Indian media, known for its exaggerations and over-coverage of certain events, was found napping at a time when a political revolution was brewing in the Indian capital before the December assembly elections. It seemed as if most TV channels suddenly woke up when the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) won 28 of the 70 Delhi Assembly seats, and after the refusal by the BJP, decided to form the government with an outside but unconditional support from Congress. But very few showed their awareness during the weeks before the election when the party was slowly moving towards making history and demonstratingagain and again, that even bad media coverage cannot deter it from reaching its goal.
As was widely expected, the well-entrenched political parties like the Congress and BJP first rejected the party as a joke, then refused to even recognise it as serious competition. In the end when it fared better than their expectations, they tried to pretend that the new party was no different than what they themselves are. They ignored AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal’s repeated honest statements that his party is not fightingjust to come to power, but to serve the people. For the media to be duped by the false impressions created by the two main parties with vested interests, exposed how naive it really is. Even the voter was able to separate the grain from the chaff, so what was our electronic media’s problem? May be Kejriwal was right when he claimed that some media have been paid huge money by the two stunned political parties to somehow defame the AAP and to give it a limited and tainted coverage. So there was even a sting operation concocted by an unknown media outfit to defame the party but ironically that channel itself was exposed in the process.
The two main parties also got exposed in the process when they spoke with a forked tongue. The BJP first egged on the AAP by repeatedly accusing it of shirking its responsibility by not offering to form the government, despite the fact that it had more seats than the AAP. But once the AAP decided to form the government, the same BJP went on every TV channel to accuse Kejriwal of lusting for power because he accepted support from the Congress after describing it as the most corrupt party during the election campaign. That showed clearly how the BJP leaders were in jitter.
The Congress — who after ruling New Delhi for 15 years lost and got only eight seats — tried to trap AAP to form the government by offering “unconditional support”, thinking that Kejriwal will not accept it and justify its allegations that it is shirking responsibility. But when Kejriwal accepted their offer, the Congress was also in jitters and leaked the news to TV channels that it is reconsidering the offer because there is a divide within the Congress. A senior member of Mani Shankar Aiyer’s status said on Headline News that the unconditional support was only for “forming the government and not beyond that”. May be the party was asking itself questions about giving support to Kejriwal who has said that once his party comes to power, he is going to fully investigate the corruption scandals of the Congress government that ruled Delhi for the past 15 years.
So the Congress and BJP strategy was to kill AAP’s reputation through a thousand cuts. One of the better examples was when Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde questioned the sources of AAP’s funding, insinuating that AAP’s was getting illegal foreign donations. It backfired and AAP donation register didn’t stop ringing. As a result, AAP achieved its target of Rs 20 crore for Delhi elections way before its expectation. Then Kejriwal decided that AAP will not accept more donations for some time as their target for Delhi had been met. This was unmatched and unprecedented. No political party had ever been that honest. But this exemplary policy did not get the necessary media attention or coverage.
The media did not even investigate Anna’s allegations against the AAP about misusing his brand. No one talked about how Anna had been absent from active activism for one whole year before the elections. No one tried to report the fact that besides seeking his blessing, not even a single AAP poster had mentioned his name, and none of the AAP candidates had ever spoken about Anna. Also that none of the AAP messages or emails seeking donation ever mentioned his name.
The point is that Kejriwal and his team got the media coverage they deserved only after the party gained 28 seats and then, reluctantly, formed the government. But that was an ‘after-the-fact coverage’. Unfortunately, the electronic media did not feel the pulse of the common man and let a brewing political revolution just pass by. The result is that now many people believe that the media can be easily influenced by the powerful to not only ‘under-report’ but also to simply ignore the popular issue based on what suits the power lords.
There have been very few examples in India so far when journalists have either ignored or deliberately missed such a significant tipping point in Indian politics. And this time it has left the aamaadmi wondering if it was because the Indian media is still learning the ropes, or was it intentional.
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