NAME:- YASH SRIVASTAVA

REG NO:-17BCE1069
HUM1043 DIGITAL ASSIGNMENT-I
TOPIC: MASS MEDIA AND SOCIETY

Is Indian media biased?

All of us must be aware to the case of Kulbhushan Jadhav in Pakistan. Pakistan claims
that he is an Indian spy. Pakistan military court has in very secret conditions completed
the trial and awarded death sentence to Jadhav.

Indian Government is strongly opposing this narrative and presented its point of view
that he was an ex Navy Officer working in Iran for his personal business interest. Jadhav
was wrongfully arrested by Pakistan with malafide intentions. Indian Government has
thrown its full might to make sure Jadhav gets justice. India is currently fighting his
case at International Court of Justice .

Every Indian is concerned with release of Jadhav.

We should expect that Media channels should be supportive of Jadhav and point of view
of Indian Governement. But to our disappointment exact opposite is happening.

Two Ex-RAW Chiefs Did Not Want Kulbhushan Jadhav Recruited As Spy

Whats wrong with our media? Time to stop calling it as a fourth pillar of our democracy.

Controlling the media to manipulate public opinions is a global phenomenon

and India is no exception

Before 2014:
In 67 years of free India, Congress party had been in the government for 54 years. Three
Prime Ministers came from just one family (Nehru dynasty) who remained in power
for 37 years.

In these many years, strong nexus between Congress politicians and mainstream media
were initiated, favors were exchanged, relationships were established and a whole
ecosystem was created.

If one were to look deeper,

 Shobhana Bhartia, daughter of Congress loyalist KK Birla and herself a Congress

MP in Rajya Sabha, is the owner of Hindustan Times
 Bhaskar Ghose who was known to be close to Indira and Rajiv Gandhi, was made
the chief of Doordarshan. His daughter Sagarika Ghose has been associated with
CNN-IBN, Times of India, Indian Express and Outlook
 Karan Thapar associated with India Today and CNN-IBN is related to Nehru
family through marriage. Sonia Singh, associated with NDTV, is the wife of
Congress leader RPN Singh
No wonder that in 2009, Congress leader Kapil Sibal had proudly declared that over 150
media publications were owned by people affiliated with the Congress party [1]

Today, the Congress party effectively controls everything that Indians hear, see and read.
Consequently, most of these channels and journalists tend to be so blatantly biased in favor
of Congress and against their political opponents BJP that they don’t even pretend to appear
neutral.

1. Elections coverage

 When Congress wins an election

 When BJP wins an election

2. How Government actions and policies are reported

 The social practice of Instant Triple Talaq in Muslim community, which is banned
in most Islamic countries including Pakistan, Bangladesh and Egypt has been the
bane of many Muslim women in India till today
 Hence, BJP’s bill to make it punishable should ideally be welcomed as a step in the
right direction
 Shockingly, the Editorial in “The Hindu” plays it down and calls it counter-
productive
 It only starts making sense when one realizes –
o BJP government doing something favorable for Muslim community goes against
Congress’s narrative of “Modi is anti-Muslim”
o By downplaying BJP’s move, Malini Parthasarathy, Chairperson of “The
Hindu” group is supporting her close “friend” Sonia Gandhi of Congress

3. Reporting political appointments with “Caste” accusations

  A mature society should recognize people by their merit. A responsible media
should contribute in eliminating caste system from Indian society. But these
journalists deliberately bring up “caste” of the office bearers in every appointment
by BJP
 When someone from the so called “upper” caste is appointed, they slam BJP for
ignoring the lower castes [2]
 When someone from the so called “lower” caste is appointed, they slam BJP for
caste appeasement [3]
 Nothing that the government does can be deemed right, if the journalists follow
“heads I win, tails you lose”

4. Issues related to religion

 Spreading cheer when Muslim citizens are fasting is normal, [4] but why spread
negativity about fasting on Hindu festivals and call it “regressive” [5]
 Rajput community getting offended by a movie is mocked, [6] but Muslim
community getting offended by a cartoon is vociferously justified [7]
 Whether “feelings getting hurt” by a movie or cartoon is justifiable or not is
decided by the religion involved

5. Reporting communal incidents

 When victim happens to be a Hindu, they tone it down and represent the voice of
logic, sanity and reason [8]
 When victim happens to be a Muslim, they indulge in loud exaggerations and
almost inciting riots
  All loss of lives are deplorable, but selective outrage depending on the religion of
victim creates an environment of fear in minorities against the regime

After 2014:

 In 2014, BJP formed the government in centre, for only the second time in history.
They were faced with the mountainous task of countering this huge media
machinery that was spewing only Congress’s narrative against BJP. They decided
to beat Congress at their own game
 Zee group’s owner Subhash Chandra was nominated to Rajya Sabha with BJP’s
support. Republic TV was funded by Rajeev Chandrasekhar, a BJP MP in Rajya
Sabha.

Summary:

 Ideally, the media should be free from any bias, but the real world is not ideal
 The fourth pillar of “world’s largest democracy” is highly biased. Republic and Zee
are believed to serve the interest of Right Wing. Every other media house is biased
in favor of the Leftists and Congress
 Biased media is an unfortunate reality across the globe – as per Pew’s research,
media in Australia and US is perceived to be even less fair than India’s [10]
 In such a situation, it is rational to not blindly trust everything that you see, hear
or read. The responsibility to explore facts and ascertain truth comes down to the
individuals like us