Info Bubble created by Indian Media
I have been living outside India for more than a decade now, and it gives me a unique vantage point to see what is happening in my country as I still follow the Indian news religiously (Business & Geopolitics sections only), but sometimes the narrative that gets built by media is so strange and so over the top that it becomes incomprehensible when you try to balance it with other instances happening around the world. It gives a feeling that as per Indian media everything happening in the world is because of Indian politics, or Indian design.
I am writing this as a summary post of 2022 where some of the instances where I felt Indian media got it dead right but somewhere they were way off the mark. By off the mark, I mean not that the event they highlighted was incorrect, but the reasons they quoted as precursor or causality of the event is somewhere else, but it was attributed to the Indian shadow on world politics.
Mind you, I try to watch both sides of Indian media as I have noticed that within media too there is a clear demarcation of party loyalty, and media being neutral is the thing of the past or gets a mention in only ideology-centric or history-related posts.
Post-Covid Economic rebound and Indian growth story — Media did get this right (Most of it)
India did get benefitted from the post-Covid recovery and the world bank’s audacious comment recently that there is no possibility of recession hitting Indian markets was seen as great work of the current Modi Govt. I don’t want to take away the good efforts done in by the Govt, but I would say this, fortune favors the brave, India was doing many things right and that’s why World’s fixation and irritation for China did put a lot of light on Indian presence and Indian did cash in on a lot of the opportunities that came their way.
Russia-Ukraine Conflict and Modi’s influence — The media overstated the real impact
Modi’s govt was very forceful and rightly so in the early days of the conflict as India was engaged to get its students and other citizens out of Ukraine. While doing that they did a lot of good Samaritan work and helped many other countries to get their citizens out too. Till that point, the media’s praise was fitting & the government’s performance was duly highlighted. When it comes to putting pressure on Putin to roll back the troops and stop the war, India neither has that influence nor the will to engage Russia more than just a small comment here and there. Indian media may feel that India is driving a lot of levers, but the real button still is there in China’s hands to stop Russia. West’s fixation to put a moral obligation on India to do more in this is akin to what they used to do with Pakistan when they used to push Pakistan to “Do More” for their fight against terrorism efforts.
S Jaishankar’s bravado and standing up to Europe — Indian Media hypes it a lot
What Sh. S. Jaishankar is doing is commendable and fantastic. All I can say is that finally, India has got an External Affairs minister that is really doing his / her job well. This has happened after a really long time. The last good move done by any foreign minister before the current BJP’s govt (I am including the late Smt. Sushma Swaraj in the same brilliance level as Sh. S Jaishankar) was Sh. I K Gujral when he did a lot of leg work to get the Look East policy of India its initial push when he got India as a non-permanent charter holder of ASEAN, which Sh. Narasimha Rao messed up when he was the Foreign Minister in 1980. In a way Sh. I K Gujral was correcting the mistakes committed by Sh. P V Narsimha Rao in the past. India has had such low standards of foreign ministers that anyone doing their job seriously is hailed as a Hero among the duds. I appreciate what Sh. S Jaishankar has done this, and I feel this has laid down a great foundation for the next decade. I hope he remains at the helm for a long time to come.
Inflation criticism of Modi Govt. –Shri Shri Ravish Kumar (Ignore real economics & just blame govt)
Believe it or not, the whole world suffered in 2022, and not just because of Covid, but because of US FED, when they decided to raise the interest rates record 7 times in the span of just 3 months. No matter what we think about the USA, the global economy is driven by the USA for the most part. Everyone in the Finance sector knows that as developed nations, developed western countries enjoy low inflation and steady growth rate while developing economies struggle to balance their economies with their loans from rich countries (through IMF or World Bank), high inflation, and the managing their expenditures to get utilities and necessities available to their high population masses. This means, developing countries need to show good growth to keep the funds flowing in them from the west. The USA can nullify all this just by raising interest rates. Raising interest rates means an investor can earn the same returns by keeping the money in the USA with a much lower risk. This dries up capital from developing economies and their inflation skyrockets.
Japan is a prime example. The world’s third-largest economy is down to its knees, thanks to this fiscal tightening by US Fed. Once a 5Tn economy may close 2022 at 4.1Tn USD as their currency fall is so spectacular that it’s almost 20% weakened. Where the Indian Currency weakened by only 5.5%. Another case is the UK. Sterling Pound crashed and burnt by 35% at its worse in 2022 and still is down by 24% after some recovery since Mr/ Sunak took the helm. This has widened the gap between India and UK by 250 Bn USD in the GDP, where India just crossed the UK as the 5th largest economy only in Q4 2021.
Media’s constant fixation on Rahul Gandhi and his coming of age — It’s no longer funny
Creating memes on Rahul Gandhi is a common pass time for a lot of BJP supporters, but this has gone to a level of such low standard that it is no longer funny. Congress still holds a certain vote share in Indian masses, and their utter disregard for all those supporters is not just baffling, but an outright insult. By all his acts, it looks like, RAGA has started to put his hard yards with the Indian public with the latest Bharat Jodo Yatra, but the outcome is still pending. We have yet to see if this effort will bring some sort of winnability or if this was just an exercise in vain. I still don’t see any policy-related talk by Rahul Gandhi, he only talks about the Hindu-Muslim divide.
Indian Origin Rishi Sunak becoming UK PM — Desperation to claim every Hindu as Pseudo Indian
Rishi’s efforts, his hard work, his educational background, his engagement in British politics, his deft handling of exchequer portfolio as Chancellor of Finance akin to India’s Finance ministry portfolio, and his moral stand to resign from Boris Johnson’s cabinet due to increasing high-headedness of latter while being the PM, is all means to nothing. But the moment Rishi was becoming a potential Heir apparent, Indian media baptized him as a long-lost Indian son from Ramesh Sippy’s retro movie of the Bollywood 70–80s. He is as British as they come, a product of British education and lifestyle, and is super loyal to his country of birth. There are no discounts on geopolitics.
Hyper-fascination with Indian Origin CEOs — Claiming victory is getting boring now
Yes, we should be proud of Indian-origin people doing well in many spheres of life, but Indian media instead of realizing the real factors behind these success stories, oversimplify and bring all the stories in the common basket of Indian Origin factor as a common denominator. This means we’re disregarding each person’s unique struggles, challenges, backgrounds, education, adaptation stories, success factors, and tumultuous journey. Yes, many of them are from IITs, and yes most of them are brainy and are very hard working, disciplined and products of hyper-competition that the Indian system pushes them into.
It is obvious that with crushing pressure you’re bound to generate gems & diamonds, but have we looked back and realized how much the current education standard is getting diluted in school grading, where there is a policy not to fail kids and pass them, nonetheless? Focus on Maths is diluting, and in Delhi’s so-called great education model of AAP, only 50% of Govt schools have science available as a subject post-10th grade. How can we maintain the standard if we’re deliberately killing the standards of our existing generation of students?
Conclusion
India is becoming increasingly entrenched in the global economic system. India becoming 5th largest economy wasn’t the news, it’s who we surpassed to become 5th largest that made it more impactful. Passing the UK to become 5th largest economy means a massive spotlight will come to India, and more countries will look towards India with curiosity and questions. Our judiciary, public policy, foreign policy, fiscal policy, geopolitical maneuvering, media, debates, our social outlook, lifestyle, everything will come under the microscope. As we proceed to surpass Germany and Japan, this intensity will be increased. We need to be better equipped and more mature in our reactions to the world order. Our media must become a standard that the world will follow. We can’t err the way BBC has, in the past few decades.
