India politics thread
- Thread starter Shiva87
- Start date
I think the last point is really valid here. If every news channel and newspaper shows one thing, have higher viewership/readership, it's obvious people will believe them rather than say NDTV/The Hindu. And honestly, it's not just the comparatively uneducated people who believe this, the sentiment is common in all sections of our society
Incredible and you're right, Dear Leader is going to be around for a long long time.
He will lose next GE unless they impose some kind of emergency.
Oh absolutely. Like with the US, the fabric of the nation has changed. Only in their case it's a 50/50 split whereas here, most of the majority in this country has turned. Well educated people from all walks in life are spewing and spreading their bigoted thought, and have totally bought into the nationalistic right wing ideology of the BJP/RSS.
Not that it can't be reserved. But the prerequisite is an opposition with a face worth believing in.
Which is why Reliance started investing in channels pretty early and today owns about 72 channels (news plus entertainment). It can tell any govt, State or Centre , that they are capable of driving a narrative in the country. Which obviously helps their other businesses.
Not Politics..but Aaj Tak trying to interview Sushant Singh's Dad, when his Son has just been found dead is just gutter ,the lowest of low journalism. I just could not believe that ,,how in the world is such things allowed to happen? Mind boggles.
A lot of it is due to people not realizing that mental issues is an actual health issue. The person committing suicide is considered weak in our society and we blame that person for not valuing his life rather than thinking of ways these people can be supported before they take such a drastic step
This anti Chinese bullshit is really getting to me. It's such a convenient narrative to cover every single shortcoming currently. From the economy, to virus to foreign policy to opposition
I used to think this. Whenever the economic collape happens he will suffer. After all, reality can be deflected only for so long.
But after demonitisation made him more popular ... This is a Whatsapp nation, is there even a reality?
People's perspective of rahul has not changed yet. Congress has to take advantage of this situation by not pounding rahul into people's face and field a new face. Modi has developed a cult and the only way to beat it is having someone who people can back.
Modi and BJP is not unbeatable and it's not like people will blindly vote for them (Delhi election showed that) but Congress with rahul is not going to be the answer.
DeMo collapse didn’t hurt rural jobs as bad as what is the state now. Ultimately people still chalked up to an earnest attempt at getting rid of black money. Contrary to your quotes, I have read other reports about Modi’s base with migrant workers taking a big hit.
Modi's Inept Handling of the Pandemic Has Not Tarnished His Image
Conversations with labourers who have returned to Bihar and UP indicate that Modi’s stature is intact, and he will consolidate his political power in these states. This is in line with a survey conducted by Ipsos, an international marketing agency. According to the survey, 87% of people in India approve of Modi’s handling of the crisis. This also reaffirms the notion that Modi remains BJP’s biggest electoral asset.
“It so difficult to manage our own little family these days in such a crisis, we applaud Modij for taking care of the entire country”, said Saurab, who reached his village in UP’s Gonda district from Delhi after the lockdown. He worked in the capital city as an electrician and belongs to the OBC caste of Koeri.
There is also a deeply communal narrative, backed by ‘friendly’ news channels and social media, which has attracted the attention of many “migrants”. “It is the kat..[a derogatory term for Muslims] who are responsible for spreading the virus. I saw it on TV news. What can Modiji do?” said a 20-year-old.
And then there is a sense of being let down by the opposition parties. “I voted for Mayawati during the last elections because she belongs to my caste. I will again vote for her. She has been absent during the lockdown and I feel let down. Muslims and Chinese have got together to spread the virus to defame India”, said Ajay Ram. He returned to his village in Azamgarh from Thane, Maharashtra.
Conversations with workers indicate that those who have managed to return to their homes blame everyone except Modi for the ordeal they underwent during the lockdown. Sanjay Kumar, a Dalit from Paswan community, said, “I voted for the trio of Modi-Nitish-Paswan in the last Lok Sabha elections. But Nitish has let us down badly. Bihar is his territory and the quarantine centre was jail-like. We were treated like Pakistani terrorists. I wish Modiji was ruling Bihar”. Kumar had recently returned to his home in Patna district’s Barh block in Bihar.
Chitranjan Sharma, who comes from the OBC badhayi (carpenter) community was more candid. He blamed Arvind Kejriwal for all the hardships he had faced on his way to his hometown in Khagaria in Bihar. “Kejriwal had closed the borders. If it was not for Yogi and his boss Modi, we would not have been able to board the train from Ghaziabad in UP. I will always be grateful to Yogi-Modi,” he said.
Saurabh was assisted by an NGO-led by Muslims activists to reach his home town, Gonda, in UP. Ironically, he said “Sir, it is the Muslims who have spread this disease. They invited people from all over the world to Nizamuddin knowing that there were restrictions”.
It has become evident from the conversations that some of the leading TV channels, WhatsApp groups, social media and sections of the vernacular Hindi press have acted as ‘super-spreaders’ in legitimising the demonisation and stigmatisation of Muslims.
Pandey, Saurabh and Ajay Ram said that they saw on TV channels that the Tablighis were spitting on the vegetables. Ajay Ram said that while he was returning to Azamgarh, he and his friends were constantly being reminded via WhatsApp that they should avoid halting in Muslim localities and should not accept any food from them.
Upon being asked what made him conclude that Muslims were to be blamed, Manish Pandey said, “Will all the TV channels, newspapers and WhatsApp message tell lies? Everyone is blaming the Muslims so how could I not believe”.
