Did Media fail to see the Writings on the Wall?

“You can cut all the flowers but you cannot keep Spring from coming.” 
― Pablo Neruda

In the backdrop of the election results, I would like to analyze how the media has fulfilled its basic responsibility i.e. to unfold the truth. At the outset of a clear wave, the media has deliberately failed to deliver their basic function, either by hiding the obvious, or by giving the partial information. In most of the North and western states the media has projected that there is an even battle between the NDA and the opposition. I do not subscribe to the criticism that many channels and news papers publish “paid news”, but believe that all the hype was created to increase the TRP and to maintain continued interest. People likes suspense dramas and melodramas rather than known ending.

 The greatest hype was created in Bihar where there was a three way battle between the NDA, the UPA and the JD (U). The media has written off the JD(U) at the starting itself. Initially most of the media have predicted a landslide for the BJP. But as the election dates are approached, they have created a photo finish competition as they started telling about a MY (Muslim-Yadav) combination gaining momentum. ND TV has spoken about “The Muslim-Yadav combination is triggering a RJD comeback in Bihar”. I would like to quote from the article “The Muslim-Yadav (MY) combine is also working well in Madhubani and Darbhanga, two seats which the BJP had won in 2009. (Lalu Prasad confident of his party's victory says, 'no Modi wave in Bihar')”. But the final results show that both the constituencies went to BJP. Prabhat P Ghosh, director of the Asian Development Research Institute, a think-tank in Patna has categorically denied any Modi wave in Bihar, in an interview with Business Standard. Irrespective of all this posturing NDA have won 31 out of 40 seats in Bihar, which any journalist could have seen, but purposefully hidden from the public.

Even in Uttar Pradesh, where there was clear wave, the media hid the fact from the people. According to media except in western UP, because of the riots of Muzaffarnagar, all the other constituencies it was a tough fight. Times of India has even gone to the extent of making BSP the dark horse in UP. They have given headlines such as “BJP surges ahead, Maya may be dark horse”, “BSP may emerge as kingmaker in Delhi” indicated either the lack of professional wisdom or mere contempt for professional ethics media possess these days. The First Post, infamous for writing articles based on the political affiliations of the journalist has written in an article

BSP may emerge as kingmaker in Delhi

The question that needs asking is that if a number of non-Dalit voters who were not all Muslims and were therefore caste Hindus ignored the BJP and the SP and plumbed for the BSP even though it was the year of its anti-incumbency, including on seats where it was clearly not a likely winner, why would such voters desert her in an election when the SP, the state's governing party that replaced Mayawati's rule two years ago, stands wholly discredited?

How can the journalists clearly miss the mark when the result was so obvious? It can be concluded that they are either inept or don’t possess professional skills which made them blinded.

The same case happened in Karnataka, Delhi, Rajasthan and many other states.

NDTV on April 12 has published an article which said there was a neck and neck race between Congress and BJP in the state. But when the final results were announced BJP romped home with a comfortable tally of 17 seats.

Delhi, which BJP swept also, was projected as a state where AAP is was giving a tough fight to BJP. Many polls and news reports have shown different vote share projections, caste equations and Muslim consolidation, in order to sell the idea of a tough fight, but eventually BJP has won it all with a 43% vote share.

Finally it is interesting to quote some news reports which portray that there is no Modi Wave even if BJP would win the elections. Many so called journalists were very reluctant to give Modi and BJP its due compliments. Saber-rattling was started well before the elections. Hasan Suroor had written in an article published by the First Post, “Sorry BJP, Exit Poll Reveal there is no Modi Wave. His argument was that it can only be considered as a wave only if BJP could get more than 350 seats. What the journalist missed here was that the phenomenal rise of BJP even in states where they didn’t have proper organizational structure like UP and Assam. People have whole-heartedly voted for an individual, who they thought will find some solace to their problems such as scams, price rise, unemployment etc, by developing a road map towards development and prosperity. People have accepted his slogan “Minimum Government, Maximum Governance”!