There is one question which worries anyone connected with media, whether the media person can risk saying something against the Modi govt.. Media has obviously risen so high in govt’s threat perception, because many of them are becoming propagators of fake news. Even during the war like situation with China, many of the media persons reported that India has lost so much territory to China, and many army personnel have been killled by Chinese forces, and claim of govt that so many soldiers have been killed is denied by China. So it has become a trend by many media personnel to dispute the credibility of govt. Where as the fact did tallied with govt’s information as confirmed by the Chinese authority later about the deaths of their soldiers, and no territory being acceded to China.
But in reality today a media person faces a double edged sword, it is like dammed if you call out the govt, but also cursed if you question the opposition. In the first case media person is branded as stooge of opposition and in the second case puppet of govt. In today’s scenario no body knows what is the responsibility of media.
Now situation has come to such a state that even writing about Rahul Gandhi, whose popularity is declining week by week, is not consisdered safe for media person.
Presently, it has been quite easy for govt they can storm through any bill in the parliament, as there is oppostion worth talking about. Congress who is the main opposition party is in great dissray, and less said about them is better. Now imagine what would have been scenario if Congress had 100 seats in lok sabha and UPA about 130-150?
In a democracy the primary accountability of respecting institutions, citizen’s liberty lies with the ruling party, but it is also the responsibility of opposition to fight for these. The problem here is , that Congress when ruling did nothing to protect these institutions, liberty etc, so when they talk about these they sound hollow.
In the past , opposition parties behaved more sensibly, but after 2004 when Congress led UPA had a majority in both the house of parliament, they also neglected opposition for any fruitful discussions, and just bulldozed them.
In fact, when Raaajiv Gandhi had amore than 400+ seats in lok sabha by sweeping the polls, but wounded opposition leaders came in their feet within months and were ready to fight again. The opposition barring lest parties actually had 10+2+3 (Janta Party 10 seats- BJP 2 seats + Lok Dal 3 seats), which was an analogy to the education system.
Within 1 year, the opposition was at govt’s throat on issues ranging from Mandal Commission to Shah Bano case. Later when Rajiv Gandhi tried to smother the media with his infamous “ anti defamation bill”, the opposition, especially the BJP, found a worthy and low-cast/high reward cause in protecting media freedom.
Classical case of that of Indian Express, was when Congress hijacked its employees’ union, called a strike and threatened to shut down the paper, the BJP and RSS not merely protested but also send hordes of volunteers to help keep the presses running.
Now if you see the current scenario, Congress is MISSING IN ACTION(MIA), on all key issues be it unemployment, rising fuel prices and many more.Compare this with the scenario during Rajiv Gandhi’s govt, BLP would fill Jantar Mantar every other day with protestors. Today the opposition writes only angry tweets.
The so called G 23 group within Congress had a meeting in Jammu recently where senior leaders raised the ideological questions about the choice of alliance partners for the coming assembly action.
Amarinder Singh, his most powerful chief minister, is sliding into that dangerous zone when a government begins to lose leverage on the biggest issue of the day, farmers’ protests in his case, despite enjoying a massive majority.
Congress has carried on without a regular president to relieve ailing Sonis Gandhi, since Rahul resigned taking responsibility for the 2019 defeat.
There is no election in sight.
And the answer to that question, as we heard, is a counter-question: How come nobody asks the BJP why they don’t hold party elections? Good question, but at least they have a president.
In the past 25 years, since the Gandhis returned to reclaim the party, the BJP has had nine presidents.
Three of them, Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh and Nitin Gadkari serve in this Cabinet. A fourth, L K Advani is in the Margdarshak Mandal.
Now look into reality- What do these G-23 count for? Can they win one seat anywhere? All they want is the Rajya Sabha or such security even when out of power. Who else can be party president and keep it united?
Congress has got real problem at hand and if they fail to do now, more Jyotiraditya Scindias will walk away in frustration, how will they stop other parties, from Sharad Pawar’s NCP to Arvind Kejriwal’s AAP from vacuum cleaning their leftover vote?
Presently it looks like even in 2024, it will be BJP only.
Waiting for your views and comments.
Anil Malik
Mumbai, India
15th March 2021