Modi’s larger than life stature, the demonisation of Muslims, and the BJP’s determined hold over media and social media has created a potent brand of politics. It will help the BJP sustain its political dominance in UP and Bihar, and the rest of India.
https://thewire.in/politics/modi-bihar-elections
Now its time to come back to reality and except that facts have been irrelevant for quite a few years
.Punya Prasun Bajpai Reveals the Story Behind His Exit From ABP News
On July 14, 2018, the proprietor-cum-editor-in-chief of the national news channel ABP, owned by the Ananda Bazaar Patrika Group, had a conversation with me along these lines:
Proprietor: “Can you refrain from mentioning the name of Prime Minister Modi [in your programme]? Mention the names of his ministers by all means; point out anything amiss in a government policy if you want to, even name the minister of the concerned ministry. Just don’t refer to Prime Minister Modi anywhere.”
I replied: But when Prime Minister Modi himself announces every government scheme, involves himself in the work of every ministry; and when every minister utters the name of Prime Minister Modi every time s/he mentions any scheme or government policy, how is it possible for us to not take Modi’s name?
Proprietor: I say, stop insisting. See for a few days how it plays out. As a matter of fact you are doing the right thing. But leave it be for the time being.
I had not anticipated that within 100 hours, a second diktat – that even the image of Modi should not appear on Masterstroke – would come my way. But come it did.
This time, the discussion with the proprietor started with the query: “Has the government of the day come to mean just Modi? Is it possible to prepare a report without showing Prime Minister Modi’s image?”
I responded with a question of my own – in four years the Modi government has announced 106 schemes. Coincidentally, the announcement of every scheme has been made by the prime minister himself. The onus for publicizing every scheme may well rest on the concerned ministry and minister, but it is the name of Prime Minister Modi which dominates the publicity of every initiative. So even if an on-ground news report does not refer to the prime minister in the context of the scheme’s success or failure, those affected by it will, and constantly do, utter the name of Modi – be it a farmer or a pregnant woman, jobless youth or trader.
The only answer I got was this – Whatever it may be, but Prime Minister Modi’s image should also not appear on Masterstroke.
Dilemma of a Modi-centric media
As the narrative about the country progressing towards “achche din” unfolded, it became an addiction for the news channels as well. To ensure that this ‘high’ did not wear off, the Modi government created a 200-member monitoring team which duly functioned under the additional director general of the ministry, who reported directly to the minister concerned.
The 200-member monitoring team functioned at three levels: 150 members were involved only in monitoring the channels; 25 members gave it the shape the government wanted; and the remaining 25 reviewed the final content. Based on this report, three officials of deputy secretary rank would prepare the report to be sent to the I&B minister, through whom the officials at the PMO would get activated and send their directives to the editors of the news channels about what was to be done and how.
If an editor spoke about running a channel solely according to what was newsworthy, then the officials at the ministry or the PMO would communicate with the concerned proprietor. To keep the pressure intact, they would send a file with the monitoring report, detailing how Prime Minister Modi’s statements, ranging from his election promises of 2014 to his claims on demonetisation, surgical strikes or GST could be shown again. Or how, in a report on an ongoing scheme, the prime minister’s old claims could be included. In fact, a dozen or so officials from the I&B ministry and the PMO work at the first level to ensure that the narrative of the Modi government’s successes is showcased in every manner possible. This is followed by the advice of the I&B minister, which is more of an order and, at the third level, there is the tone of the BJP with its many modulations.
Boycotts by BJP, RSS spokespersons
Say, a channel does not confine itself to showing the Modi regime in a positive light at all times but occasionally includes stories with a negative tone or, on the basis of facts, shows the Modi government’s truth to be a lie. Immediately, BJP spokespersons are told to stop appearing on those channels; that is, they do not participate in any political discussion conducted by that channel. This started happening on ABP News from the last week of June this year – BJP spokespersons stopped appearing on its debates. A few days later, BJP leaders stopped giving bytes to the channel. The day the truth of the Prime Minister’s ‘Mann ki Baat’ was outed on Masterstroke, RSS ideologues too were told to stay off the channel.
Before absorbing the stark truth of Mann ki Baat and the events which followed, it is important to realise the extent to which the BJP’s parent organisation, the RSS, has become dependent on the Modi government. This was borne out on July 9, 2018, when in the midst of a 4 pm discussion on ABP, a professor taking part in the programme in his capacity as an RSS ideologue received a phone call telling him to leave the studio immediately. And the gentleman in question stood up and simply walked away from the programme that was being broadcast live. The moment he received the phone call, the expression on his face seemed to suggest that he had been caught committing a grievous offence – you could say it was the face of a frightened man.
Part II: Moving in for the kill
It was with a great deal of cleverness that the ruling BJP took two steps to increase its pressure on the news channel: the first was a boycott of the channel, and the second was to target ABP’s annual public event, which is as much a matter of prestige as of revenue through advertisements – marked by the presence of those in power as well as in the opposition, with politicians responding to the questions put forth by the people. This time, both the BJP and the Modi government declined to attend the programme – which meant no ministers at the meet. And when those in power are conspicuous by their absence, how can a programme be organised with just the presence of the opposition?
The message, sharp and clear, to every news channel was this: go against us and your business will suffer. In a way, without wanting to, the Modi government gave a clear signal that power is a business in itself, one that channels will find it difficult to run without. To rein in ABP and to ensure that other channels did not stop their praises of the Modi government and start reporting from ground zero, the government embarked on an ambitious plan – to throttle democracy in the guise of being its biggest friend. This, in the ‘world’s largest democracy’.
During the time of the Emergency, it was quite clear to the media that they had no recourse to their constitutional rights. But in today’s India’s, raga democracy is being sung at the highest octave.
On June 20, Prime Minister Modi spoke to farmer beneficiaries of his various schemes through a video conference link. Right in front was Chandramani Kaushik from village Kanhari in Kanker district (Chhattisgarh). When the prime minister asked her about her income, she simply narrated how her income had doubled. The prime minister was happy to hear the bit about income doubling. He started beaming for the simple reason that he has kept 2022 as the year when the incomes of farmers shall be doubled. So on a programme that is live, if a farmer happens to talk about her income doubling, it is bound to warm the cockles of the prime minister’s heart.
