Chronicle Of A ‘Death’ Foretold

Nalini Taneja

THAT corporate owned media reflect the interests of the ruling classes is a truism that hardly needs repeating. After taking the striking workers and Left politicians to task for the September 29 strike, and exhorting the citizenry to rise against the culture of strikes and the ‘short-sighted’ demands of workers’ rights, the crusaders moved on to Betul, Madhya Pradesh, in their relentless pursuit of ‘national’ interest.

SENSATIONALISING PAR EXCELLENCE

The same media devoted hours of live coverage to a self-styled astrologer who claimed that he was going to die between 3 and 5 p m on October 19. It may sound incredible but, from 3 p m onward on the appointed day, TV news channels Star News, Aaj Tak and Sahara, who took this man, Kunji Lal, at his word, collected at his village Betul, to give a live commentary on ‘his encounter with death.’ They remained with him even as he rose up and said that he would not die after all due to “the good wishes of friends and well wishers like them”! Nay, he could now not predict when he would die because it all depends on the good wishes for him! Sahara TV then reported that he “suddenly rose one hour early from his certain death” (emphasis ours; detailed report in The Indian Express, October 20, 2005).

That they were not present there to expose his hoax, as they later tried to claim, is obvious from the kind of headlines given by them: “Aaj meri maut hai” (today is my death, in Star News); “aaj maroonga” (I will die today, in Aaj Tak). They held studio discussions simultaneously. On Aaj Tak, an astrologer was brought in to say that “death can of course be accurately predicted.” A rationalist was called in to give credibility to the discussions but was outnumbered and followed by other astrologers who said he had “no business criticising astrology.” Finally a ‘referee’ gave his verdict that no doubt there was a lot of superstition in this country, but “astrology is a very deep science.”  Star News and Sahara also held these learned discussions, with Star’s sympathies clearly on the side of astrology.

In the meanwhile the visuals kept reverting to the drama at Betul with people celebrating with dance and dholaks. Authenticity was sought to be brought in through the visuals of the ‘dying’ man being checked and monitored by doctors, with the TV anchors dutifully and seriously reporting that “doctors say he is fit” and that there is still some time left. And so it went on till 5 p m, the ‘predicted’ time of death, after which came the turn of the family to hold forth on the screen and express their tension and relief at the averted certain death of the man.

PROMOTING PAROCHIALISM

This entire episode was no doubt to beat the sensation created by some other channels earlier which beamed a similar episode involving a man. The latter had lost consciousness for some hours and was picked up and asked to describe “his travel to the other world and back.” The questions asked were: What was the sawari (mode of transport)” Was there darkness or white shiny light? Did he feel light or heavy? And so forth.

These are of course extreme examples. But there are any number of advertisements and programmes promoting backward and discriminatory views on women, not to speak of the casteist and anti-minority biases. Quite a few channels are devoted, round the clock, to religion and religious discourses, which bring in considerable advertisement revenue or rent from the sale of time-slots. They espouse all kinds of superstitious beliefs, and in the bargain put across forcefully the idea of each man having his place designated in society by birth. They promote sadhus and so called holy men, and carry long discourses by them in which the political agenda and claims of Hindutva with regard to Indian history and culture are clearly inherent. Other channels too give live and detailed coverage to religious festivals and kumbhs, with all the attendant mythology, as if they were major representations of Indian culture. Hinduism is further encapsulated within brahminical practices.

Needless to say, all this is free promotion of an ethos that favours religious fundamentalism and parochialism, and can benefit only the ruling classes, and the interests of the Sangh Parivar in electoral terms.

But it is important to realise that the ruling Congress is completely comfortable with this; which brings us to the questions of state control and privatisation of media.

MEDIA’S RECORD AT VARIOUS TIMES

The erosion of the monopoly of the state owned Doordarshan, promoted, worked for and achieved by the relentless campaigns by the intelligentsia and opposition political forces propelled by the fight against the Emergency, has not resulted in the democratisation of the visual media. Nor has the proliferation of state level newspapers in different languages. We have more of the same thing, rather than a variety to read and watch. Looked at from the point of view of the democratic forces, the record of the private media has been no better than that of Doordarshan. If anything, it has been worse.

During the entire crisis related to the Babri masjid demolition, the Indian press, barring one or two exceptions, came in for severe criticism by committees appointed by the Press Council and by various citizens’ groups during those years. The uncritical descriptions and often the promotion of Advani’s rath yatra in 1990 is well remembered for having fanned communal fires. The “Ganesh drinking milk” hysteria is another example. Even the latest bomb blasts in Delhi are being projected as somehow an affront against the people’s will to celebrate Diwali. As if their purpose was not horrendously political, but against the religion of the Hindus, and as if they have not dampened the spirits of Muslims as well, this being the month of Ramzan and with Eid following just two days after Diwali. If one takes into account that those being questioned and whose affairs during those days must be under scrutiny include a lot of Muslims, it is more than strange that the media can only see the whole issue in the context of Diwali.

The anti-dalit bias is more complex. Atrocities are reported, but one has to watch the visuals and reporting on subsequent days to actually realise how these atrocities are reduced to a drop in the ocean of news stories in the follow-up. These are finally not just forgotten; the viewpoint of the perpetrators somehow becomes dominant. On most questions of violence and discrimination against women, most stories are woven in such a way that the local people and specific communities are shown in a negative light. These do not appear as parts of a the larger structure of social barbarism, while the state and administration allow the oppression to continue with impunity.

All such stories, presented in a particular manner in the print and visual media, add up to determining people’s attitudes in ways that strengthen prejudice rather than critical enquiry, conformity rather than dissent, conservatism rather than a forward looking mental make-up, parochialism rather than a scientific temper.

CONSUMERISM CUM COMMUNALISM

The fictional serials affect minds in a more subtle fashion. In the name of family sagas and Indian ‘socials,’ consumerism is being deeply embedded within ‘tradition.’ A certain value is being attached to ‘tradition’ within the family set-up; not to speak of the manner in which a new ‘tradition’ is being constructed before our very eyes, literally, on the television as much as in our neighbourhood shops. Navratras, Karva Chauth, Diwali on TV screens, Rakhi as an all-India festival, the vogue of new friendship bands linked with Rakhi, Dussehra as the only festival depicting the fight between good and evil, Mother’s Day as part of respect for the Indian family tradition, Teacher’s Day as linked with guru dakshina etc find their expression and promotion as much in the media as in markets and five star hotels. In all this the private media is leading rather than following the state owned media.

A big fillip this activity got from the mid-1980s which marked the beginning of the heady mix of globalisation and religious fundamentalism, with its attendant growth of irrationalism and identity politics on the subcontinent as much as on a world scale. In India, the ground for it was laid down with the well organised infiltration of pro-RSS elements into media set-ups during the tenure of L K Advani as minister of information and broadcasting after the Emergency, and in the 1980s. Then came a big advance during the BJP led regimes in the 1990s. The new government has been able to do little on this score.

The debate on state vs private media can be resolved only if there is democratisation of media and creation of structures of public control that the ruling classes and right wing forces may not manipulate. Something can surely be done about the flagrant violations of constitutional principles by the media. The ‘death’ foretold type depictions on visual media certainly call for intervention by the government committed if it is programme to secularism and democracy.