The rise of a nationalist government and a pro-India leader in Narendra Damodardas Modi in 2014 signalled a change in the aspirations of the people of India. The hegemony of the left-liberal ideology that was entwined with the corruption of successive UPA governments was busted and the NDA was given the diktat by the ‘people’ to hold the reins. Soon after, close aides of the Congress government across the Journalism drawing board coalesced and formed alternative left-wing media portals. Their sole purpose was to develop concerted hate campaigns against Prime Minister Modi.
Siddharth Vardarajan, Raghav Behl, Shekhar Gupta and numerous others that subscribed to the left-wing ideology and received ethereal benefits under the UPA regime formed their independent yet subservient portals — an oxymoron, that is to say. While Scroll was the pioneer in the left-liberal media outlets, The Wire, The Quint and The Print jumped on the bandwagon as well.
Remember the entire ‘intolerance ‘controversy immediately after PM Modi assumed the chair – it was the first of the many elaborate campaigns to come in the later years to target the NDA government. Right from the ‘Award vapasi’ brigade to Bollywood celebs feeling threatened in the country, the left-wing portals milked the issue greatly. But this was not it, they brazenly propagated an anti-hindu line and undermined the Indian army and India’s position in Jammu and Kashmir.
Another thing that both left-wing and the purported mainstream media have engaged in is manipulative and selective reporting of hate crimes. Almost like a raging storm, the left-media singled out Hindus and turned them into the perpetrators of hate crimes against minorities, with the focus being on Muslims. All of a sudden, there were ‘mob-lynchings’ being alleged all over the country with Hindus being the perpetrators and Muslims always the victims. Many of these alleged crimes turned out to be false or half-baked stories. Meanwhile, hate crimes committed by members of the Muslim community on Hindus have been downplayed and continue to be brushed under the carpet.
However, at the same time, few portals, that were on the opposite end of the political spectrum from the aforementioned channels, started to mushroom as well. Opindia and Tfipost were born while Swarajya took on a new identity in the digital realm of India in a post-Jio world.
Thus the counterbalance that was missing in the media scene of the country was discovered. Opindia, since then, has been breathing down the necks of such portals pushing their anti-India agenda, while Swarajya has taken care of issues of cultural identity, in-depth ground reporting and has pushed a nuanced view of India, free from the contamination of left-liberal beliefs. Meanwhile, Tfipost not only busts myths and leftist lies but also sets the narrative, not only for the national audience but a highly engaging International audience and simultaneously exposes the sinister campaigns of the left-liberal lobby.
Over the last seven years, there have been numerous instances where leftist portals have chugged down the ‘anti-India’ hate potion and have spewed venom upon the people.
During the hearing of the Kulbhushan Jadhav case at the International Court of Justice, the Pakistani side produced The Quint’s story on the Indian prisoner as a definitive proof against Indian claims.
The Quint had published the highly objectionable article on January 06, 2018 and after receiving a severe backlash had taken it down. However, Pakistan had repeatedly cited their article in their defence against India’s claims. In the story, The Quint claimed that Jadhav was an Indian spy and a very bad one at that who was hired even after top RAW officials had rejected his candidature. Jadhav was arrested in Balochistan with his Indian passport on him.
Read More: Pakistan cites The Quint’s article in Kulbhushan Jadhav case at ICJ
More recently, The Wire, working on elaborate guesswork, hunch, insinuations and lies– the four horsemen of journalistic death, published a report on the Pegasus spyware, accusing the government of snooping on eminent personalities of the country. To date, the publication hasn’t put forth a tiny shred of evidence. And that in microcosm explains the existence of The Wire and the work it has done since its institution.
Read More: Discredited by Pegasus report, The Wire fishes for sympathy by sensationalising routine Police visit
Meanwhile, the Print’s Shekhar Gupta has sealed his journalistic legacy by publishing the infamous coup story that has granted him a lifelong sobriquet that will linger till the end of times.
Read More: General VK Singh files complaint against Shekhar Gupta and others over the fake coup claim
While developing the left-wing portals did not yield the benefits as the overlords of the said companies thought initially, thus a smear campaign was orchestrated on social media platforms. Any news channel or any individual, deviating from the line set by such platforms was instantly dubbed as Godi media or Bhakt.
This was simply a defence mechanism from the increasingly agitated cabal that wanted to get ahead of the curve before people started calling them names for lying prostrate in front of the few political dynasties in the country. Although the slangs propagated did catch on but unfortunately, other than winning meaningless battles in the echo chambers of Twitter, it amounted to nothing in the real world.
Moreover, counter adjectives were summoned and the biggest darling of the left establishment—a particular individual of the Gandhi family, is still looking to erase it off, which unfortunately has now stuck with him for life.
The left-wing media portals use established left media channels such as NDTV as a crutch. Both have developed a symbiotic relationship and keep each other’s morale high. The hatred for PM Modi has transcended into a hatred for the idea of India. And there is no winning over the legion of them.
When a rival faction cannot win a direct battle, it often engages in proxy wars to make up for lost ground. And lately, the left ecosystem has done exactly that. The greenhorn right-wing ecosystem is against a system that has gamed governments and the media industry since the dawn of time.
As reported by TFI last year, India’s top right-wing media outlets (TFIPOST, Swarajya and OpIndia) have been ‘blacklisted’ by Wikipedia. This is to say that if an individual wishes to cite any one of these web portals as the source in any Wikipedia article, they would be unable to do so since these sites have been blocked by Wiki’s perceivably rattled and compromised top editors and executives. Notably, rightlog.in, our previous form, also finds mention in the blacklist.
The social media companies and other tech giants are inherently left-biased and as a result, the reach of right-wing portals is deliberately reduced but still the left portals have miles to catch up. This is a modern digital era where viewpoints are hyperpolarised and people tend to live in their utopian worlds. However, for the first time, at least in the Indian context, the citizens of the country have an alternative nationalist voice that battles against the hegemony of left-liberal establishments.