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Beeline to cover Anna
Mannika Chopra

So you thought that like millions of others, the four C-formula — crime, cinema, comedy and cricket — runs news networks? Now, add another C to the magic potion — corruption. As the euphoria of India winning the World Cup dies down, television has put its stamp on corruption by covering non-stop Anna Hazare’s 97-hour fast in the heart of Delhi.

It certainly was a heady week for media’s do-gooders. It was as if suddenly TV had discovered its moral responsibility and become part of a revolution — though there is a debate about this label — zooming 24 x7 on the hunger fast taken by activist Hazare to press the government to pass the Jan Lok Pal Bill. Cameras, noted anchors, Outdoor Broadcast (OB) vans, all zoomed down to Jantar Mantar to be part of this historic protest movement, mingling with the middle class, initiating panel discussions and sms campaigns.

For most TV reporters covering their “first revolution,” this was an inspiring time Photo: Mukesh Aggarwal

Times Now carried segments with titles like “Non-stop broadcast —India’s crusade against corruption,”  “Anna’s fast, India’s march” and  “India in one voice.” Headlines Today’s Rahul Kanwar pontificated a tad when he claimed: “The timing is right and the cause is noble.” CNN IBN was saying theirs was a “Citizens against corruption campaign.”

Hindi channels were more graphic. Aaj Tak carried “Bhrashtachar Mitana Hai,”‘ along with a symbolic blood-red clenched fist. Live India TV had pithier slogans, “Kalyug mein jab phella bhrashtachar, Anna ne chedi jung,” “Bharat Mata ki shaan mein, Anna khade maidan main.” Yes, there was no getting away from the noble cause. Those who dissented like journalist Hartosh Bal on CNN-IBN’s Face the Nation, or questioned Hazare’s association with religious/spiritual leaders, were in a minority.  

For most reporters covering their first “revolution,” this was an inspiring time. Most of them would not have been born when the Emergency took place, or when Jai Prakash Narayan campaigned against corruption in the mid-70s. Now they were getting close to and intimate with the protest movement, and it showed.

There was a certain naiveté in the coverage, which was to be expected of the youth brigade. Even experienced anchors showed too much irrational exuberance when Hazare broke his fast after the government promised to set up a panel. Objectivity or, perhaps, a little distance from the news events is clearly not a hallmark of television news.

On an even more cynical note, I wonder how much coverage Hazare’s campaign would have received had he sought to undertake his fast in his village, Ralegan Siddhi, in Maharashtra, and not in easily accessible Jantar Mantar, now conceived as India’s very own Tahirir Square. How would the revolution for democracy, decency and probity, stoked by the media, fared then?

One has to be grateful to television, though. If you are one of those cribbers who find little to watch because everything looks the same, I suggest you switch on to BBC Entertainment, which I thought had simply turned into another Discovery and National Geographic, full of orangutans and assorted endangered species. The network had, for some reason, cut off its hugely entertaining British dramas and sitcom in favour of mothers — Nature and Earth.  I was perhaps one of the loudest to grumble. But I spoke too soon. See some of these new programmes, and you know you are watching premium class stuff.