Before the advent of internet the kind of journalism that was practiced in India gave a lot of power to a chosen few. First and foremost Congress and its supporters controlled most of the media. Even the state owned media (Doordarshan and Akashvani) parroted the party lines. Now Congress was and still is a left of the center party so it is safe to say that entire media machinery was controlled by leftist liberals. Now there were some renegade journalists but they were extreme leftists who sympathized with the Communists. Janasangh was a marginal player (as far as electoral politics was concerned) and Lohiaite parties were even smaller. Journalists controlled our thought process. That was the kind of power they had. With 24 hour news channels this group became very rich as well. And of course extremely corrupt and morally compromised as we saw in the 2G scam. All this is evolution of a really corrupt system which benefitted those whose agenda dovetailed with these media crooks. We all know who these people are.
What really bothered me was the way these arrogant journalists practiced a sort of guerilla journalism. Write whatever you want (as long as it was not against Congress), slander anyone (especially those who stood up to Congress) lie like Goebbels and not fear any repercussion let alone a rebuttal. Which is exactly what Sardesai and other so called journalists practice all the time.
An interesting phenomenon happened along the way. INTERNET. This new technology provided a voice to the hitherto mute and silent sufferers. Social media and blogs gave voice to us all. Anyone with a laptop and a cellphone camera has now become a journalist. I do not have to go to JNU or Stephens to do that. I could go to the IITs, study engineering or sciences, be a real contributor to society and still voice opinions. Suddenly, false claims and accusations of the likes of Sardesai were no longer unanswered. They were hearing immediate replies to their opinions. Faced with truth and often invectives, these media mavens who were so used to getting their way, were left rattled. They developed terms like (Modi)Bhakts and trolls for people like us. We stand up to them and take their power away from them. They really loathe us and hence those terms.
Now very often replies by people over social media is very offensive, borne out of extreme anger. That needs to stop because it takes away from a genuine discourse. However for the most part these cultural nationalists play a very important part in our society. We show mirrors to the likes of Sardesai and keep them honest. Social media has provided the extremely corrupt world of Indian journalism a system of checks and balances. Social media has played an important part in winning the elections for the BJP. Narendra Modi realized the importance of the social media and provided an alternate platform for his message. By doing so he took the power away from the media crooks who had never ever left a chance to vilify Modi and every other Hindu nationalist. The word Hindu had essentially become a curse word. Social media has changed all that. People do not have to think what Sardesai and his ilk tell them. For a change, truth is out there for all to find and see. A while ago, Sardesai could have written whatever he wanted to write with no fear of a reply or a rebuttal. No longer. That is why the bhakts and trolls who are so reviled by the left are so important.
Our other posts on the topic can be read at:
http://thenethindu.blogspot.com/2012/09/internet-great-indian-equalizer.html
http://thenethindu.blogspot.com/2011/01/indian-media-vs-internet-hindus.html
http://thenethindu.blogspot.com/2014/02/narendra-modi-bypasses-media.html
