Such Is Our Media

28.04.2011, NDTV Hindi

Last night there was a short run on NDTV Hindi in order to debate the cause of Endosulfan. One person speaking against the ban (Anil Kakkar), one for it (Sunita Naraian), and three hosts. Three hosts that were already for the ban, therefore, clearly, the program was heavily on one side. Four against one speaker.

If you haven’t already noticed that this news channel is pushing its viewers to take a side, that the news is already bought, then notice when every time the speaker against the ban attempts to speak, he is over ruled by not one, but 4 speakers! Is this a democratic country we are living in? Is this freedom? IS THIS THE TRUTH WE ARE HEARING?

Anyways, so here’s what NDTV Hindi has to say:

It begins with a short documentary on the Kasargod “victims” of endosulfan. Now, here’s what the speaker against the ban was attempting to say, and it’s what all the speakers against the ban have always tried to ask: How is it that only the people in Kasargod show such extreme symptoms!! (We’ll come to their response within this show in a minute) Not just other parts of India, but other parts of the entire world have been using Endo, need I repeat – since 50 years! And the people we are talking about are farmers, who use but a prescribed dose of the pesticide. But what about the thousands who are producing endosulfan, working in factories and plants where it is manufactured, being exposed to such a god forsaken chemical day in and day out! By now their entire families should’ve been wiped out! But is that so?? Last I heard they were protesting against the ban through a peaceful march in Gujarat, for if this pesticide is banned, they’re going to loose their jobs! If you didn’t know about this, its because the media refused to cover it!

So now, in response to the question, NDTV Hindi show us another short documentary filmed in Madhya Pradesh. If you fall for this one, then congratulations, you pass for American IQ! First of all, the documentary gets two different products mixed up, endosulfan and celphos! When questioned about this by our speaker,  the NDTV speaker responds by saying that it is one and the same thing! And that they cut the endosulfan bit (I thought the debate was centering around endosulfan, why would you cut that bit??!). Then NDTV actually tells us that Endosulfan should be banned because farmers die when they drink it! Have we Indians come down to that dumb a level that a pesticide package needs to say “If you drink this you die!”??? Have we come down to that dumb a level, that we are asking to ban a product because certain farmers committed suicide by consuming this product!! Shame on these news channels! And shame on us if we don’t see through these lies and let our country go for a toss!

And finally, Miss Sunita Naraian! A threat to India’s development! Just one question for her: Do you sleep peacefully at night?