring queue to grab their morning cup of cappuccino while the others could be found irritated whilst awaiting for their chauffer-driven four-wheel luxury drive to arrive at a swanky hotel’s porch, there could be some student filling out an application form for a course in Journalism.
On the other hand, what cannot be ruled out, is that at least on some day of the week, in an India balancing its own mighty weight between geopolitical realities in the sub-continent and the much-needed Swacch Bharat Abhiyan, there may be multiple online applications being filled for a digital course as well.
Our India, mind you, isn’t just the land of Madhu Trehan, Kanchan Gupta, Raveesh Kumar, Chandan Mitra, Bhupen Chaubey, Nitin Gokhale, Vishnu Som, Sheereen Bhan, Abhigyan Sharma, or Sonia Singh alone.
India is a philosophy, an idea, a burning ambition, a sheer unputdownable force of nature- one that is as mesmerizing as it is informing.
And so when you speak of the role of media in an India, which happens to be the world’s largest democracy, should it not be fundamentally uphold the dignity and integrity that it itself is dedicated to protect and uphold, akin to the Dharma that protects our very being or Karma that guides the path of our lives?
But what do we see here?
Any thoughts?
Mustn’t we ask ourselves honestly something?
Does the empathy and fact-fullness that the fourth pillar of democracy can and must serve especially during times of tumult such as wars, such as the very existential chance that India and Pakistan’s burning issue come to the fore the way it should?
To a country that is fascinated by information, in a land of the youth where not a day goes by where someone or the other isn’t extracting information or pasting some on social media, never mind the shenanigans like seeking validation through cute selfies, how more does one have to ‘endure’ the Indian media- not yet a cuss word, thankfully, not yet a termed a species when it so easily can be?
Do you get the feeling that the one that had sworn, okay, that’s maybe too much, in fact, but one that hadn’t actually sworn to inflame sentiments or spread rumors is the one that is maligning the country and us all through a brazen misrepresentation of facts?
Are we being coerced into thinking that the media in India is becoming a species when it is so integral to the very existence of the term India or Bharat or Hindustan?
What on good lord’s mighty earth is happening to our country where just as both sides of the border are trying to- if at all Pakistan too is- work out a way to peace in the current fiasco, we are seeing none of that on the television?
Confused? Need clarity?
Watch the following clip and ask yourselves if our educated, capable and hardworking news anchors are indeed serving the country well by refraining from inciting violence?
In a world where there’s no dearth of blasphemy, and where one doesn’t need to cope up with the spine-chilling acts of the Daesh alone but can understand the maliciousness, sheer wretchedness of mankind by just reading a simple article about Boko Haram, can the media belonging to the land that birthed Swami Vivekananda, please grow up?
