Indian media tend to act as party organs

Matters India, Vijayawada: A larger section of media in India just acts as the party organ of a political party that is in power at the federal level, says a media educator.

“They do not question the policies that make people divided. They just do not raise the issues of unemployment, religious divide, and the lynching that are on. They do not ask critical questions. They do not allow persons who could speak critically on subjects on TV news channels,” said Jesuit Father Raj Lourdu, who heads the Department of Visual Communication, Andhra Loyola College, Vijayawada.

He was speaking to Matters India on the state of Indian media today.

“I believe that it is the money and power that makes this government move on. No one has ever seen the amount of money spent on elections and also on advertising. One estimate is put at 4500 crores (45 billon) or more so far,” said the media educator.

He also said the Indian media lost its credibility long ago. “The only media one may believe are such as ‘thewire.in,’ ‘scroll.in,’ and to some extent the Hindu and NDTV (of late). The rest can be dumped into the dustbin,” said Father Raj, the former dean of Xavier School of Communications, Xavier University Bhubaneswar, Odisha, Eastern India.

“There has to be introspection on the part of Indian media houses and networks and especially the journalists who still want to follow certain ethics in media reporting,” he added.

Some TV news anchors who tend polarize people with their views must be stopped appearing on TV news channels for some time. “TV news channels must stop giving views. Let there be news and reporting. Most of the TV news channels in India are guided by the Target Rating Points (TRPs). They do not care whether they ethically right,” Father Raj said.

He also said that people who are at the helm of affairs at the Federal government and their cohorts have learned the art of fooling people on regular basis. Unfortunately people like slogans, not the real work or performance, he said.

“Inequality in India truly is galloping because there are no jobs in the market and the money power of the middle class is robbed by GST and petrol and diesel prices,” he added.

“Modi’s slogan, ‘Sabka Vikas’ is just stupid because ‘Vikas’ is given to Ambanis, Adanis and the selected corporates who contribute handsomely to BJP’s coffers. The most important thing is the irresponsible and corporate controllable media,” Father Raj said.

There is another point about inequality. Unfortunately, the government has gone harder on NGOs, which were helping the poor in the past 4 years, in the name of accountability. Most NGOs with Christian background were targeted by intelligence and the government removed them from NGOs list, he said.

This is an allegation. However; this may have some connection to inequality in India.

There is another rider to this is that the Congress too did not wholeheartedly work for the poor.

“I feel the education system is taking away a lot of resources of ordinary people. The amount of money people pay for education is too much. Education is a weapon of oppression today,” he said.