HYDERABAD: Dubbing the mainstream Indian media as “instruments of State”, political editor of The Caravan magazine, Hartosh Singh Bal, laid bare how post-independence, the lack of a funding model in media has allowed ‘Big Capital’ to subjugate it and use it to enforce the biddings of its old ally, the government.
Speaking at the 9th memorial meeting of ‘Remembering Balagopal’, an annual event commemorating the late social activist K Balagopal, Bal said, “Right from Independence, media in the country never took off. The government does not fund media, and if you are not developing a model to fund it, then it has to be funded by somebody. The very lack of setting up of a structure, meant that media was a subject of the Big Capital from the start.”
What is the Big Capital? “People of wealth, who brought in caste and class into journalism,” Bal answered. “The national media was called the jute media, that was because it was owned by jute barons. Marwaris from Rajasthan and their diaspora became owners of much of the national media. They embodied the interests of the ruling business class and also a certain type of ideology from the very beginning.” This ideology found an umbrella to secure itself with under the BJP government since 2014, he added.
He recounted an instance from 2003 when the industrialists Jamshed Godrej and Rahul Bajaj criticised the-then Chief Minister of Gujarat Narendra Modi for his handling of the Gujarat riots in a meeting of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). Within a month of the incident, Modi ‘took apart’ the CII and created a parallel body of industrialists who supported him and did not relent until the CII issued an official apology, Bal said. “From that day onward, there was not a single instance of industrialists publicly criticising Modi,” he added “The message was clear.”
Bal outlined three reasons how the media is being pressurised by the current government. First was the “fear of Modi”, he said. “Any instances of media trying to assert their independence have been acted against,” he explained, giving the example of a New Delhi-based newspaper whose editor-in-chief was allegedly sacked because of his ‘anti-Modi’ policies. Secondly, he said, the media owners have been voluntarily submitting themselves to the ideology of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, parent organisation of the ruling BJP. Thirdly and most importantly, “There is a complete match of mind between the industry and Modi.”
Highlighting the fading importance of the Working Journalist’s Act, brought to shield journalists from those in power, he stressed on the “illegality of hiring journalists on a contractual basis”. A journalist cannot take call upon the Act if hired under a contract system, he explained.
Human rights activism of mathematician K Balagopal
Hyderabad: An uncompromising human rights activist and mathematician, K Balagopal was remembered by activists, journalists among others at a function held in the city on Sunday marking the eve of his death anniversary. Balagopal was known as “the conscience of the collective self known as Andhra society” — with 30 years of his work focusing chiefly on politics and culture of his home state. Caravan magazine’s political editor Haritosh Singh Bal said, “There is an intellect that shines through his writings. Perhaps since I too taught mathematics before becoming a journalist, I realise how difficult it is to write with precision and clarity, to build up an argument step by step with facts and, yet, hold reader’s attention. He did that in every article he wrote.”