Anna sets the tone for the media
Normally, anyone who questions the democratic credentials of the Indian State is made short shrift of by TV anchors It was refreshing to watch Arnab Goswami, who loves to brand a variety of human rights activists `terrorists’, harp on the need for th
says JYOTI PUNWANI
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here’s looking at us
Jyoti Punwani
The non-stop coverage of Anna Hazare’s fast by news channels had one positive fallout - for the first time, very basic questions were debated about the nature of the world’s largest democracy. Normally, anyone who questions the democratic credentials of the Indian State is made short shrift of by TV anchors, who have emerged in the past few years as the greatest defenders of the `System’. But the mass movement in support of Anna Hazare's attempt to bring in the Jan Lokpal Bill, centred round people demanding explanations of their elected representatives, treating them as if they were accountable. TV channels had no option but to reflect this in their debates.
It was refreshing to watch Arnab Goswami, the man who loves to bait Maoists, Left-liberals and human rights activists as terrorists and anti-nationals, almost echo the ideas that these people believe in – that the people are supreme. ``Governments have to reach out to the people,’’ said Arnab. When senior lawyer Harish Salve called the Jan Lokpal Bill `draconian’, Arnab reminded him that the people of the North East had been suffering for decades under the draconian AFSPA, and Irom Sharmila had been fasting against it for 12 years. Who would have thought that all the opponents of AFSPA – from Irom Sharmila to the Kashmiris to human rights wallahs to Arundhati Roy - would find an ally in the TV anchor who carries the burden of nationalism on his shoulders?
Lord Meghnad Desai’s inputs in various TV debates were also refreshing in what they revealed about our Parliamentarians. He pointed out their readiness to pass Bills at breakneck speed when it suited them (17 bills were passed in 12 minutes in September 2010) contrasted with their reluctance to pass the Jan Lokpal bill in a hurry. But more interesting was his view that Parliamentarians were not holy cows. In a debate on the derogatory references to MPs made by various speakers at Ram Lila Maidan, Lord Desai pointed out that in Britain, the kind of ridicule MPs were subjected to by the media could make one cry. He also punctured Parliament’s claim to have an exclusive monopoly over law-making: ``Just being in Parliament doesn’t give so much legitimacy that you can ignore the people,’’ he said. He also described as ``feudal’’ the notion that only MPs knew how to pass laws.
To hear all this on prime time TV was exhilarating. Normally, people protesting on the streets non-violently are barely acknowledged by TV news. Of course, there hasn’t been a movement as vast in numbers and in geographical spread as this one. These two factors made it impossible for the media to ignore it. However, there have been fairly large local movements in recent years of poor people – tribal rallies in Chhattisgarh (December 2010); workers congregating in Delhi against price rise and unemployment (February 2011); the Tarapur to Jaitapur anti nuclear march (April 2011); the anti-POSCO movement; the resistance to Jindal Steel & Power in Chhattisgarh; the adivasis’ march to Mumbai (March 2011); Medha Patkar’s fast protesting against illegalities in slum redevelopment andslumdemolitions (May 2011), are a few that come immediately to mind.
To hear all this on prime time TV was exhilarating. Normally, people protesting on the streets non-violently are barely acknowledged by TV news. Of course, there hasn’t been a movement as vast in numbers and in geographical spread as this one. These two factors made it impossible for the media to ignore it. However, there have been fairly large local movements in recent years of poor people – tribal rallies in Chhattisgarh (December 2010); workers congregating in Delhi against price rise and unemployment (February 2011); the Tarapur to Jaitapur anti nuclear march (April 2011); the anti-POSCO movement; the resistance to Jindal Steel & Power in Chhattisgarh; the adivasis’ march to Mumbai (March 2011); Medha Patkar’s fast protesting against illegalities in slum redevelopment andslumdemolitions (May 2011), are a few that come immediately to mind.
All of these have been ignored by TV, mainly because they haven’t involved people like us. This in spite of the fact that the concerns these localised campaigns have raised affect the entire country: Maoism, Salwa Judum, our model of development and the rights of tribals and local communities; the risks of nuclear power; the builder-government nexus and the right to shelter for all citizens. When the media does take note of these issues (normally when an agitation turns violent or is fired upon by the police), it may give time and space to one supporter of the agitation, but overall, it upholds the State view, or at least, doesn’t challenge it seriously.
But the unexpected response to Anna Hazare’s campaign by people like us, forced the media to take note of it. The fact that people like us were its most articulate supporters, was also a factor in media support.