Fourteen days later, on July 6 when the report was aired, we revealed how the woman in question had been coached by officials from Delhi about what she was required to say to the prime minister and how she must say the bit about the doubling of income. In one blow, the report created a furore in Chhattisgarh, with many saying that the woman had been coached with an eye on elections [the state goes to polls in five months].
The report gave rise to three questions: do officials do all this to keep the prime minister happy? Are people coached to lie because the prime minister wants to hear nothing but his praise? Do election victories hinge only on the publicity and propaganda machine? Whatever it may be, but the fact is that smarting from the report’s effect, the Modi government went on the offensive against ABP saying it was deliberately airing a programme that was nothing but falsehood. Three Union ministers including the I&B minister, put out virtually identical tweets, putting a question mark on the channel’s credibility.
What was it if not pressure? It was clear to everybody. So when reporter Gyanendra Tiwari was sent to the spot again to file another report, the village presented a very different look. The police was ensconced there. Senior officials of the state government had been sent there to ensure that the reporter was not able to reach Chandramani Kaushik. Call it the reporter’s ingenuity or the lack of integrity and discipline among the police and the officials to remain in their posts till late but they left the village during the day itself. Before night fell, the villagers and the 12-woman SHG group including Chandramani Kaushik broke their silence about how much more wretched their conditions had become.
On July 9, following the telecast of this report, the ominous silence of the government was a clear indication that it would do something. That very night, one member of the channel monitoring team informed me over the phone that the latest report on Masterstroke had created an uproar in the government. The I&B minister has taken the ADG to task, asking him, as I was informed, “Did you not know that ABP would go ahead and air this report despite the ministerial tweets? … Had we known, we would have sent a notice beforehand so that they would have had to show us the programme before airing it.”
A warning, and then a mysterious interference with signals
This information was provided by a senior member of the monitoring team. I was constrained to ask him, doesn’t providing us this information put your job at risk? This is what he said: We are a team of 200, recruited by the Broadcast Engineering Corporation India Limited. We are kept on a six-monthly contract no matter how many years we have worked. There is no provision of leave. Those at the first level of monitoring get a salary of Rs 28,635, senior members get Rs 37,350 and those keeping an eye on the content get Rs 49, 500. How does it matter if one retains this job or not. The truth is, those who watch primetime content are asked to prepare a report on the duration for which the bulletin shows the prime minister, obviously in a good light. Those who show him for the longest duration are considered the best.
Almost chuckling, this gentleman told me, “A separate report is prepared on your Masterstroke. And after what you have shown in your report today [July 9], anything can happen. Be vigilant.” Saying this, he put the phone down. This set me thinking. We discussed what he said internally in the channel but no one had any inkling of the three-pronged offensive that would be mounted – an attack that would reduce democracy to a glassy eyed stare of disbelief, an attack in the name of democracy, on democracy.
As if on cue, on the following news night, ABP’s satellite link started misbehaving during primetime. The disturbance continued for an hour so that viewers would be prevented from watching Masterstroke and might switch to some other channel. Exactly at 10 pm, the satellite link would be restored.
On an average, there would be thirty or forty instances of disturbance in the satellite link. On the third day, a consensus emerged in the channel that the viewers should be informed of this development. On July 19, the channel started airing a message from morning itself: “In the last few days you must have noticed some disturbances in the signal during our primetime telecast. We are trying to locate the cause of this problem which has arisen all of a sudden, and are trying our utmost to fix it. We request you to be with us till then.”
This information was provided as an essential communication. But the message was taken off air two hours later. The decision was taken by the management. It was a dual pressure for the channel – of being subject to the pressure of having its primetime telecast disturbed and also to not let this information out to the world either. At the same time some advertisers withdrew their ads – the biggest advertiser who makes a great deal of fighting foreign brands and powers on the strength of his swadeshi brand to sell his products, vanished from the ABP screen in a trice.
If people are not able to watch your channel from 9 pm to 10 pm, it effectively means that you are not being watched precisely during the slot when there is maximum viewership. A decline in TRPs is a foregone conclusion. For the channels indulging in limpid praise of the government, this would come as a relief to know that as long as they go on like this their TRPs will remain unimpaired. For the people, the powers that be would have conveyed the message that ultimately, the Modi that people want to see is the Modi with an eternally successful mien. Also that people have no interest whatsoever in watching those who raise questions. Even the I&B minister knows the way the game is played. That is why his response in parliament did not fail to utter the mantra of TRP. As to why the channel’s TRP was climbing prior to the blackout, he maintained a prudent silence.
After my resignation, the storm suddenly passed
The conclusion of this long saga is no less interesting. The editor-in-chief who is also proprietor, or the management, stands before you with folded hands, asking you what should be done. In these circumstances, what can you do – go on leave perhaps, or resign. And miracle of miracles, the minute you put in your resignation, the Patanjali ads are back! Masterstoke sees an increase in ads as well. The 15-minute slot for ads, which had shrunk to a mere three minutes, swells up to 20 minutes. I resigned on August 2 and, hey presto, that very night the satellite link became stable.
While I was still employed with ABP, there was a day when journalists in parliament’s central hall were told that ABP would be taught a fitting lesson, and who did Punya Prasun think he was. Two days prior to that incident and a day after it, the BJP president had sternly instructed the people in charge of the BJP’s social media in Ranchi and Patna, “to not spare Punya Prasun” – to target him through the social media.
The same instructions were given to the people handling the BJP’s social media in Jaipur as well. But the problem the powers that be face is this –people may attach themselves to power either due to threats or the lure of money and power, but they are unable to mould themselves entirely in the image of the powerful. So from Ranchi, Patna and Jaipur, those managing the BJP’s social media handles kept informing me that I was in for some more torrid online assaults.
