Assam ferry tragedy not newsy enough?
On Monday, India’s remote northeastern state of Assam saw probably its biggest tragedy in recent memory, when an overloaded ferry carrying about 300 people sank in the Brahmaputra river, killing at least 103 people.
However, the bigger tragedy perhaps was the minimal coverage it got in the national media. Apart from The Hindu, which had the accident as its top story, none of the leading dailies in the country gave it much coverage beyond a mention on the front page.
Considering that the news first surfaced at around 6 p.m. on Monday, newspapers had ample time to give it more space if they so wished before they went to print, again putting the spotlight on the much-discussed question of whether the northeast is ignored by the national media.
“Has #Assam ferry tragedy been ignored on Twitter/ television? We’ll be RTing all responses,” the New York Times tweeted on Tuesday to a massive response.
What was even more interesting was to see prominent journalists posting tweets even as news channels kept speculating on a bail plea for a dentist accused of killing her daughter in New Delhi, and even more far-fetched speculations on India’s next president.
“Assam n northeast doesn’t mean anything to us! We r a nation obsessed with big cities n their celebs!” Twitter user Ambreen Zaidi wrote.
The recent tragedy is not an isolated instance. The same debate creeps up every time a major event happens in the remote northeast region, and the Indian media is accused of not giving it enough coverage.
U.S. consulate for sale, in India’s daily paper
For sale: a spacious, well-built Mumbai townhouse with beautiful views, well-heeled neighbours and one considerate, well-respected former owner.
Lodged between an advert for hair loss treatment and an article on illicit after-hours drinking in India’s commercial hub, the U.S. government consulate in Mumbai invited bids for its two consulate properties in Tuesday’s Times of India newspaper.
The consulate building, located at a much sought-after address in the exclusive Breach Candy neighbourhood in the south of the city, has long been outgrown by its inhabitants, who already have a new location in Mumbai’s northern business district.
But a buyer has been elusive. Enter the world’s most-read English language daily.
“For sale,” read the red text of the advert on page 5 of the newspaper, “The American Consulate Properties”.
Three bids valuing the consulate at 8 billion rupees ($169 million) were made by developers on Tuesday for the 8,345 sq metre (90,000 sq ft) plot, ET Now news channel reported citing sources.
The agent, DTZ, could not confirm the bids, but said that all offers would be considered. Real estate consultants not involved with the sale told Reuters that the reported price tag met their expectations.
The political title Consul is used for the official representatives of the government of one state in the territory of another, normally acting to assist and protect the citizens of the consul’s own country, and to facilitate trade and friendship between the peoples of the two countries. A consul is distinguished from an ambassador, the latter being a representative from one head of state to another. Thanks.
Regards,
Chandler Real Estate
The dog days of India’s bizarre summer of politics
Perhaps the government’s decision to push back the opening of the upcoming monsoon session of parliament was not the best idea. For as the dog days of the sub-continent’s sweltering summer drag on, the parliament-less politicians sweat from the sublime to the ridiculous in the baking heat.
From the haphazard ensemble of senior ministers that flocked to New Delhi’s airport to greet yoga guru turned social activist Swami Ramdev with more fanfare than is reserved for visiting heads of state, to the current conspiracy swirling New Delhi surrounding espionage chewing gum found in the finance minister’s private chambers, it has been a bizarre summer for politics fuelled by the hungry media in the world’s largest democracy.
Kapil Sibal, as Human Resource and Development minister, could have spent his summer break drawing up plans to overhaul an education sector that looks dangerously inadequate to deal with the demographic dividend of millions of young Indians that New Delhi likes to trumpet. Instead, he spent his days holed up in five-star hotels begging Ramdev not to stop eating, and playing it coy in press conferences after quietly ignoring veteran activist Anna Hazare’s demands for a stronger anti-graft bill.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who has seen a series of economic data releases over the past month pour cold water on optimistic growth prospects, spent the majority of his summer trying to chair what appeared to be most unruly meetings on the anti-graft legislation, but has stolen the headlines recently with a mind-boggling story involving government secrets, ministerial rivalries and old-school espionage — all bonded together with chewing gum.
With TV channels and opposition politicians dubbing it “India’s Watergate”, and political figures from across the spectrum weighing in on the sticky mess, there appears little evidence to go on than a few errant pieces of gum stuck under various desks in Mukherjee’s chambers. With the minister himself telling the media to take their conspiracy theories elsewhere, it appears more a case of unhygienic office visitors than dastardly undercover spies.
Outside of the cabinet, the summer bug spread as the mercury rose.
