Modi and media: Critic is your best friend?
LAST week I took part in an Editors' Concl-ave with students of the Statesman Print Journalism School (SPJS) at the idyllic Vedic Village resort, 12 kilometers north off Kolkata. This was courtesy Ravindra Kumar, editor, The Statesman and C. R. Irani Foundation in association with Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, Germany. The event marked a confluence of senior Indian journalists/commentators and those from the region and beyond intensely debating over Modi, media and India under a soothing tapestry of eco-tourism.
I crave the readers' indulgence in sharing with them some of the messages and insights from that meeting of minds, so to speak.
I have to be selective with the messages, first, so as not to sound like a reportage; and second, in consideration of space constraints.
Mr. Krishnan Srinivasan, former foreign secretary of India, gave his keynote address that was full of insights and wit. In a nutshell, he made five points: The West first saw Modi through the eyes of Pankaj Mishra, Amartya Sen and Salman Rushdie whom he called 'storm-troopers.' Srinivasan, however, quotes Amartya Sen to say that secularism is too deep in the Indian DNA to be unsettled by any change in the political landscape. Second, with 44 Congress MPs in Lok Sabha and the smaller groups punching well above their weight, opposition is too fragile in the parliament to make itself felt. Barring Nana Patnaik in Odisha, no state leader can present any opposition to the BJP. So Srinivasan argues that the upshot of all these is that the media has to play the opposition's role. This smacks of dangers of 'hubris' on the media side and 'vindictiveness' of the ruling party. Third, Modi, 64, who acts like 44, represents the age median of India. Fourth, former Indian foreign secretary thinks India understands China; but not Pakistan, which has an existential issue with India.
Last but not least, Modi is expected to bring a qualitative change in engagement with Bhutan, Nepal, Myanmar and Bangladesh. The first three next-door-neighbours he has already visited. Bangladesh is perhaps his next port of call. He is supposed to visit Dhaka with the LBA, signed, sealed and delivered, coinciding with Bangladesh's Victory Day on December 16.
Raj Kamal Jha, Editor in Chief, Indian Express, made a brilliant presentation. He spoke of two social forces that crafted the Modi landslide. A huge number of young people have come onto the scene in 2014. In 2002, margin in 230 seats out of 543 between the winner and loser was 44,000 votes. In 2014, 90,000 became first time voters. He or she was six-years old when Gujarat happened; they were not even born when Babri mosque was destroyed.
Poll after poll Modi won. Thereby he rubbed the media's nose saying that 'It does not matter what you say, but what matters is that I win.'
The 90,000 new voters do not respect history and they should not, remarks Jha with self-effacing introspection. Quoting Friedman he says: “The weight of memory is lighter than the weight of dreams.” The young are eager for jobs and Modi said he would fix the despair. They looked for quick solutions like they embraced Modi's quick communicative style.
This to Jha was “a complete baseline shift” in the Indian electoral scene.
The second social force is the social media itself. Modi has 24 million Facebook followers and another 8 million follow him on the Twitter. It is a matter of simple arithmetic as to how impactful his outreach is when the number is 10 times the circulation figure of The Times of India.
Now that the election is over, Modi's communicative outreach will be tested on the hard ground of performance and delivery on expectations.
When the new government is connecting directly with the masses with the caveat that other parties might try the same route, basically, media's role is cut out. 'It has to go beyond the known parameters, cultivate sources and meet people whose stories are untold.'
Ajoy Bose, a senior journalist and commentator stated: “The relationship between governments and media is supposed to be adversarial. Such relationship facilitates journalists to be critical about government policies and pay more attention to their sources.” Raj Kamal Jha is more emphatic, says he: “Good journalism basically needs to be adversarial.”
The brownie point is social media is individual based -- it cannot be a substitute for the established institution like the free but responsible press.
Raj Kamal Jha concluded on a note of rebalancing of institutions -- judiciary, executive, legislative and election commission -- to fit into the changed political scenario where checks and balances in the system may come under hitherto unknown stresses.
The writer is Associate Editor, The Daily Star.
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