NB: Never a truer word has been spoken about India’s mainstream media under the BJP/RSS government. The question is why? Fear and intimidation and blackmail in some cases, yes; but can everyone be bought or scared? Clearly not, as the independent YouTube channels have persisted in critical reporting. But if powerful corporate owners can force their journalists to become lapdogs of whoever is in power, what will remain of journalism as a profession?
Professor Yogendra participated in the Bharat Jodo Yatra and made no secret of his distaste for the BJP/RSS dispensation. He deserves congratulations for being more accurate than the mainstream pollsters. But even though his interviewers are concerned solely with ‘the numbers’ and the ‘exit polls’, the professor knows that what matters is the fate of India’s democracy. Slick talk and shouting won’t cut it. He hit the nail on the head by speaking the truth: you’re all complicit in Modi’s tyranny.
Disclose your partisanship before playing aao, news-anchor news-anchor khelein.
Professor Yadav knows, as well as any of us do, that the word tanashaahi is on the common citizen’s lips. He is generous as regards professional media persons; as well as the ‘scientifically detached’ experts in mass manipulation. Such characters to my mind, represent the ethical nihilism of our times. Truth, justice and fair-play do not matter to them, all that matters is proximity to power. Notwithstanding a handful of honourable exceptions, they have plumbed the depths of professional depravity. I recall one portal giving space to an journalist employed as PR man in the I & B Ministry to sneer at Father Stan Swamy’s death in custody; telling us that an 84 year old man suffering from Parkinson’s disease – and who was never brought to trial – needed no sympathy.
Is cruelty and the complete destruction of your own consciences a necessary part of your profession now ladies and gentlemen of the mainstream media? Is that also part of your job description?
[ Chaprasis have been slandered by the misuse of the name of their profession. Mainstream Indian media persons, not to mention sections of state officials have enriched the pejorative meaning of chaprasi.]
Professor Yadav is astute enough to know these things, but he is also a gentleman who refrains from harsh speech. That is a good thing, we have enough harshness and sneering from some of the highest office-bearers in the land. However, the question remains: how do we understand the blatant and shameless destruction of justice and democracy in India? How may we confront it? DS
“Entire Mainstream Media Spoke BJP Spokesperson”: Swaraj India Co-founder Yogendra Yadav
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Four Indian intellectuals who were murdered for their ideas (2013-2017)
Unsolicited thoughts from an elder citizen
Ex-Arunachal CM’s Explosive Suicide Note that the government refused to probe (2017)
Leaflet by leaflet, a few aging activists fight India’s tide of bigotry
Fr Stan Swamy, accused in Elgaar Parishad case, dies at 84
Here are SC, HC judges with political pasts. Gowri’s unconstitutional views were the problem
Economic inequality in India: ‘billionaire raj’ is now more unequal than British colonial rule
After the truth-shower 