When the game of power is being played so openly, which editor’s guild is one expected to write to, which journalist’s organisation should one alert – to think in line with power is of no use, at least air your grievances, and then we shall fight. As if we are speaking not of the Editor’s Guild but an official secretariat, and those at its helm are not journalists but sarkari babus! In the end, my appeal to you is simply this: fine, don’t challenge the powers that be, but when confronted with a truth that is so clearly visible, at least don’t cover your eyes with a blindfold.
https://thewire.in/media/punya-prasun-bajpai-abp-news-narendra-modi
On July 14, 2018, the proprietor-cum-editor-in-chief of the national news channel ABP, owned by the Ananda Bazaar Patrika Group, had a conversation with me along these lines:
Proprietor: “Can you refrain from mentioning the name of Prime Minister Modi [in your programme]? Mention the names of his ministers by all means; point out anything amiss in a government policy if you want to, even name the minister of the concerned ministry. Just don’t refer to Prime Minister Modi anywhere.”
I replied: But when Prime Minister Modi himself announces every government scheme, involves himself in the work of every ministry; and when every minister utters the name of Prime Minister Modi every time s/he mentions any scheme or government policy, how is it possible for us to not take Modi’s name?
Proprietor: I say, stop insisting. See for a few days how it plays out. As a matter of fact you are doing the right thing. But leave it be for the time being.
I had not anticipated that within 100 hours, a second diktat – that even the image of Modi should not appear on Masterstroke – would come my way. But come it did.
This time, the discussion with the proprietor started with the query: “Has the government of the day come to mean just Modi? Is it possible to prepare a report without showing Prime Minister Modi’s image?”
I responded with a question of my own – in four years the Modi government has announced 106 schemes. Coincidentally, the announcement of every scheme has been made by the prime minister himself. The onus for publicizing every scheme may well rest on the concerned ministry and minister, but it is the name of Prime Minister Modi which dominates the publicity of every initiative. So even if an on-ground news report does not refer to the prime minister in the context of the scheme’s success or failure, those affected by it will, and constantly do, utter the name of Modi – be it a farmer or a pregnant woman, jobless youth or trader.
The only answer I got was this – Whatever it may be, but Prime Minister Modi’s image should also not appear on Masterstroke.
Dilemma of a Modi-centric media
As the narrative about the country progressing towards “achche din” unfolded, it became an addiction for the news channels as well. To ensure that this ‘high’ did not wear off, the Modi government created a 200-member monitoring team which duly functioned under the additional director general of the ministry, who reported directly to the minister concerned.
The 200-member monitoring team functioned at three levels: 150 members were involved only in monitoring the channels; 25 members gave it the shape the government wanted; and the remaining 25 reviewed the final content. Based on this report, three officials of deputy secretary rank would prepare the report to be sent to the I&B minister, through whom the officials at the PMO would get activated and send their directives to the editors of the news channels about what was to be done and how.
If an editor spoke about running a channel solely according to what was newsworthy, then the officials at the ministry or the PMO would communicate with the concerned proprietor. To keep the pressure intact, they would send a file with the monitoring report, detailing how Prime Minister Modi’s statements, ranging from his election promises of 2014 to his claims on demonetisation, surgical strikes or GST could be shown again. Or how, in a report on an ongoing scheme, the prime minister’s old claims could be included. In fact, a dozen or so officials from the I&B ministry and the PMO work at the first level to ensure that the narrative of the Modi government’s successes is showcased in every manner possible. This is followed by the advice of the I&B minister, which is more of an order and, at the third level, there is the tone of the BJP with its many modulations.
Boycotts by BJP, RSS spokespersons
Say, a channel does not confine itself to showing the Modi regime in a positive light at all times but occasionally includes stories with a negative tone or, on the basis of facts, shows the Modi government’s truth to be a lie. Immediately, BJP spokespersons are told to stop appearing on those channels; that is, they do not participate in any political discussion conducted by that channel. This started happening on ABP News from the last week of June this year – BJP spokespersons stopped appearing on its debates. A few days later, BJP leaders stopped giving bytes to the channel. The day the truth of the Prime Minister’s ‘Mann ki Baat’ was outed on Masterstroke, RSS ideologues too were told to stay off the channel.
Before absorbing the stark truth of Mann ki Baat and the events which followed, it is important to realise the extent to which the BJP’s parent organisation, the RSS, has become dependent on the Modi government. This was borne out on July 9, 2018, when in the midst of a 4 pm discussion on ABP, a professor taking part in the programme in his capacity as an RSS ideologue received a phone call telling him to leave the studio immediately. And the gentleman in question stood up and simply walked away from the programme that was being broadcast live. The moment he received the phone call, the expression on his face seemed to suggest that he had been caught committing a grievous offence – you could say it was the face of a frightened man.
Part II: Moving in for the kill
It was with a great deal of cleverness that the ruling BJP took two steps to increase its pressure on the news channel: the first was a boycott of the channel, and the second was to target ABP’s annual public event, which is as much a matter of prestige as of revenue through advertisements – marked by the presence of those in power as well as in the opposition, with politicians responding to the questions put forth by the people. This time, both the BJP and the Modi government declined to attend the programme – which meant no ministers at the meet. And when those in power are conspicuous by their absence, how can a programme be organised with just the presence of the opposition?
The message, sharp and clear, to every news channel was this: go against us and your business will suffer. In a way, without wanting to, the Modi government gave a clear signal that power is a business in itself, one that channels will find it difficult to run without. To rein in ABP and to ensure that other channels did not stop their praises of the Modi government and start reporting from ground zero, the government embarked on an ambitious plan – to throttle democracy in the guise of being its biggest friend. This, in the ‘world’s largest democracy’.
During the time of the Emergency, it was quite clear to the media that they had no recourse to their constitutional rights. But in today’s India’s, raga democracy is being sung at the highest octave.
