RG’s yatra needs int’l media coverage

Foreign media has been diligently reporting on Indiarsquos gradual slide into bigotry It is now time for them to cover the belated pushback against the narrative of hate symbolised by Rahul Gandhirsquos Bharat Jodo Yatra which will see him traverse 3500 km on foot to highlight as the Congress saysldquosocial polarisationrdquoForeign journalists are our only hope of knowing whether the thousands who flock to Rahulrsquos yatra are there out of curiosity or are inspired by his mission to forge unity among social groups The Bharat Jodo Yatra will complete two months on November 7 the day it will trundle into Maharashtra Yet the national media has not featured vivid reports on the yatris wending their way through slumbering villages and bustling citiesIt is not that Rahul expected otherwise In May at Cambridge University Rahul said ldquoIn a 21st Century environment where your means of communication is media social media and they Bharatiya Janata Party have total dominance over thosehellipthe only way to face it is by going directly to the peoplerdquo On October 8 he said thousands of crores of media money have been spent to depict him in an ldquountruthful and wrongrdquo wayThe yatra thus is also an experiment at mobilising people around ideas without depending on the national media This experiment is relevant for the entire world that is witnessing political parties capture social media and exploit the financial vulnerability or greed of the traditional mediamdashnewspaper TV radiomdashto create perceptions anchored in falsehoods The yatra is tailormade for foreign journalistsHistory should be our lesson here A century ago Indian nationalists and the British Indian government competed to influence the American opinion Academician Chandrika Kaul in Communication Media and the Imperial Experience writes ldquoUndeniably the Civil Disobedience movement beginning with Gandhirsquos iconic Salt March to the sea served as the critical launchpad for a much more popular and sustained US media focus on the national movement reaching larger audiences than ever beforerdquoIn those decades Indian media comprised wire agencies newspapers fiercely nationalist and those in favour of the colonial government which controlled them through censorship laws and substantial subsidies For instance the government paid R9000 annually to Reuters for several years to transmit news favourable to it and R5000 was given to U N Sen of the Associate Press of India for covering the 1930 First Round Table Conference With time though wire agencies became less susceptible to the governmentrsquos blandishmentsTo win the battle of perceptions Gandhi asked the Indian Independence League to publicise the Saltmdashor DandimdashMarch The New York Times published an appeal from Gandhi At home though the Statesman said ldquoIt is difficult not to laugh at the Salt March and we imagine that will be the mood of most thinking Indiansrdquo The Times of India thought Gandhirsquos was a futile endeavourBut people flocked to Gandhirsquos march which began on April 6 1930 Journalists followed him as he headed to the coast transmitting the news of his progress worldwide The government could not have without sullying its image censored the foreign pressAfter breaking the salt law on April 6 Gandhi announced he would organise a raid on the Dharasana Salt Worksmdashand was arrested on May 4 The raid nevertheless was carried out with the police attacking unarmed volunteers The report of Webb Miller of the United Press with a haunting linemdashldquothe sickening whack of the clubs on unprotected skullsrdquomdashwas featured in 1350 newspapers worldwide writes Kaul The nationalists had trumped the British in the battle of perceptionsIn todayrsquos India traditional media owners have perhaps concluded that Rahulrsquos yatra is a futile endeavour to combat hate Or they are ideologically inclined to Hindutva Or they fear that giving space to Rahul could invite reprisals from the Union government Nothing else can explain the mediarsquos disinterest in the Bharat Jodo Yatra embarked upon by the leader of the principal opposition party even as they headline Prime Minister Narendra Modirsquos trite remarks But for The Week no magazine has had the yatra as its cover storyThe mediarsquos conduct is reminiscent of what a Home Ministry official wrote in a secret memo dated April 2 1930 ldquoWe have recognised from the beginning that Gandhirsquos campaign depends to a very large extent for its effectiveness on publicity Consequently our policy has quite definitely been to curtail the Gandhi publicityhelliprdquo That policy by design or otherwise continues even todayThe digital media unsparing in its criticism of the Modi government is too strapped for finances to report on the yatra They have commissioned the yatris to write on Rahulrsquos walkathon But theirs is a partisan view Perhaps the only exception has been the Scroll websitersquos Shoaib Daniyal One report of his was deliciously titled The 1 enemy at Congressrsquo Bharat Jodo Yatra isnrsquot the BJPmdashitrsquos the mediaForeign journalists need to know whether direct intimate contact with people can neutralise a political partyrsquos monopolistic control over the media And we need the objectivity of foreign journalists to gauge the yatrarsquos popularity Perhaps only then will Indian media barons be shamed into recognising the Bharat Jodo Yatrarsquos significanceThe writer is a senior journalistSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper