The contemporary media in this country has always been
popular for unearthing scams and controversies suo moto. But what proves evocative is the fact that
how all those revelations have changed the mind-set of the common man. Truly,
it is because of the media that the ‘common man’ is aware of institutions such
as The TRAI, CAG and PAC. It is of utmost importance that the working of such
institutions and how they exactly carry out their tasks be published and that is
something the media does impeccably.
So how would a common man react? Join the Anna Hazare movement probably?
Or support Aruna Roy’s NCPRI and believe in their slogan of reclaiming
democracy and challenging corruption. It might be a ‘hard choice’ for people,
but then again it is fortunate that at least we have a choice. Regarding the
government and their popular ‘scams’, most of the present society has virtually
lost hope, and how can one argue with that?
For the common man getting up every morning, and reading the first page
of the newspaper, he gets to know how well his government is performing. Every
day he/she is up for a surprise. It might be the Prime Minister appointing a
corrupted bureaucrat to head the
institution which addresses corruption( P.J Thomas a CVC head, later being
quashed by the Supreme Court), or MLA’s watching porn while the House is in
session. With all this, there can be
only two outcomes, people losing hope completely or anarchy, the latter being
an ephemeral possibility. So, when the common man does lose hope, he
doesn’t care about anything that will not impact his day to day life. He is not
willing to act against any kind of injustice, since he doesn’t believe in the judiciary.
When he realizes (from the media) that justice, if at all served to the protégé,
takes more than a lifetime; he loses the basic zest to even try and fight for
justice. In a situation like this, it is almost impossible to get rid of all
immoralities prevalent in the society. And why should be the media be blamed
for this? Let the state of Gujarat be an example. If asked about the state and
its history to the common man, he/she will be well aware of the Godhra riots,
Narendra Modri’s list of controversies and issues as such. But what are the
chances that he/she knows about the effort put forward by social activist Medha
Patkar and others during the Narmada Bachao Andolan? Now why is such news not glorified? Is it
that ‘positive’ news gains less attention that scams and controversies? We know
more about the controversies celebrities get into, rather than know their
positive works. Is it the mind-set that has to be changed? As for now, the only
thing the media has done to influence the mind of the ‘common man’, is turning
them to cynics, and I thought the teachers of my college were good enough for
that.
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