On September 1, 2020, there were some 91 retired Civil Servants [IAS, IPS, IFS…] who served our nation under various capacities in the States and at the Centre have joined together and wrote a letter to various Ministers and Authorities in Government of India condemning the abominable act of Sudarshan News TV Channel and calls for penalizing the Channel.

Their concern was; the Channel conducted a scandalous, hatred and divisive media trial against the Muslim Community under the tag “UPSC Jihad.” According to the retired bureaucrats, UPSC is known in this Country for conducting fair and transparent civil service exams and with the rise of Muslim civil service winners to some 3+ percentage in the competition, the Channel projected the rise to that of “UPSC Jihad.”

In one of the debates in The Constituent Assembly in 1948, when members insisted the Journalists be given a special rights under the law, to which the Drafting Committee replied that the existing freedom of expression applicable to all its citizens in this country and is sufficient to the Journalists. I salute their wisdom – had there been a special statutory rights vested on the media, what could be the fate of our Country, today?

An unfair and away from professional ethics, media in India, particularly the electronic and social media behave like hyenas prowling for their prey [TRP ratings] and they constantly undermining the democratic principles and secular credentials of our Country not only within the land but offshore too!

Until a decade ago, Indian media was respected globally for their upright journalism, today it has gone to the death-knell, and we could see lots of criticism against our Channels and our heroic Journalists – who knew nothing but shouting and shouting and imposing their autocratic and dogmatic attitude and culture on the poor participants and who come to their Channels for the paltry sum of monies.

We have loads of video clippings in the social media, wherein a Journalist gets a chance to meet the Prime Minister of this Country and he raises questions like – whether he holds valet in his pocket, whether he eats mangoes… All sorts of absurdity could only be seen in the Indian Channels – despite the fact that we have so many checks and balances in the form of laws in this Country!               

About two decades ago, when I went to learn Journalism in Delhi’s Bhavan, I was taught good and bad of reporting and all those teachers who were veterans in their respective fields have taught us to be a mirror of the Society while reporting. We were told, Journalist are witness to the incidents and your readers have complete trust on you, they believe you and your writings and what you say to them in your medium…

WHERE ARE WE TODAY?