ANALYZING COVERAGE OF ANNA HAZARE’S CAMPAIGN BY DNA
(my subjective analysis)
DNA is one newspaper that has made its presence felt in a short span of time. As young as its inception in 2005, the paper is targeted mainly at the youth. This article analyses the coverage of Anna Hazare’s second fast in line with his anti corruption campaign in August 2011 on the online version of DNA. I took the online version into consideration because I wanted to see not only the news articles posted by the columnists, but also the kind of comments and feedback received by these articles which can be easily available online.
Roughly looking up pieces written around Anna’s second ‘fast-unto-death’ for the democracy, I noticed how DNA joined the popular media trend of the time to tramp the Congress and the UPA government. Columnist Seema Mustafa’s article – ‘From Hazare to Hazareji in 24 Hours Flat’ has rather hit the bull in its eyes. She made comments like – “ It started with loud assertions by Congress ministers and spokespersons that the 74-year old Gandhian and his small group of advisors were clothed in corruption, and had no right to take away Parliament’s power (read the Congress and its cronies); went on to threaten action against all those taking law into their own hands and trying to blackmail the government by threatening to go on a fast unto death (wonder what Gandhi would have to say about that!); and within 24 hours of facing the people’s wrath across India changing the language from “Hazare” to “Anna Hazareji” and crawling to meet his demands.” The language she used, the tone of her sentence, everything thing was akin to the mood of the mass at the time- anti-government and pro-Anna. She, however, does not mention the use of non-democratic practices like forming a law outside of the parliament, and threatening the government with “fast-unto-death” threats by team Anna. What has been overlooked is the possibility that such an anti-government campaign can bring about in a democracy like India, how it can serve as a pillar for all those who want to go against the government – to threaten with unconstitutional claims of fasting and also playing on the emotions of the public, molding public opinion against the government.
Another very strong comment she made was about some politicians being in power because of their Nehru-Gandhi connections, have never faced the public, do not understand the perils of common people, have turned a democracy to a dynasty in case of power-transfer and hence, are not fit to be in the positions of law-making in a country like India. I believe, making such a claim does not do any good to anyone, what it does at most, is create more anti-government feelings at an already stressed time.
The August 17 column “Exclusive: Chidambaram, Sibal, Sibal planned Anna Hazare’s arrest” by Veena Pandey and Anil Sharma is a highly suggestive piece. The title itself can create havoc in the public scene and project a derogatory image of the already infamous government and governance of India. They made strongly agitator comments like “Haunted by the 100-hour agitation in April when Hazare had forced the government to back down, the UPA’s political managers insisted that arresting him would be a better idea this time.” And “Chidambaram, Sibal and Soni — all adept in handling the media — spoke to journalists for almost an hour; but it failed to change the popular perception that the government had lost the plot by arresting Hazare.” These claims, even though they might be true, can be extremely damaging, especially when we consider some people who have done wonders in Indian politics (no matter it seems a completely different era). Evidently, arrest of Anna Hazare fuelled the situation, but the question is, as journalists, should we act as promoters to the reaction rather than serving the public with what is true, factual and not colored by emotions.
Ashutosh Kumar’s article “How Anna Hazare Upset Rahul Gandhi’s plans for UP” gives a different dimension to the effects of Anna’s campaign on the public. His campaign and fast in Tihar jail was a call for farmers suffering under land acquisition to come out of their shells and act for themselves (they planned to march to Delhi on October 18th); this rather spoiled Rahul Gandhi’s curry who was hoping to find footholds in the land acquisition issue as his trump card before UP elections through his “padyatra”.
Apart from taking a critical look at the UPA government, DNA has also tried to play the role of a guardian, as an overseer of media practices. I cannot afford to not agree with Pramod Kumar’s column “The media’s dubious role in Anna’s Agitation” where he explicitly talks about the role media as a whole has played in portrayal of Anna Hazare. As is evident, the largest consumer of news in every form – newspapers, news channels, blogs, e-papers, etcetera is the well-to-do middle class section of the society, which is also the latent or the voiceless section. This section has enormous capacity to keep itself updated and informed but seldom raises its voice. Anna’s campaign was one-of-a-kind that caused this massive section to come out of its hibernation and walk the road to voice out and demand its “haq”. Shamed and burdened by one corrupt government after the next, this section feasted on whatever was served to them by media and joined hands to draw a feeling of nationalism which had earlier been thought dead. Media played its part well. It bent down to caress its largest pet- the middle class and feed whatever was in mood then. What sold was news on corrupt government, untrustworthy politicians and schemes to scam the country further. They sufficed to all of that. It was “Media’s moment”.
DNA has been an active participant and owing to its target group-mostly the youth; DNA also went with the flow of criticizing the government, rather vehemently, like how a passionate Bhagat Singh would use his words to rouse the youth. There were names used, open claims and a lot of sensational terms and phrases used in connection with the government against Anna Hazare. However, most of the coverage done was from the point of an overreaching government and a gandhian Anna. Less has been said about Lokpal, the factual situation. So in summary, according to me, DNA has not had a very satisfactory season as the fourth estate of government in relation to being an objective reporter, but is has gone with the flow of the moment to criticize the government, glorify Gandhian values and Anna Hazare and to call for the people to work for the change they want in their governance.
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