Dreaming reality

What happened in Nandigram was extremely brutal and unjust. But another brutality that many of us did not notice is the way the mainstream media has diluted and repackaged the issue to the extent of stripping away its fundamental meaning. The resistance of thousands of farmers and villagers against displacement and loss of livelihood has been projected as a battle among political parties.

Bhumi Uchhed Protirodh Committee, the banner under which the Nandigram villagers have organised themselves, has been variously called "Trinamool-led" or "Trinamool-supported" by different newspapers. The fact is that Nandigram was a CPI(M) dominated area with hardly any Trinamool presence. Mamata Banerjee has only voiced her support for the people's movement and has promptly stolen the "leadership", according to the media. In fact, it was the CPI(M) that began this trend of making TMC the symbol of the resistance at Nandigram, even at the cost of letting them earn political mileage. That is because the parties are much more scared of ordinary, non-political citizens than their political adversaries. And that is why the mainstream media gives us every political party's perspective, while first-hand reports by non-political activists are conveniently ignored.

When the CBI arrested 10 people in connection with Nandigram violence, most newspapers chose to partially carry the news, pointing at the involvement of "outsiders". What was not reported was the fact that they were arrested with CPI(M) flags. Readers were left to speculate on the involvement of "anti-social" elements like Naxalites, Maoists, and whoever dares to oppose the powers that be.

From Soumitra Basu, editor of Anyaswar, a Bengali periodical:-

"Dainik Statesman (the Bengali Statesman) put the number to 31. The TV channels [private] displayed 18. The sole BBC correspondent Amit Bhattashali first stated 32 and then declared that as per the instruction from the Government to BBC, they are bound to quote only the Government version and therefore he was putting the number as 11. TARATV correspondent Gourango, who was apprehended by the police and was handed over to CPM goons and then (on live TV) was thrashed and foul-mouthed by CPM, puts it off the record as 100+ and on the record as "could not count"."

Even more interesting is the coverage by the Hindu, which has covered the agricultural crisis in the country very sensitively, thanks to P. Sainath being on the editorial team. However, a comparison of Hindu reports on Nandigram and the CPI(M)'s press statements reveals distinct similarities."...even as Nandigram erupted and the Communists stood exposed without their customary cloak of sanctimony, the Hindu was bowing and scraping.", writes Darius Nakhoonwala of The Hoot, a media watch organisation. The chief editor of the Hindu, N. Ram, is known for his strong allegiance towards the CPI(M) and other Marxist parties.

This systemised mis-representation of facts and distortion of perspectives goes well beyond specific issues and incidents. Over a period of time, it begins to dictate our religious, philosophical and political beliefs. Such is the power (or danger?) of propaganda. This situation is dangerous not only for the victims of injustice in places like Nandigram, but also ourselves. It is therefore extremely important for all of us to understand how the mainstream media works.

Albert Camus famously said that the true freedom of the press lies in being neither in the control of the state nor money. While this may sound utopian, it is not really out of reach. With the advent of the internet, censorship has become unfeasible and it has become much easier for ordinary individuals to publish their experiences and perspectives. I can feel it all the more when I look back at those days when I used to spend a good one hour every day reading each and every article on the Telegraph. Now I read commentaries on misinformation by the Telegraph and other english dailies. In a way, the internet has made mass-media quite democratic.

A bigger danger today, however, is the epidemic of meaningless trivia and mindless "entertainment" spreading through the television, and even the internet to an extent. Media and marketing define the beliefs and ideologies of us "consumers" just like the priests did for devotees in the past. Among other things, it makes us believe that we are not good enough being who we are and that we need to be someone else and somewhere else in order to be considered "successful".

It requires only common sense to understand that passively ingesting information that is thrown at us is much more superficial than a search for truth. In fact, it doesn't take any special qualities to attain a deeper understanding of reality. All we need to do is to give importance to the natural curiosities and countless questions that we all have.

I believe that the best sources of information are our own first-hand experiences and those of the ordinary but trustworthy people around us. But these forms of community-based media are much suppressed in urban environments where importance is given to the "formal" sources of information, and the words of the powerful ones get precedence over the words of wisdom.

A lot of what we see around us appears unsettling and at times unacceptable, and we often ask ourselves, what can we do?, what we cannot do?, what should we do?, what should we not do? These, I feel, are extremely important questions with no ready answers. These are the kinds of questions that define the way we perceive power and our role in the world around us. In order to attain wiser and deeper understandings of the contexts we exist in, we need to live through our questions and processes rather than looking for ready answers and end-results.

Links to online resources on Nandigram:-

• www.sanhati.com -- latest and exhaustive information
  
• kafila.org -- Comprehensive, politically-unbiased reports.
• bengalresistance.blogspot.com -- Collection of facts and links compiled by me
• sacredmediacow.com -- very frequent updates
• Vir Sanghvi's editorial in Hindustan Times: a pleasant surprise, as it gives an unbiased and relatively accurate representation of the situation in Bengal.

For more information on media control and it's impact on democracy, read Noam Chomsky's writings.

Questions, discussions, debates... all are welcome.