Indian media is well known for sensationalising issues. To attract more eyeballs, media organisations exaggerate everything and make sensational headlines. The print medium is relatively better but few websites and almost all the television channels are more of Ekta Kapoor serials than platforms for sensible coverage and informative reporting. The left-liberal media establishment collaborates with the opposition, mainly Congress which has nurtured and nourished it since the days of state monopoly over media, and spreads ruckus. The state monopoly over media ended in last the few decades but the subservience of left-liberal media to Congress remains the same. The people in the media still pursue fear and rumour-mongering on the direction of their political masters.
A few weeks back, rupee made southward trend due to many global factors including the rise in oil prices and trade war between major economies. The rise in oil prices has badly impacted the positive sentiment in major Asian economies like China, South Korea, and India. These nations heavily depend on oil imports and thus, the economies of these countries saw a decline. In the light of rising oil prices, the foreign investors from capital rich western economies pulled out money from Asian countries in fear of dwindling public finances and invested in American markets which pushed the dollar northwards. Therefore, it is pretty clear that the reason behind falling rupee was primarily global and the currencies of other economies of Asia also fell, and in most of the cases, more than the Rupee. But Congress tried to reap political benefits out of it and called for ‘Bharat Band’.
The left-liberal media establishment assisted the opposition in spreading fear about rupee as well as overall health of the domestic economy. The fall in the value of the rupee was primarily driven by sentiments and fear factor rather than weak macroeconomic fundamentals. Once the fear of trade-war was gone after positive developments between the Chinese and American government, the oil prices started to fall and the rupee strengthened. However, once the condition of rupee improved, none of the mainstream media organisation bothered to report this.
The rupee has strengthened against the dollar in last few days and the price of crude oil has moved southward in global markets. The falling prices of crude oil have brought the global investors back to Asian economies and this comes in the backdrop of efforts made by the Modi government.
Modi government signed a USD 75 billion ‘currency swap agreement’ with Japan which helped in bringing rupee back on track. India’s currency swap agreement worth USD 75 billion will address the rise in Current Account Deficit (CAD) and fall in Rupee’s value from time to time. But the left-liberal media establishment neither appreciated the government’s effort to improve the condition of rupee nor reported about the appreciated value of rupee. The disdain of Lutyens’ media towards Modi government is very much visible from the overall reporting on the rupee issue. The short-sighted and ideologically polarised anchors and journalists in English media reported the fall of rupee in a way as if the macroeconomic conditions of the country had become worse and the country was on the verge of becoming a defaulter in the international payments system. Indian media exaggerates every issue and the TV shows lack mature content. The Prime Time shows on TV give a sense that the world will fall apart on just the other day. The media needs to behave more responsibly and should have the national interest in the top of their priority list.