“He is absolutely senile old man, senile old man, you are moron, you are absolutely senile, shut, shut up you are uncouth buddhe, you are counting your days on earth” . It is not a scene from a third rate movie. It is the expression of a celebrated spokesperson on an English prime news channel and the raucous anchor, supposedly the topmost boss, neither is perturbed, nor sorry nor stops her from blurting out the insulting abusive language at a senior participant.
It is intriguing. The first lesson on All India Radio decades back was that language can neither be intemperate, abusive, or uncivil, and voice has to be moderate on the public channel. Sorry, now the abnormal is normal and the anchors themselves become the most uncivil. The hate begins here. If today, the nation is suffering the wrath of entire West Asia and even illiberal countries like Qatar, it is the gift of the unregulated TV channels.
The government had been told repeatedly to have a regulator or widen the ambit of the Press Council of India to maintain the sanity on channels. Alas, despite the change of many governments this has not been possible. Ruling dispensations find it suitable and when in opposition, they ruin it. Had a regulator been there no electronic channel could have jumped the gun. Today, the nation is paying a heavy price of being protested by at least 15 countries.
It is well known how anchors encourage some participants to behave in the most uncouth manner. Yes, they do it, coach it and rehearse it in the studios – for eyeball, and TRPs. Some Indian TV channels have lost their sanity. Those replying are also made to shout to point out the score not for the participants but the channels for higher visibility and advertisement money.
Today the heaping of insults on the nation from illiberal governments has been facilitated by none other than but by motley TV channels. They have created a culture of shouting, harping uncouth language, utmost indecency, and raucous vulgarity in the name of freedom of expression. The sorry part is that the governments have become tolerant as it suits different parties in different states as also in different languages.
It was not the failure of two spokespersons alone but the channels that tarnished the image of the country. What never happened in the almost a hundred years of broadcast history has the nation bowing its head in shame and that too from a group of countries who are not known to be free regimes.
In public discourse too, intemperate and provocative language by political party leaders and spokesmen has become the fashion. While channels can be blamed for not regulating, the entire political scenario is manifesting the same way. Bengal elections a year back have seen how the major parties - TMC and BJP have been hurling abuses at each other. The TMC leader was being ridiculed in a most unsavoury language and the BJP got its reply in a similar vein from the TMC.
It has been building up during the last Uttarakhand elections. Some sadhus behaved in the most inhumane manner giving a call for the mass murder of Muslims! Raghvendra Singh, a BJP MLA from east UP's Siddharthnagar, was heard saying Muslims would switch from skull caps to 'tilak' if he were re-elected.
The Wire consolidated 34 publicly available speeches over three months (between the first week of November 2021 and the first week of February 2022), and analysed the patterns of religiously polarised speech there. It found over 100 distinct instances of “hate speech and a chilling focus on Hindu supremacist rhetoric.” It found many statements targeting a community.
Almost coinciding with the UP elections since the end of December, the hijab issue is raked up by a group of Muslim girls in Karnataka. In all these mentioned events, the TV reveled in repeatedly telecasting the provocative clips of all political leaders of MIM, BJP, and the Congress, particularly the meaty bikini statement of Priyanka Gandhi.
This was a general build-up all through targeting the TV cameras. Most succeeded. The TVs picked up insane calls and the unknown speakers got mileage. It was building up for many months, maybe more. No wonder BJP’s Nupur Sharma or Naveen Jindal were carried away by the trend and what they said about the prophet crossed the limits of decency and propriety. Wonder how a TV channel could telecast such an inappropriate vulgar statement!
Even as the two are suspended or expelled, TV anchors and channels continue to increase their ratings. The political parties have to realise that their spokespersons speak with dignity, and civility and not target minorities or any caste group, or any respected figure that could diminish India’s global reputation. Issues must be dealt with aplomb and not with passion, emotions, and false beliefs.
Never before the nation has been humiliated diplomatically by at least 15 countries, including Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Oman, the UAE, Jordan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bahrain, Maldives, Libya, Turkey, 57-nation OIC, and Indonesia, who have expressed their denunciation and rejection of insults of Prophet Muhammad, and demanded an apology from the government. The controversial remarks also sparked a trend on social media in various countries calling for a boycott of Indian products.
But the country is ignoring the misdemeanour of TV channels landing it in an avoidable diplomatic row. Had there been a regulator, possibly a suo moto action would have been initiated against the channels for violation of all norms. This is the opportunity the nation has for setting up the regulator or simply widening the ambit of the Press Council of India that has been responsible for keeping the newspapers sober.
(The writer is a veteran journalist, an observer of the socio-politico economy, and a media academician)
