There were moments back there on Sunday and Monday when you seriously considered digging a bomb shelter. “Now enough” said, Sudarshan News, “Abki baar, seema paar” proclaimed ETV. In TV news studios, retired senior army officers had declared war: “The LoC is over. Indian troops can go across” (R.S. Singh, CNBC Awaaz), time for “Indian troops on Pakistan soil” (Gaurav Arya, India Today), “hit back” (R.K. Singh, all channels), “Give a military response, time to call their (nuclear threat) bluff”, (G.D. Bakshi, News X), “We should form our own fidayeen (Shankar Roy Choudhary, NDTV 24×7), “become like Israel” (Sahgal, News 24).
“Kya full-fledged war ho sakta hai?” asked the Zee News anchor. It was just past 3 pm on Sunday afternoon, less than 12 hours since a terrorist attack had killed 17 Indian soldiers in Uri and we were already on the brink of war. Bas, “dil hone chhahiye”, said Brig A. Kapoor (News World India). On and on it went without surcease: India needs to take overt, covert action, use drones, mount surgical strikes, declare war, nuclear war (Sushant Sareen) — these and other violent suggestions were tossed into TV news debates as casually as a peanut into the mouth.
Understandably, everyone was deeply upset by the Uri attack and enraged by Pakistan’s overt or covert involvement. What better place to vent your feelings than the TV studio — or social media — where the first casualty is restraint?
Other than breaking news on high-level government meetings and spot reports from Uri on Sunday, TV news latched onto every former military man it could find and they were raring to have a go at the enemy. It was as if they had climbed back into their army uniforms — Lt. General Jaswal appeared in his dashing army headgear — and were headed straight across the LoC. “The time for talk was over,” said Major General A. Karim (Zee News).
But war, it seemed, had been declared not only across the border. News X had identified the enemy within. On Sunday afternoon, it went after the Left — for advocating talks in Kashmir with all stakeholders — Left liberals and the Congress. Anchor Rahul Shivshankar cornered Congressman C. R. Kesavan on AFSPA. Now, where was this coming from and where was it going?
On Monday, Shankar went after the “doves”, people like Kavita Krishnan who had not, he claimed, publicly spoken on the Uri attack. Very odd of him, but all of a piece with the one voice, one nation narrative that seems to be overtaking television, barring a few sane voices such as Ravish Kumar, NDTV India.
By Monday, war had been declared on Pakistan especially on Times Now, News X, India Today and CNN News’s “India’s #AsalUttarUri”. These channels gave the impression that they knew everything the government was thinking and planning to do. Thus, Monday afternoon, Times Now, India Today and CNN News gave us “exclusive” details of the government’s “thought process” (Times Now) on its post-Uri strategy, no matter they differed, significantly, with each other’s versions. By Tuesday, they declared that 10 terrorist “infiltrators” had been killed by India although there was no government confirmation of this number. Do they know something — or more — than the authorities do?
On Tuesday evening, some balance was restored. The Buck Stops Here (NDTV 24×7) looked at how Pakistan sought to internationalise the Kashmir issue, To The Point (India Today) considered the security lapses that may have led to the tragic attack at Uri. The war cries were subdued, if only momentarily.
Two other stories diverted the TV wars from the LoC: The video of a young girl being stabbed mercilessly — shown far too often on Tuesday — and the end of romance with Brangelina.
Sometimes, nothing makes sense any more.
The Article First Appeared In The Indian EXPRESS
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