On June 20, Prime Minister Modi spoke to farmer beneficiaries of his various schemes through a video conference link. Right in front was Chandramani Kaushik from village Kanhari in Kanker district (Chhattisgarh). When the prime minister asked her about her income, she simply narrated how her income had doubled. The prime minister was happy to hear the bit about income doubling. He started beaming for the simple reason that he has kept 2022 as the year when the incomes of farmers shall be doubled. So on a programme that is live, if a farmer happens to talk about her income doubling, it is bound to warm the cockles of the prime minister’s heart.
Fourteen days later, on July 6 when the report was aired, we revealed how the woman in question had been coached by officials from Delhi about what she was required to say to the prime minister and how she must say the bit about the doubling of income. In one blow, the report created a furore in Chhattisgarh, with many saying that the woman had been coached with an eye on elections [the state goes to polls in five months].
The report gave rise to three questions: do officials do all this to keep the prime minister happy? Are people coached to lie because the prime minister wants to hear nothing but his praise? Do election victories hinge only on the publicity and propaganda machine? Whatever it may be, but the fact is that smarting from the report’s effect, the Modi government went on the offensive against ABP saying it was deliberately airing a programme that was nothing but falsehood. Three Union ministers including the I&B minister, put out virtually identical tweets, putting a question mark on the channel’s credibility.
What was it if not pressure? It was clear to everybody. So when reporter Gyanendra Tiwari was sent to the spot again to file another report, the village presented a very different look. The police was ensconced there. Senior officials of the state government had been sent there to ensure that the reporter was not able to reach Chandramani Kaushik. Call it the reporter’s ingenuity or the lack of integrity and discipline among the police and the officials to remain in their posts till late but they left the village during the day itself. Before night fell, the villagers and the 12-woman SHG group including Chandramani Kaushik broke their silence about how much more wretched their conditions had become.
On July 9, following the telecast of this report, the ominous silence of the government was a clear indication that it would do something. That very night, one member of the channel monitoring team informed me over the phone that the latest report on Masterstroke had created an uproar in the government. The I&B minister has taken the ADG to task, asking him, as I was informed, “Did you not know that ABP would go ahead and air this report despite the ministerial tweets? … Had we known, we would have sent a notice beforehand so that they would have had to show us the programme before airing it.”
A warning, and then a mysterious interference with signals
This information was provided by a senior member of the monitoring team. I was constrained to ask him, doesn’t providing us this information put your job at risk? This is what he said: We are a team of 200, recruited by the Broadcast Engineering Corporation India Limited. We are kept on a six-monthly contract no matter how many years we have worked. There is no provision of leave. Those at the first level of monitoring get a salary of Rs 28,635, senior members get Rs 37,350 and those keeping an eye on the content get Rs 49, 500. How does it matter if one retains this job or not. The truth is, those who watch primetime content are asked to prepare a report on the duration for which the bulletin shows the prime minister, obviously in a good light. Those who show him for the longest duration are considered the best.
Almost chuckling, this gentleman told me, “A separate report is prepared on your Masterstroke. And after what you have shown in your report today [July 9], anything can happen. Be vigilant.” Saying this, he put the phone down. This set me thinking. We discussed what he said internally in the channel but no one had any inkling of the three-pronged offensive that would be mounted – an attack that would reduce democracy to a glassy eyed stare of disbelief, an attack in the name of democracy, on democracy.
As if on cue, on the following news night, ABP’s satellite link started misbehaving during primetime. The disturbance continued for an hour so that viewers would be prevented from watching Masterstroke and might switch to some other channel. Exactly at 10 pm, the satellite link would be restored.
On an average, there would be thirty or forty instances of disturbance in the satellite link. On the third day, a consensus emerged in the channel that the viewers should be informed of this development. On July 19, the channel started airing a message from morning itself: “In the last few days you must have noticed some disturbances in the signal during our primetime telecast. We are trying to locate the cause of this problem which has arisen all of a sudden, and are trying our utmost to fix it. We request you to be with us till then.”
This information was provided as an essential communication. But the message was taken off air two hours later. The decision was taken by the management. It was a dual pressure for the channel – of being subject to the pressure of having its primetime telecast disturbed and also to not let this information out to the world either. At the same time some advertisers withdrew their ads – the biggest advertiser who makes a great deal of fighting foreign brands and powers on the strength of his swadeshi brand to sell his products, vanished from the ABP screen in a trice.
If people are not able to watch your channel from 9 pm to 10 pm, it effectively means that you are not being watched precisely during the slot when there is maximum viewership. A decline in TRPs is a foregone conclusion. For the channels indulging in limpid praise of the government, this would come as a relief to know that as long as they go on like this their TRPs will remain unimpaired. For the people, the powers that be would have conveyed the message that ultimately, the Modi that people want to see is the Modi with an eternally successful mien. Also that people have no interest whatsoever in watching those who raise questions. Even the I&B minister knows the way the game is played. That is why his response in parliament did not fail to utter the mantra of TRP. As to why the channel’s TRP was climbing prior to the blackout, he maintained a prudent silence.
After my resignation, the storm suddenly passed
The conclusion of this long saga is no less interesting. The editor-in-chief who is also proprietor, or the management, stands before you with folded hands, asking you what should be done. In these circumstances, what can you do – go on leave perhaps, or resign. And miracle of miracles, the minute you put in your resignation, the Patanjali ads are back! Masterstoke sees an increase in ads as well. The 15-minute slot for ads, which had shrunk to a mere three minutes, swells up to 20 minutes. I resigned on August 2 and, hey presto, that very night the satellite link became stable.
While I was still employed with ABP, there was a day when journalists in parliament’s central hall were told that ABP would be taught a fitting lesson, and who did Punya Prasun think he was. Two days prior to that incident and a day after it, the BJP president had sternly instructed the people in charge of the BJP’s social media in Ranchi and Patna, “to not spare Punya Prasun” – to target him through the social media.