Since over last 40 years Indian governments could never contain corruption comprehensively with any effective political/legal systems through the defaulters could be booked. As a result a large amount black money could easily take a ‘flight’ to foreign destinations and stashed by several corrupt officials, businessmen, politicians etc. Indian civil society has realised that Indians are still enslaved unnder corrupt government who has already proved limbless on containing corruption. Anna Hazare and Baba Ramdev too this bold initiative to awaken the people of India on rampant corruption. Ministers representing government on Lokpal Bill drafting committee have started throwing misleading comments, impressions, casting aspersions on honest members of the civil society. None of the elected members of the parliament could ever come out openly against the ruling government on the issues of corruption. Now the government is holding a hot brick of pressures from civil society in one hand, while trying to keep corruption in place by the other. Civil Society’s draft is simple, straight forward, fit for implementation. In short the government is inviting a stiff stir and revolution from the people of India. This situation will indeed shatter Indian economy and security. We all shall have to pay a heavy price ultimately, and learn good lesson in a hard way.
A Republic Day to forget for India’s opposition party
As Prime Minister Manmohan Singh watched India’s 61st Republic Day parade in the New Delhi sunshine on Wednesday morning, senior opposition leaders Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley were in a Jammu prison, where they had spent a night under arrest.
Detained for attempting to lead thousands of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers into India’s northern state of Jammu & Kashmir to provocatively raise the national flag in the state that has been racked by unrest by Muslim separatists opposed to Indian rule, Swaraj and Jaitley’s politically-driven mission had ended in failure.
The BJP appear to have thought that the nationalism-drenched plan to hoist the flag in the centre of Srinagar, the state capital, would galvanize their Hindu support base, and show the ruling Congress party as ineffective in defending the disputed state from separatists who rile against New Delhi’s rule.
Thursday’s media post-mortem strongly suggested that they failed on both counts.
“Omar steals a march as BJP flag mission foiled,” summed up Mail Today on Thursday, as the opposition’s plan to paint the Congress-backed state chief minister as a weak leader spectacularly backfired.
The provocative rhetoric that accompanied the march also risked alienating moderate Hindus and a large section of secular voters, as newspaper editors strongly criticized the brazen attitude to stirring tensions in the unstable region where more than 100 people were killed last year.
Zeal outdoing sanity is more acceptable than PM of the nation saying hoisting national flag is “divisive”
Does the Indian media overplay Indo-Chinese tension?
New Delhi’s flat-out denial of the most recent reports by state authorities of Chinese military incursions across its border with India in Jammu and Kashmir may show a tendency to gloss over such seemingly insignificant events — in favour of bigger strategic and trade interests — that the media appears to ignore.
On Monday afternoon, amidst a lull in the seemingly endless Indian news cycle, all major TV news channels flashed a breaking story of Chinese troops crossing the Indian border in the disputed northern state.
Local news providers in the state declared fears of a “hotting-up of the border”, and former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah was moved to issue fiery rhetoric and even threats of retaliation, which the mainstream media duly published.
Despite the reported incursions taking place in September of last year, the story rapidly found its way to the top of the headline pile, and in the apparent context of a disputed border between unstable bedfellows armed with nuclear weapons, several international newswires even jumped on the reports.
Back in New Delhi, however, India’s ministry of external affairs described the media reports as “baseless”, rubbishing claims from state authorities, and re-printed by news organisations that Indian workers were “threatened” by Chinese troops.
Chief of the Army Staff General V.K. Singh even went as far to defend Chinese troops involved in the alleged border crossings, saying that the local residents on the Indian side of the border were to blame for ignoring government advice over ceasing construction projects. Chinese officials made no remarks on the issue.
Reports of so-called incursions are nothing new, and a high-pitched domestic media debate that routinely raises fears of increased Chinese influence on Indian territory only further muddles a murky and ambiguous history of boots purposefully, or not, crossing borders.
What do you expect when money is involved? Who wants to read headlines like ‘China did NOT cross the border today’?
If I was a journalist and I had to sell stories or starve, I would spend the entire day writing rubbish too.
Forget journalistic ethics. The Radia tapes have wider implications
British press magnate Lord Northcliffe once stated: “News is something someone wants suppressed. Everything else is just advertising”. It’s interesting, then, that in a season of multi-billion dollar scandals that has seen India’s 24/7 news machine at its probing, questioning, investigative best, one — perhaps bigger and more serious than all the rest — has failed to make the hourly bulletins.
Taped conversations involving corporate lobbyist Niira Radia, anonymously leaked from a reported set of around 5,000 recordings made by India’s Enforcement Directorate and Income Tax authorities, appear to reveal the unholy nexus between India’s business leaders and the political policymaking machine.
But due to the embarrassing proximity that the Indian media elite have to the most controversial dialogues amongst her web of business, political and journalism sources, full-blown coverage has not been seen.
Save the outrage to the wall of silence seen on social networking website Twitter, only Open magazine, which first published the tapes last month and a handful of other publications have given column inches to the story.
However, the questioned journalistic ethics of NDTV’s Barkha Dutt and the Hindustan Times’ Vir Sanghvi that have dominated the minimal coverage and has led India’s media to circle the wagons are, in terms they are familiar with, details for the tenth paragraph.
