Party trying to create propaganda machinery by dividing, aligning journalists in West Bengal
After engineering a vertical split in the West Bengal intelligentsia, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee has now trained her guns at mediapersons.
The strategy is identical to the one she used to divide intellectuals — offer prize advisory posts in the party, election tickets in Trinamool bastions, high posts in new channels and publications sponsored by pro-Trinamool business houses and party leaders and finally, financial patronage to media-related associations and organisations.
After the 2009 Lok Sabha election, there have been several incidences where Trinamool leaders and intellectuals aligned to the party tried to influence election of office-bearers in media-related organisations.
There has been no direct meddling, but Trinamool leaders are definitely sending feelers to scribes through mediapersons known to be close to Mamata.
In the recent civic polls, Mamata had fielded a scribe working for a local Bengali channel in the Bidhannagar municipality, considered a party bastion. The brother-in-law of a high-profile Trinamool leader was naturally elected.
After winning the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) election, the Trinamool chief and railway minister announced the formation of a special advisory committee for KMC. The committee includes, among others, at least two scribes known as “good boys” in the party circle.
Of late, a number of popular Kolkata-based scribes have received calls from fellow journalists considered Trinamool confidants with offers of lucrative jobs in select channels and publications and financial backing to contest for posts in a particular media-related association on behalf of a particular panel.
A senior scribe employed with a Bengali daily said Trinamool started the process of dividing the media immediately after the 2009 Lok Sabha results.
“A couple of news channel and scribes were identified by Trinamool leaders and tasked with informing others in the profession of the timings and venues of party press conferences. In fact, the select group of journalists decides how many questions a Trinamool leader holding a press briefing will take and who will get the opportunity to ask those questions. This is not right, but, unfortunately, some of us are succumbing to Trinamool tactics,” she said.
Another senior journalist pointed out, “Earlier, political parties would try to influence media houses and ignore scribes. This is the first time attempts are being made to influence individual journalists by dividing them.”
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