The same instructions were given to the people handling the BJP’s social media in Jaipur as well. But the problem the powers that be face is this –people may attach themselves to power either due to threats or the lure of money and power, but they are unable to mould themselves entirely in the image of the powerful. So from Ranchi, Patna and Jaipur, those managing the BJP’s social media handles kept informing me that I was in for some more torrid online assaults.
When the game of power is being played so openly, which editor’s guild is one expected to write to, which journalist’s organisation should one alert – to think in line with power is of no use, at least air your grievances, and then we shall fight. As if we are speaking not of the Editor’s Guild but an official secretariat, and those at its helm are not journalists but sarkari babus! In the end, my appeal to you is simply this: fine, don’t challenge the powers that be, but when confronted with a truth that is so clearly visible, at least don’t cover your eyes with a blindfold.
https://thewire.in/media/punya-prasun-bajpai-abp-news-narendra-modi
@VidaRed
My mother was told by New Indian Express not to mention Modi by name, and other edits were made to her columns.This month she was told to stop writing after an anti-Modi article, their explanation is that they want to revamp the op-ed page as a whole.
Another paper where she is friends with the (anti-Modi) editor, has also censored her stuff.
My mother was told by New Indian Express not to mention Modi by name, and other edits were made to her columns.This month she was told to stop writing after an anti-Modi article, their explanation is that they want to revamp the op-ed page as a whole.
Another paper where she is friends with the (anti-Modi) editor, has also censored her stuff.
Punya Prasun Bajpai Reveals the Story Behind His Exit From ABP News
On July 14, 2018, the proprietor-cum-editor-in-chief of the national news channel ABP, owned by the Ananda Bazaar Patrika Group, had a conversation with me along these lines:
Proprietor: “Can you refrain from mentioning the name of Prime Minister Modi [in your programme]? Mention the names of his ministers by all means; point out anything amiss in a government policy if you want to, even name the minister of the concerned ministry. Just don’t refer to Prime Minister Modi anywhere.”
I replied: But when Prime Minister Modi himself announces every government scheme, involves himself in the work of every ministry; and when every minister utters the name of Prime Minister Modi every time s/he mentions any scheme or government policy, how is it possible for us to not take Modi’s name?
Proprietor: I say, stop insisting. See for a few days how it plays out. As a matter of fact you are doing the right thing. But leave it be for the time being.
I had not anticipated that within 100 hours, a second diktat – that even the image of Modi should not appear on Masterstroke – would come my way. But come it did.
This time, the discussion with the proprietor started with the query: “Has the government of the day come to mean just Modi? Is it possible to prepare a report without showing Prime Minister Modi’s image?”
I responded with a question of my own – in four years the Modi government has announced 106 schemes. Coincidentally, the announcement of every scheme has been made by the prime minister himself. The onus for publicizing every scheme may well rest on the concerned ministry and minister, but it is the name of Prime Minister Modi which dominates the publicity of every initiative. So even if an on-ground news report does not refer to the prime minister in the context of the scheme’s success or failure, those affected by it will, and constantly do, utter the name of Modi – be it a farmer or a pregnant woman, jobless youth or trader.
The only answer I got was this – Whatever it may be, but Prime Minister Modi’s image should also not appear on Masterstroke.
Dilemma of a Modi-centric media
As the narrative about the country progressing towards “achche din” unfolded, it became an addiction for the news channels as well. To ensure that this ‘high’ did not wear off, the Modi government created a 200-member monitoring team which duly functioned under the additional director general of the ministry, who reported directly to the minister concerned.
The 200-member monitoring team functioned at three levels: 150 members were involved only in monitoring the channels; 25 members gave it the shape the government wanted; and the remaining 25 reviewed the final content. Based on this report, three officials of deputy secretary rank would prepare the report to be sent to the I&B minister, through whom the officials at the PMO would get activated and send their directives to the editors of the news channels about what was to be done and how.
If an editor spoke about running a channel solely according to what was newsworthy, then the officials at the ministry or the PMO would communicate with the concerned proprietor. To keep the pressure intact, they would send a file with the monitoring report, detailing how Prime Minister Modi’s statements, ranging from his election promises of 2014 to his claims on demonetisation, surgical strikes or GST could be shown again. Or how, in a report on an ongoing scheme, the prime minister’s old claims could be included. In fact, a dozen or so officials from the I&B ministry and the PMO work at the first level to ensure that the narrative of the Modi government’s successes is showcased in every manner possible. This is followed by the advice of the I&B minister, which is more of an order and, at the third level, there is the tone of the BJP with its many modulations.
Boycotts by BJP, RSS spokespersons
Say, a channel does not confine itself to showing the Modi regime in a positive light at all times but occasionally includes stories with a negative tone or, on the basis of facts, shows the Modi government’s truth to be a lie. Immediately, BJP spokespersons are told to stop appearing on those channels; that is, they do not participate in any political discussion conducted by that channel. This started happening on ABP News from the last week of June this year – BJP spokespersons stopped appearing on its debates. A few days later, BJP leaders stopped giving bytes to the channel. The day the truth of the Prime Minister’s ‘Mann ki Baat’ was outed on Masterstroke, RSS ideologues too were told to stay off the channel.
Before absorbing the stark truth of Mann ki Baat and the events which followed, it is important to realise the extent to which the BJP’s parent organisation, the RSS, has become dependent on the Modi government. This was borne out on July 9, 2018, when in the midst of a 4 pm discussion on ABP, a professor taking part in the programme in his capacity as an RSS ideologue received a phone call telling him to leave the studio immediately. And the gentleman in question stood up and simply walked away from the programme that was being broadcast live. The moment he received the phone call, the expression on his face seemed to suggest that he had been caught committing a grievous offence – you could say it was the face of a frightened man.
Part II: Moving in for the kill
It was with a great deal of cleverness that the ruling BJP took two steps to increase its pressure on the news channel: the first was a boycott of the channel, and the second was to target ABP’s annual public event, which is as much a matter of prestige as of revenue through advertisements – marked by the presence of those in power as well as in the opposition, with politicians responding to the questions put forth by the people. This time, both the BJP and the Modi government declined to attend the programme – which meant no ministers at the meet. And when those in power are conspicuous by their absence, how can a programme be organised with just the presence of the opposition?
The message, sharp and clear, to every news channel was this: go against us and your business will suffer. In a way, without wanting to, the Modi government gave a clear signal that power is a business in itself, one that channels will find it difficult to run without. To rein in ABP and to ensure that other channels did not stop their praises of the Modi government and start reporting from ground zero, the government embarked on an ambitious plan – to throttle democracy in the guise of being its biggest friend. This, in the ‘world’s largest democracy’.
During the time of the Emergency, it was quite clear to the media that they had no recourse to their constitutional rights. But in today’s India’s, raga democracy is being sung at the highest octave.
On June 20, Prime Minister Modi spoke to farmer beneficiaries of his various schemes through a video conference link. Right in front was Chandramani Kaushik from village Kanhari in Kanker district (Chhattisgarh). When the prime minister asked her about her income, she simply narrated how her income had doubled. The prime minister was happy to hear the bit about income doubling. He started beaming for the simple reason that he has kept 2022 as the year when the incomes of farmers shall be doubled. So on a programme that is live, if a farmer happens to talk about her income doubling, it is bound to warm the cockles of the prime minister’s heart.
Fourteen days later, on July 6 when the report was aired, we revealed how the woman in question had been coached by officials from Delhi about what she was required to say to the prime minister and how she must say the bit about the doubling of income. In one blow, the report created a furore in Chhattisgarh, with many saying that the woman had been coached with an eye on elections [the state goes to polls in five months].
The report gave rise to three questions: do officials do all this to keep the prime minister happy? Are people coached to lie because the prime minister wants to hear nothing but his praise? Do election victories hinge only on the publicity and propaganda machine? Whatever it may be, but the fact is that smarting from the report’s effect, the Modi government went on the offensive against ABP saying it was deliberately airing a programme that was nothing but falsehood. Three Union ministers including the I&B minister, put out virtually identical tweets, putting a question mark on the channel’s credibility.
What was it if not pressure? It was clear to everybody. So when reporter Gyanendra Tiwari was sent to the spot again to file another report, the village presented a very different look. The police was ensconced there. Senior officials of the state government had been sent there to ensure that the reporter was not able to reach Chandramani Kaushik. Call it the reporter’s ingenuity or the lack of integrity and discipline among the police and the officials to remain in their posts till late but they left the village during the day itself. Before night fell, the villagers and the 12-woman SHG group including Chandramani Kaushik broke their silence about how much more wretched their conditions had become.
On July 9, following the telecast of this report, the ominous silence of the government was a clear indication that it would do something. That very night, one member of the channel monitoring team informed me over the phone that the latest report on Masterstroke had created an uproar in the government. The I&B minister has taken the ADG to task, asking him, as I was informed, “Did you not know that ABP would go ahead and air this report despite the ministerial tweets? … Had we known, we would have sent a notice beforehand so that they would have had to show us the programme before airing it.”
A warning, and then a mysterious interference with signals
This information was provided by a senior member of the monitoring team. I was constrained to ask him, doesn’t providing us this information put your job at risk? This is what he said: We are a team of 200, recruited by the Broadcast Engineering Corporation India Limited. We are kept on a six-monthly contract no matter how many years we have worked. There is no provision of leave. Those at the first level of monitoring get a salary of Rs 28,635, senior members get Rs 37,350 and those keeping an eye on the content get Rs 49, 500. How does it matter if one retains this job or not. The truth is, those who watch primetime content are asked to prepare a report on the duration for which the bulletin shows the prime minister, obviously in a good light. Those who show him for the longest duration are considered the best.
Almost chuckling, this gentleman told me, “A separate report is prepared on your Masterstroke. And after what you have shown in your report today [July 9], anything can happen. Be vigilant.” Saying this, he put the phone down. This set me thinking. We discussed what he said internally in the channel but no one had any inkling of the three-pronged offensive that would be mounted – an attack that would reduce democracy to a glassy eyed stare of disbelief, an attack in the name of democracy, on democracy.
As if on cue, on the following news night, ABP’s satellite link started misbehaving during primetime. The disturbance continued for an hour so that viewers would be prevented from watching Masterstroke and might switch to some other channel. Exactly at 10 pm, the satellite link would be restored.
On an average, there would be thirty or forty instances of disturbance in the satellite link. On the third day, a consensus emerged in the channel that the viewers should be informed of this development. On July 19, the channel started airing a message from morning itself: “In the last few days you must have noticed some disturbances in the signal during our primetime telecast. We are trying to locate the cause of this problem which has arisen all of a sudden, and are trying our utmost to fix it. We request you to be with us till then.”
This information was provided as an essential communication. But the message was taken off air two hours later. The decision was taken by the management. It was a dual pressure for the channel – of being subject to the pressure of having its primetime telecast disturbed and also to not let this information out to the world either. At the same time some advertisers withdrew their ads – the biggest advertiser who makes a great deal of fighting foreign brands and powers on the strength of his swadeshi brand to sell his products, vanished from the ABP screen in a trice.
