In watershed 2014 polls, the results transformed Indian polity where the country woke up to a simple majority govt after decades of coalition based landscape. The country had come a long way since 1991 when license raj was dismantled and opening of economy was ushered. Politics running in parallel failed to register the same momentum and a fragmented mantle of politics ensued for years. However, media bound to the state in form of a subtle mouth piecing instrument called the Doodarshan undergone radical shift and private players and 24 hours news channels propped up.
Although mainstream media came into its existence, rather than being independent somewhere the cahoots with the establishment continued. NDTV became the monopolized entity of expression and journalism was reshaped into a brand. So with advent of time as new players chipped, NDTV became the face of power Lutyens and Rajdeep Sardesai and Barkha Dutt became huge media liability. With Arnab Goswami and other players, NDTV literally seemed like a new age mouth piece which was leftist, biased and anti right. 2014 happened and the media seems to be in the midst of a bigger tectonic shift. Rajdeep was the first casualty as he had to leave CNN IBN. Arnab Goswami created flutters with his quitting Times Now which he capitulated into a success and sweeping TRP domination. Although murmurs were in the offing he left as his bosses were a bit perturbed over his alleged slight swing to the govt of the day, he is on the verge of giving birth to another anticipated news channel in coming days.
The biggest shocker however was Barkha Dutt who now has said good bye to NDTV which sent grapevine bubbling with what would be her next move.
Although she has emphasized it on her tweet, possibilities run amok in parallel rumour galaxy. Although embarking on something new made her take this decision, its undoubtedly a fact that NDTV has run out of steam. Harbouring a bias perhaps is indispensable even if journalism is touted to be an independent free thinking body.
Al Jazeera is impeccable in its coverage nevertheless a slight tilt towards the Palestinian cause is visible. When it comes to NDTV, the coverage breaks laurels of adhering to the Congress and seemingly portrays itself as anti right. The face of this adopted attire by the NDTV was Barkha Dutt whose ground-breaking stories on the Kargil conflict were over shadowed by her over the top vilification campaigns of Gujarat 2002.
Although much of the English media of the day was a party to much of the propagandized purview, Barkha Dutt like the way Mamata Banarjee is piloting for demonetisation, steered the course and set the debates over the riots. Nobody is questioning the rights to ask questions but the seemingly hounding and targeting of a specific subset of politicians and imbibing a blind eye for similar incidences made her more sort of a public relations manager for a specific class of power players.
On the contrary, Radia tapes just proved the above and highlighted role of a compromised media barons making deals to get ministers on certain portfolios with big business too in the picture. Radia tapes were multilateral with tentacles invading every given sector in the form of corporate, politics and media. Her vocal opposition and hyper ventilation on communal issues have met with a studded silence when it is about her role in the tapes that had connections with the 2G scam and other dubious aspects of the UPA.
Her appeasement and pseudo secularism is well evident with the topics she covered which was pretty evident in her ‘We the people’ becoming hugely popular. The show became an Oprah Winfrey clone for bashing the right and even if some issues were good the glaring effect of the sides taken through the show could not have been so prominent.
I, as a writer for The frustrated Indian having felt the charges of being a right wing mouthpiece made by many seem to be in a deep slumber when channels like NDTV exhibit extreme bias. As a matter of fact, TFI espouses itself as a right wing platform and so naturally will cater to that side of the spectrum. NDTV proclaims itself as independent yet takes sides which is more questionable and Barkha Dutt was a poster girl for the same. As her decade old association with the NDTV comes to an end, the new found re-structuring in the world of media has taken a new direction. Arnab is ready with Republic, but more than which venture she joins or initiates her own, what stance she inculcates as a media person in future is something we need to wait and watch.