There were thousands of peopl not like us at Ram Lila, Azad Maidan, and everywhere else, in fact, they constituted the majority. Unfortunately, they weren’t the ones dominating the TV screens. The long duration of Anna’s fast, and the continuous support for him through the 12 days, forced the media to discuss the issues raised by it threadbare. The legitimacy of fasts and street protests; the role of MPs in a Parliamentary democracy; what our politicians had reduced politics too, and what people expected of them – all this took centre stage. People like Prashant Bhushan, Medha Patkar, Arvind Kejriwal, Aruna Roy and Swami Agnivesh who don’t normally get time to air their views in depth were given generous amounts of time and space. These people have a radically different view of the State than that that held by the usual panelists invited on TV, not to mention the views held by our well-known TV anchors.
Just how different these views were from those held by the latter became obvious when Barkha Dutt reacted with alarm to a proposal by Medha Patkar that if the government didn’t accept Anna Hazare’s demand to discuss the three non-negotiable points: the citizens’ charter, state lokpals, and the lower bureaucracy being brought under the Lokpal Bill, the protesters would form a human chain around Parliament. ``They are threatening a human chain around Parliament!’’ Barkha informed her panelists, in a tone implying that a human chain equalled a human bomb. A human chain is surely the most non-violent act of collective solidarity and protest there can be; such chains have been a regular feature of peace marches. There was no hint of the proposed human chain turning violent. Why then did the spectre of people encircling Parliament so alarm Barkha? Similarly, the gheraoing of MPs’ houses, and the PM’s house, by Anna’s supporters, was made out to be totally far-out by many news anchors.
Why? Our honourable MPs are put into the hallowed precincts of Parliament by the very hordes thronging Ram Lila. And they are sent there to represent ``the voice of the people’’, as S Chandrashekhar, the Hyderabad convener of Anna’s movement, put it. What’s the harm if some of these hordes peacefully picket the homes of those they have elected and ask them some tough questions? Picketing, armed only with placards and full-throated slogans, has been a time-honoured form of protest by all kinds of groups. Obviously for our TV anchors, that was an action fraught with danger. The question arises – danger to whom?
Even Arnab, who was the most supportive of the campaign among all TV anchors, found the slogan `lao ya jao’ (given by Anna with referenceto the Bill) `a bit political’’. Is party politics the only politics there is? And what’s wrong in telling our government to go? Haven’t all protesters at some time raised such slogans?
The impression one got from the worried faces and tones of our TV anchors was that Parliament and those who comprise it, including our PM, exist in some rarefied pure atmosphere, way above all of us. Leave aside the many shameful episodes that have been witnessed in Parliament, the many undemocratic laws passed there, or the fact that 43.83 % of our MPs have criminal charges against them, 14 % of which are serious (Association for Democratic Reforms' analysis of the 15th Lok Sabha). Even if the majority of our Parliamentarians were noble souls, they would still owe their position to us. How can the people we elect be so unassailable by us? Perhaps the fact that more than 50 % of them are very rich has made them appear so.(Also ADR figures)
The impression one got from the worried faces and tones of our TV anchors was that Parliament and those who comprise it, including our PM, exist in some rarefied pure atmosphere, way above all of us. Leave aside the many shameful episodes that have been witnessed in Parliament, the many undemocratic laws passed there, or the fact that 43.83 % of our MPs have criminal charges against them, 14 % of which are serious (Association for Democratic Reforms' analysis of the 15th Lok Sabha). Even if the majority of our Parliamentarians were noble souls, they would still owe their position to us. How can the people we elect be so unassailable by us? Perhaps the fact that more than 50 % of them are very rich has made them appear so.(Also ADR figures)
Similarly, what was objectionable about Kiran Bedi’s ghunghat act? Every Indian knows that our MPs never keep their promises. Why should the media get all hot and bothered if a former IPS officer has no inhibitions about enacting their two-facedness in front of thousands of people?
Indeed, it was this former cop who hit the nail on the head when she said that the movement had shown that ``we the elected’’ cannot ignore ``we the people’’. Over the last two or three years, MPs have become closer to the media than they ever were. Perhaps this cosy relationship has blinded the media to what MPs are meant to be – servants of the people, getting paid by public money, and accountable to them. Fortunately, Anna Hazare and his supporters haven’t forgotten this. Thanks to them, all of us were reminded of this relationship,which is the basis of democracy.