Merry-making, a pliant media, an oily narrative, straight from His playbook
- May 1
- 3 min read
The writing on the wall is clear: our so-called ‘legacy’ media is beyond salvation!
By NR Mohanty
Look at what kind of a pretender the prime minister and his government is!
Also, look at how the pliant media has been debased enough to push a narrative, straight from his playbook!
During the current bitterly-fought assembly elections, the results of which will be declared on the 4th of May, the BJP government kept assuring the voters that it will not increase the prices of petroleum products, in spite of the rising crude prices due to the US-Iran war. This assurance came as late as on the 28th April, a day before the last phase of the West Bengal elections.
Clearly, it was a part of its fraudulent design: the government had clearly made a decision to increase the petroleum prices as soon as the elections got over. But how could it do it with a straight face when it had assured the people many times during the last 30 days that the government was capable enough to absorb the shock of hike in crude prices and would not pass on the pain to the people?
The government turned to the captive ‘legacy’ media to push the fake narrative as to how the increase in oil prices had become inevitable. The instructions reportedly went from the PMO to the TV channels to play it up and build a narrative that the government must hike the petrol, diesel and domestic LPG prices to keep the Indian economy solvent.
And our servile TV channels happily obliged.
We watched yesterday -- channel after channel — prime time anchor after anchor — getting down to work as a propaganda machine for the government.
What surprised me was that even a veteran and respected TV news anchor on @IndiaToday like @sardesairajdeep, who fancies himself as a neutral news host, fell for the trap. Of all persons, he invited only Sajjid Chinoy, the man who is the chief liaison officer for JP Morgan with the Indian government, to discuss if the oil price hike was inevitable.
What did you expect?
Chinoy, who seems to have gone up the ladder toeing the line of the powers-that-be — the PM has rewarded Chinoy for his ‘unflinching loyalty’ by nominating him as a member of his Economic Advisory Council — went all out to suggest substantial increase in oil prices.
There was no counter viewpoint: both Chinoy and Sardesai kept hammering that it was unviable for the oil companies to hold the prices. They quietly sidestepped the fact that the oil companies have made a staggering additional profit of more than Rs 2.5 lakh crore in the last four years through buying oil from Russia at hugely discounted prices; but these companies have not passed on any benefit to the Indian people during this period.
If they made merry-making for four years, why can’t they suffer the pain for a few months?
By the official estimate, the oil companies have incurred a loss of about Rs 50,000 crore so far in the last two months. That’s barely 20% of the profit they have notched up since the Ukraine war made Russian oil dirt cheap.
However, if Rajdeep or Chinoy say this, they will possibly lose their job!
The writing on the wall is clear: our ‘legacy’ media is beyond salvation!
Nalini Ranjan Mohanty was Director of the Jagran Institute of Management and Mass Communication (JIMMC). He is a former Assistant Editor with The Times of India and a former Resident Editor of the Hindustan Times and The Times of India (Patna edition). He has been posting his insightful commentary on current affairs issues on Facebook, and now on Twitter.