One year into the BJP rule, disenchantment was beginning to set in among those who voted for Narendra Modi.
Where were the ‘Acche Din’? But call it a stroke of luck or otherwise, the Dadri episode and the protests by writers served to take off the people’s minds from developmental issues.
Religion and beef once again figured at the top of the agenda. The media went into overdrive questioning Modi’s silence while writers who were not fortunate enough to get noticed through their works gained instant recognition through ‘award-wapsi’.
Such a hue-and-cry was raised about the Hindutva brigade that the general picture was that India is an extremely dangerous place currently thanks to the Hindutva forces at place.
And it is precisely this kind of biased reporting that is doing more harm to India’s secular fabric than anything else.
Objectivity is absolutely missing from the media and what is this resulting in? Mohammad Akhlaq was doing nothing illegal. He did not deserve such a fate in Dadri and by no means should his killers be allowed to get away.
But when the media goes hyper about such issues for its own TRP’s and turns the ‘Dadri’ tragedy into a daily soap, it ultimately ends up polarizing society. How?
Young Indians counter the media propaganda against the Modi establishment with rebuttals like; “Why did not a single writer return his award citing the plight of Kashmiri Pandits?” and “Why is not a single person asking for Modi to speak to Prashant Pujary’s family, why only Akhlaq’s family?” whether these questions merit a response is not the scope of this piece.
The thing is that the more the BJP gets battered in the media, the more does its support base swell! It is also in tune with the general psyche of rooting for the underdog which from the newspaper accounts appear to be the BJP. And this is because of the over-enthusiastic and unprofessional reporting by the media.
The nature of reporting has been such that a person who is aghast at the Dari episode will still be forced to side with the BJP for the issue has been transformed into a Hindu vs Muslim debate.
And forced to take sides thanks to the media, what will a young educated majority community Indian choose?