Radia’s middleman role, and the potential fallout from her bugged conversations is suggested by the decision of Ratan Tata, chairman of India’s largest industrial conglomerate, to take the very public decision to petition the Supreme Court to stifle any further airing of the tapes.
And what would Lord Northcliffe say to that?
Back to the Lalit Modi saga
In India, a thin line separates bravado from infamy. In a country that swears by its Bollywood potboilers, it does not take long to turn a one-time hero into a villain.
And the perfect example is Lalit Modi — once head of India’s $4 billion cricket premier league, he was first removed from his post after a tax scandal and later booted out of the cash-rich Indian cricket board.
Media reports on Thursday say the Enforcement Directorate (ED) issued a ‘blue alert’ against Modi, after he failed to make himself available for interrogation in the corruption allegations.
Modi, who helped revolutionise cricket with its short, television-friendly format combined with lucrative advertising and cheerleaders in packed arenas which upset many traditionalists, is now left with few backers.
And it shows in his demeanour. The man, who was known for his belligerent defence for a long time, has mellowed down considerably.
Even the Indian media has stopped chasing the Modi saga riding on the back of the Commonwealth Games.
But the story, while it lasted, was a source of entertainment for controversy-loving Indians.
TOI’s Volkswagen ad: the new convergence?
On Tuesday morning, when readers of The Times of India opened the newspaper, they were in for a surprise.
The supplement of the main paper carried a ‘talking’ advertisement of Volkswagen, which plays a recorded voice when a reader opens the page.
It came as a surprise to many and soon Twitter and Facebook were full of comments, from awe at something so “innovative” to despair at a “lame” attempt.
While it reminded some of the musical greeting cards by Archies — a craze in India in the early years of this decade, others felt the commercial ridiculed the experience of reading a newspaper.
But, whatever feedback the advertisers and the newspaper get from readers, it surely signifies a new era in Indian advertising — one in which companies have realised India’s potential as a lucrative fast-growth story, leading them to innovate and lavishly spend on advertising.
The emerging Indian middle-class is fast turning into a bunch of brand-conscious individuals, and having realised that, companies are opening up their wallets.
Now with the financial crisis mostly behind us, people can hope to see more innovation in advertising, as companies look for newer ways to lure consumers.
No criticism please, we’re Indian
Suddenly, it is not cool to be against the scandal-plagued Commonwealth Games.
The CWG was meant to be Delhi’s big coming-out party, India’s assertion that it is a global powerhouse capable of doing what China did with the Beijing Summer Olympics two years ago.
Instead, the Games, scheduled for October, are turning out to be a costly embarrassment, with daily revelations of corruption, fraud and political wrongdoing that has triggered big headlines and much hand wringing by outraged citizens, sportsmen and even politicians.
But suddenly, being against the CWG is almost unpatriotic.
In an “emotional appeal” with a visual of the Indian tricolour published in all leading newspapers on the weekend, industrialist Subrata Roy flayed the “recent continuous and negative media coverage” that has left organisers and volunteers feeling “totally demoralised and dejected”.
The media, Roy said, has overdone it, “causing very big damage in maligning the image of our country”.
The media should now postpone its campaign until after the Games, Roy exhorted, and an audit of the culprits and their punishment must be done “after our country’s greatest ever sporting event is over”.
Happy Independence Day to fellow Indians on this blog! I salute and congratulate every Indian on the anniversary of our political freedom. No matter how small our individual contribution may be, together we make a beautiful colorful painting of our motherland. Let us continue to march together on the path of progress, prosperity and peace.
JAI HIND!!
A rare news conference by the PM
“The prime minister of India rarely gets to speak, face-to-face, with the people of India,” writes historian Ramachandra Guha.
We might add the next-best-possible substitute ‘the media’ to this plaint.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will indeed have a rare conversation with the media on May 24, while presenting a report card on his government’s first year in office.
This is only the second time in six years the media gets to interact with the prime minister on a many-to-one basis.
So what prevents him?
Sonia Gandhi hardly ever gives interviews but then she is not a part of the government.
Manmohan Singh occupies a constitutional post being the de facto leader of the country.
I can not but highly appreciate the main and governing key point affecting our growing economy.It is corruption only corruption which is the root cause of our poverty,hunger ,backwardness and what not.The corruption is also in the root of poor, careless and slack administration.Until and unless we get over this ghostly and devastating problem ,we can not make speedy progress.The administrative reforms committee’s report is still lying unimplemented.As long as the administration reform is not done ,there is no hope of good development.So the need of the hour is to uproot the corruption from its very root.
Thanks for throwing the spotlights on this issue Anurag. Sad,but the truth is the majority of the Indian dailies and the media did not cover this tragedy but were too busy covering some trivial issues.