The battle lines are drawn. The Retd. Generals on both sides of the border are war-ready. Defence ministers on both sides are competing in declaring the other country ‘hell’. People are screaming for action and as if almost on cue, some news channels have declared war.
The battle lines are drawn. The Retd. Generals on both sides of the border are war-ready. Defence ministers on both sides are competing in declaring the other country ‘hell’. People are screaming for action and as if almost on cue, some news channels have declared war.
Yes, all the crash, boom, bang you hear right now, is coming from a TV newsroom. They use payback, revenge, war, bombs and nukes casually, making it sound like it is as simple as deciding to go for a stroll in the park. Switching off may be an option, but let’s not forget they contribute to the narrative that becomes popular, but not ideal.
Since none of the above options have been chosen by the government as of now and sensibly so, the news channels are now finding new retaliatory measures to hit out at Pakistan. The next on their agenda is for the world to declare Pakistan a terror state and online petitions have begun. Like someone on Twitter mentioned next, the news channels will demand a seat for themselves in the UN to show them how it’s done!
In a more refined version, the message being the same as that of the threat issued by a political party, their focus has now moved to the actors and artistes coming to India from the other side of the border.
Upcoming releases of these actors are being held hostage little realising that the film consists not just of one actor, but an entire team that gets impacted because of movie boycott calls.
As I write this, the Uran terrorist alert declared after a schoolgirl spotted suspicious armed men in the area, has been declared a figment of the girl’s imagination. As already stretched security agencies combed the length and the breadth of the area to look for these ‘armed terrorists’ , their anger at such hoaxes is totally understandable. This ‘prank’ — I can’t help but think is an outcome of an overactive mind — gets strengthened when one looks at the hysteria the media ends up creating.
The ripple effect of this alert was most felt on all the school parents’ WhatsApp groups! It was difficult to differentiate fact from fiction with constant unverified updates keeping these groups buzzing. Whoever came up with ‘Lies travels halfway around the world till the time truth is putting on its shoes’ must have not realised how prophetic his words would be in times to come.
There is an urgent need for the jingoistic, prone-to-hysteria and frenzied news channels to realise their responsibility doesn’t end at creating more viewership. Their responsibility is to report facts, not air opinions. What this only ends up doing, is pushing the wrong message to people and corner the government into taking some hasty decisions.
When times such as these are fraught with tensions, one must allow those equipped to handle these situations space and bandwidth to decide, without burden of expectations. So whenever you feel the next urge to outrage to hit back take a deep breath and count to ten. This is advice I give to my children, can easily apply here, too!
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 "Priyanka Chaturvedi")
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