The ubiquitous and growing Indian satellite media lost the general elections of 2019. It became the second pillar of democracy to lose trust and faith, after the Election Commission of India.  With the powerful management of print and satellite media by the Prime Minister’s Office, the various ministers, the hidden team of hundreds of monitors and the thousands of highly paid social media warriors, running the publicity war machine of the Bhartiya Janata Party, Goebells has been easily dwarfed. Whoever wins the 2019 polls, will the Indian media be able to resurrect its independence and peoples’ respect?

As we wade through the statistics of the plethora of exit polls by various channels, all pointing to the victory of Modi’s Bhartiya Janata Party and its allies,  the role the Indian media has been worrisome and unlikely to change in the near future.

It is tiring, sickening and detestable to watch a 24-hour relay of Narendra Modi -the Prime Minister of the Socialist, Secular Republic of India, wearing his Hindu religion on his sleeve and going on a pilgrimage to the Himalayas and meditating on live television, with the commentator shouting that “with the blessings of the Hindu god, Modi will definitely win the election.”

Lies, lies and more lies have been the buzzword of Indian TV channels during the entire 8-week electioneering campaign. With the exception of 1-2 channels, all others were Modi and BJP live.

A few months prior to the general elections, at the launch of his book, ace anchor and presenter NDTV’s Ravish Kumar mentioned, “in the coming days, so many lies will be said, which you would not have heard in the last few centuries.” How prophetic!

The Prime Minister of the numerically ‘largest democracy’ in the world does not address press meets. When he is present at the lone meet in five years, he ducks questions. He gives a thuggish interview to Bollywood film star Akshay Kumar.

Where are the bodies of journalists and editors? Is there a role left for them to play? Did they even welcome the release of two Reuters journalists by tyrant Myanmar? Do we have a report of how many journalists have been killed, injured, forced to resign in the last 5 years of Modi rule?

Why are Punjabi journalists silent on the developments in the Indian media world?

Political dissent has been easily muzzled and critical thinking has been crippled.  What will Indian Journalism schools teach? Psycophancy as journalistic ethics? Advertising as the primary requisite for success in journalism? Asking searching questions is bad journalism?

Ironically, it was BJP leader L K Advani who is reported to have said of the media during the emergency of 1975 that, “when asked to bend, it started to crawl.” Today, the Indian satellite media trudges at a snail’s pace, easily knocked out at the stomp of a foot.

TV screens have been blacked out. Mental screens have been blurred. Is it time to bid goodbye to satellite media and switch over to social media for some semblance of truth and facts!