Ravi Ranjan Sinha / Tumult and noise of Gujarat elections have died down and a government elected peacefully and democratically is in place. All political parties have accepted it , some reluctantly, but without much clamour nonetheless.. The media however, does not appear to have reconciled to it even a week after the results of elections became known.
Soon after exit poll results on December 20 in panel discussions on TV news channels some participants representing political parties came up with the argument that the outcome of Gujrat elections should be viewed as Narendra Modi’s victory and not of the Bhartiya Janata Party.This argument clearly implied that the electorate did not prefer the BJP to the Congress in a visibly bi-polar polity but was swayed by a personalized campaign of the Gujrat chief minister which, some of them including anchors of TV channels suggested and not very indirectly, had clear sectarian slant.To buttress their argument they pointed out that Modi had not fielded a Muslim candidate ignoring the fact that members of the community had probably not sought BJP’s nomination.
On December 20 a known TV anchor, a lady, was virtually wailing over the exit poll projects calling the possibility of Narendra Modi an unfortunate development. Such a partisan approach by a person who is supposed to be objective was most uncalled for and was characterized by a very senior journalist Tavleen Singh as being against journalistic ethics. Tavleen went on to say that the leady anchor and another known face of Indian TV had been carrying out a campaign against the Gujrat chief minister for years.
The media expectedly reacted sharply to Modi saying in his victory speech that it had been anti-Gujrat (Gujrat Virodhi) and not been able to digest the fact the he had sought votes on the basis of development the State had won.
The media persisted with this slant when commenting on Modi’s victory speech insisted that the Gujrat CM had apologized for his “mistakes” suggesting that it was in the context of 2002 riots though it had an entirely different undertone. It was comment made in humility assuring his electorate that if he could not fulfill his promise made earlier he would review it and rectify the mistake.
In an article published on the edit page of a multi-edition Hindi daily on December 24 an editor of a TV channel after a long argument concluded that Modi’s was victory of sectarian politics and against the secular India’s policy of inclusive growth.Surprisingly, this distiguised editor seems to suggest if there is no Muslim of the BJP results of development, roads, electricity, industrialization, would elude the community. This , at best, is a jaundiced view of things.
Such an opinion on the part of a political party like the Congress is understandable but for if the media has this it opens itself to the charge of being biased.
