AIFON

The recent developments in Delhi and more so in the media channels indicate that the JNU student union president Mr Kanhaiha Kumar has become a political leader over night because of his arrest and release on bail. Even established leaders like Mr Sitaram Yechury are impressed by the potential of this 29 year old student of JNU “Since 2002” and has declared that he would campaign for CPM in the West Bengal elections. Obviously, without passing exams, Mr Kanhaiya has landed a good job to build his career.

While one can appreciate the skill of Mr Kanhaiya in making the best out of the circumstances, the media houses need to maintain a balance when they interview him and speak as if he is an authority on various issues in the country.

Mr Rajdeep Sardesai who interviewed him for India Today and Mr Bhupendra Chubey who interviewed him for CNN IBN have not been questioning him on what has be been doing since 2002 in the JNU and what is the progress he has achieved as a “Research Scholar”.

The attitude of the media to give credibility to a person who has failed to do his duty as a “Student” and is indulging in political activities within JNU premises needs to be questioned.

Will the news anchors clarify why they should not analyze the reasons why both in JNU and FTII, it was the middle aged students who remained in the institute for years after they were supposed to have passed out who were the cause of the agitations and causing trouble?

Also will the news anchors  question the teachers who are indulging in political demonstrations which should be against their service rules?

AIFON

Free Media is considered an important pillar of Democracy. Ever since India faced the Emergency in 1975 when publications like Indian Express protested the Censorship through blank editorials where publications like Times of India went along with the Government, the differential approach of different media houses has come to the knowledge of discerning public.

But with the passage of time, the  commercialization and politicization of media houses has been on the increase. Even the loyalty of media to political ideologies have also changed significantly during the last few decades since emergency.

Indian Express is today no longer the beacon of virtue. HINDU is mostly pursuing anti-Hindu agenda. Times of India is more commercial than ever before. The role of the TV media has grown so much that today, print media has become irrelevant when it comes to shaping public opinion. On the TV, South Indian observers are exposed mainly to the  top five English News channels namely NDTV, TIMES NOW, CNN-IBN, India Today and News X. The viewership of regional news channels is fragmented and cater only to regional aspirations. Their role in National scene is more as a follower of other English channels.

Each of these channels have their own issues on conflicts of interest with owners and anchors affiliated to different political parties and leaders.

As a result, it has become necessary for public to assimilate any news published in these channels with a huge pinch of salt. It would not be in appropriate to tag each channel and the anchor with a political ideology and interpret the news accordingly.

This forum which was active from time to time would like to express its views on various issues that are in debate at a point of time.

As a matter of disclosure, the undersigned is having a bias  towards BJP ideology because no other political party appears to deserve support for one reason or the other. Individually the author has been pro-Indira Gandhi at one time, anti-Indira Gandhi later, Pro-Rajiv Gandhi, anti V.P.Singh and neutral to most others, until the current breed of Congress politicians emerged with people like Mani Shankar Iyer and Digvijay Singh as spokes persons and Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi at the helm.

However, this forum will actively comment on the media in the coming days only with a view to expose their double speak and bias. The objective is to bring back the relevance of media as a pillar of democracy rather than as a mouth piece of various political parties.

I hope the media anchors introspect on where their credibility is heading for and why the yesterday’s leader like NDTV is today languishing behind while some of the new entrants are gaining respect and TRP.

At the time of this writing, India was ranked 136 out of 180 nations worldwide in terms of press freedom in 2015.  In terms of Ranking of English News Channels, Times Now is leading the pack followed by NDTV, India Today, and CNNIBN in that order. We shall watch the changes in TRP and how they may be linked with the coverage which we may like or dislike.

I look forward to the support of public in contributing their views in such a manner that this AIFON.ORG.IN will emerge as a media watch dog which can help viewers of different TV channels from being deliberately mislead by the anchors more loyal to their vested interests than even the country.

Naavi

Now that the 2014 Loksabha elections are behind us, BJP has to now focus on how it will look at the future electoral strategies.

In the next elections, will it be possible to retain  283 seats even if the Government functions well? We can hope it does. But if it again requires 71 of 80 UP seats again, it is necessary to consider the difficulty particularly if there is a resurgence of BSP.

As a contingency plan it is necessary for BJP to try and increase its share in states such as West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Orissa. In particular, it is necessary to ensure that BJP gets a substantial foothold in West Bengal and TN since otherwise the “Third Front” threat will re-surface.

I hope BJP puts Mr Amit Shah in charge of these two states to set up party infrastructure before the next assembly elections in each of these two states and fight it all alone if required.

Naavi