Will Bihar elections only reinforce the anti-people image of Indian media?

They face corruption in obtaining their ration under the free grain distribution scheme. The reporter tries to skip all these details and distract from the issue by praising the beauty of a small girl. Does it help explore the reality in Bihar when she immediately asks them about their caste-leader?

The electoral battle in Bihar has been making headlines since the announcement of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) on 24 June. However, it was limited to the issue of voter list deletions and additions. The problem indeed became of national importance after the intervention of Rahul Gandhi. He succeeded in making people aware of their rights as voters. People of Bihar now see the ECI with suspicion. The agency carries minimal credibility and does not look eager to change its image either. Had a lenient Supreme Court not been there, the ECI would have failed in carrying out the exercise of “purifying” the electoral roll. The ECI did not answer any of the questions raised by the opposition parties and rights organisations, yet it did not incite any rebuke from the Court. Bihar is undergoing a poll marked by arbitrariness and willful omission of constitutional mandate. This should be the first time that the ECI has openly appeared as an agency that is not concerned with accountability. This is far beyond what we know as partisan behaviour.

However, the larger concern for a fair election had hardly made its way into the media discourse. Elections in India have, of late, turned into a soap opera that contributes to the proliferating entertainment industry on television and mobile phones. It is not surprising that the latest episode of poll coverage in Bihar lacks the necessary sensibility. By now, election stories have overwhelmed social media platforms, competing with funny reels featuring base-level jokes.

They, at times, surpass the latter in viewership. The comparison may look harsh because most of us live with the hangover of a democracy that disappeared a decade ago. I saw a poll video by a journalist who is well-known for being partisan and arrogant. Her leaning towards the ideology of the ruling party is no secret. The video exhibits the decline in the overall intellectual capacity of the Indian elite. The reporter had no language barrier, nor did she lack presentation skills.

The group of women she was speaking with was very friendly. But what was the outcome? She only exposed her aloofness and the lack of compassion. Her agenda was clear: she wanted to establish that the Prime Minister is a very popular figure and that the NDA will repeat its victory in Bihar. However, the video clip revealed the ground reality of Bihar. Husbands of all the women in the video have migrated to Punjab to work. They do not have a brick house, are involved and live on the 5 KG ration.

They face corruption in obtaining their ration under the free grain distribution scheme. The reporter tries to skip all these details and distract from the issue by praising the beauty of a small girl. Does it help explore the reality in Bihar when she immediately asks them about their caste-leader? Her partisan approach becomes evident in her putting out a question about Modi. Why did she not mention the name of Rahul Gandhi?

The apathy of the elite reporter is not an isolated case. It presents one of the many injuries inflicted on innocent voters who are hardly aware of the grand conspiracy by the ruling party to elicit consent to remain in power.

The conspiracy has innumerable dimensions. It starts with religion and caste, and extends up to corporate control. Is Bihar being punished for its refusal to collaborate with the colonial power? People know its history of putting up a fierce challenge to the British. Bihar has been fighting against injustice and oppression for ages. While in 1857, it was in the forefront, it led the movement in 1942. Could anyone imagine a Gandhi without Chamaparan Satyagraha? When all these heroic episodes are there, is it honest on the part of the media to talk of false heroes? One may argue that it is useless to focus on history when there is a need to address issues of the present. The argument is dishonest when we see the media aggressively talking about Nehru, Indira Gandhi and other leaders from the Gandhi-Nehru family.

In Bihar, why do they speak about Lalu Prasad and his “Jungle Raj”? Nitish Kumar has been ruling the state for two decades now and should be held responsible for every ill. Do we not need an impartial look at his rule? Has he not lost a golden opportunity to strengthen the state to overcome the challenges it inherited from the colonial past? Has he failed to understand the economic and social needs of the state? Does it not exhibit a blatant arbitrariness when he is dubbed as the Sushasan-Babu (the man who governs well) for the routine work of maintaining law and order? Has he not failed in evolving an institutional machinery that should keep the law and order? Recent incidents of murders and looting only prove his failure.

Bihar is the lowest on the Human Development Index in the country and competes with countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. It has a fragile health infrastructure, a futureless education system and an unsustainable economy. At least one quarter of its population is on the run for livelihood, spreading across India from the deep south in Kerala to the remote north in Ladakh.

We can find them working in Nagaland and in strife-torn Manipur. How can a leader boast of his governance when his state has such a lost generation of people who have no future except for landing in the worst slums of the metropolis and the restless agricultural fields of Punjab? What can we expect from the media when institutions, including the judiciary, are completely disinclined to protect the rights of an average Bihari?

The media is likely to lose its credibility further while covering the Bihar elections. It is not ready to change.

(The author is a senior journalist. He has experience of working with leading newspapers and electronic media including Deccan Herald, Sunday Guardian, Navbharat Times and Dainik Bhaskar. He writes on politics, society, environment and economy)