If people are not able to watch your channel from 9 pm to 10 pm, it effectively means that you are not being watched precisely during the slot when there is maximum viewership. A decline in TRPs is a foregone conclusion. For the channels indulging in limpid praise of the government, this would come as a relief to know that as long as they go on like this their TRPs will remain unimpaired. For the people, the powers that be would have conveyed the message that ultimately, the Modi that people want to see is the Modi with an eternally successful mien. Also that people have no interest whatsoever in watching those who raise questions. Even the I&B minister knows the way the game is played. That is why his response in parliament did not fail to utter the mantra of TRP. As to why the channel’s TRP was climbing prior to the blackout, he maintained a prudent silence.
After my resignation, the storm suddenly passed
The conclusion of this long saga is no less interesting. The editor-in-chief who is also proprietor, or the management, stands before you with folded hands, asking you what should be done. In these circumstances, what can you do – go on leave perhaps, or resign. And miracle of miracles, the minute you put in your resignation, the Patanjali ads are back! Masterstoke sees an increase in ads as well. The 15-minute slot for ads, which had shrunk to a mere three minutes, swells up to 20 minutes. I resigned on August 2 and, hey presto, that very night the satellite link became stable.
While I was still employed with ABP, there was a day when journalists in parliament’s central hall were told that ABP would be taught a fitting lesson, and who did Punya Prasun think he was. Two days prior to that incident and a day after it, the BJP president had sternly instructed the people in charge of the BJP’s social media in Ranchi and Patna, “to not spare Punya Prasun” – to target him through the social media.
The same instructions were given to the people handling the BJP’s social media in Jaipur as well. But the problem the powers that be face is this –people may attach themselves to power either due to threats or the lure of money and power, but they are unable to mould themselves entirely in the image of the powerful. So from Ranchi, Patna and Jaipur, those managing the BJP’s social media handles kept informing me that I was in for some more torrid online assaults.
When the game of power is being played so openly, which editor’s guild is one expected to write to, which journalist’s organisation should one alert – to think in line with power is of no use, at least air your grievances, and then we shall fight. As if we are speaking not of the Editor’s Guild but an official secretariat, and those at its helm are not journalists but sarkari babus! In the end, my appeal to you is simply this: fine, don’t challenge the powers that be, but when confronted with a truth that is so clearly visible, at least don’t cover your eyes with a blindfold.
https://thewire.in/media/punya-prasun-bajpai-abp-news-narendra-modi
The forth estate is nothing more than another property bought with black money.
Has your mother tried to push back at the requests?
For NIE, she had been told beforehand not to mention his name, whenever she would include a few direct or indirect references, the sub-editor would remove them.
And I just spoke to her to confirm (didn't want to say anything fake) - the paper where the editor is her friend, the ban is on Modi and later it seems Yogi was added. The sub-editor took out a reference to Yogi and replaced it with "communal CMs", and the editor backed the sub when she asked about it.
Online-only outlets are much more open, but her most recent thing had a reference to Modi fully removed. The whole article is very critical of Amit Shah but he isn't on this list apparently. It's strange.
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I hope so berba. Those IT cells are scary bro
That's likely because BJP and the population in general don't see Shah becoming the next PM. What has worked for Modi is his image that he isn't corruptible and since he has no family members, he won't do such stuff. Ditto would go for Yogi as well. However, when it comes to Shah, a considerable chunk of the Bhakt population would be uncomfortable because you can't raise these arguments in his favour.
Additionally, they need a few articles critical of BJP because they need to maintain the image that they are 'neutral', something Rahul Kanwal has been doing really well in the past few years.
The same logic should apply to didi, amma and bhenji aswell then. Even rahul is unmarried.
I dont know about others but modi without children is scarier to me because he wont give a flying feck what happens to the country and the next generation down the line as long as he's fulfilled his short term electoral objectives.
Its the same with the judiciary. Thats why you see courts* bashing delhi and maharastra govts for mishandling the pandemic while remaining mute for other states. *The senior judges daughter is married to a lawyer who works with the top lawyer of the govt (
).No one ever brings up Mamata Bannerjee and Mayawati as a national leader plus in case of Mayawati, she doesn't have a clean image thanks to those statues of elephants they built in Lucknow.
As far as RaGa is concerned, his image isn't clean, thanks to cases on him and his brother in law.
Bro, if any of you Indians backed didi for national leader I'd probably shoot you. And I'm a Bengali who always backs bengalis
Image is what the media wants it to be. Im not saying didi and bhenji are viable options, im saying just because one doesn't have family doesn't mean one cant be corrupt and bhenji, amma are prime examples of that. I think modi spent more on statues than mayawati and now he's spending 20,000 crores on redeveloping the central vista when clearly in todays world that luxury for the babus can be postponed until things settle down economically. No one is clean here, not even modi. Modi just has most of the media in his pocket so his image is maintained while others are exposed by the very same media.
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Awful news, first lives lost since 1962?
Surprised there's no talks of "proportionate response" etc. I guess that's reserved for the western neighbour. Bizarrely the talk is still of deescalation.
At least this time there's no denial.
Surprised there's no talks of "proportionate response" etc. I guess that's reserved for the western neighbour. Bizarrely the talk is still of deescalation.
At least this time there's no denial.
Spin has already started
Yeah they just do whatever their bosses from Nagpur tell them to do.
@Rick88 interested to know your inputs.
Army was supposed to hold a presser, now it's called off. Won't be surprised if there was an intervention from govt. Cowards they are.
And that news portal is quoting a well known fake news peddler, who by the way, is also saying our soldiers fell to their death...
High time leaders from both the countries address and de-escalate the issue.
They will try to spin it, of course. What a shame.
Galwan valley where soldiers were killed last night is an undisputed Indian territory. Border is clearly defined there and there's no so callled 'perception' like other areas of LAC.
China has annexed the territory and killed our soldiers and yet you want us to de-escalate?
China is officially an enemy state now...
War is not a solution and never will be. This is not about acting all giddy by counting who killed more. Talks need to happen and things should be straightened up. De-escalation is the wise option for both sides.