My column in today’s DNA

If you live in India, or indeed anywhere in the world, and are a regular consumer of news – it would be easy to believe that the only thing that will solve the world’s problems is a giant meteor crashing into earth and wiping out much of humanity. According to the news media – there are politicians and political parties who are so busy posturing and advancing their own agenda that their party or country comes a distant second. There are corporations that rape and pillage the environment, in connivance with politicians, till there is nothing left to sustain us. There are men so foul and so vile that they pick up random women, batter, brutalise, rape and kill them. There are people so terrible that they see nothing wrong in trading children for sex. There are mothers-in-law who burn their daughters-in-law, mothers who kill their daughters and parents who torture their children. There are leaders who use religion to divide the people, there are God Men who use the name of the almighty to con the faithful and there are priests who use religion to keep people subjugated. Villages are dismal, tribal areas without hope, and the nation plummeting towards ruination. It is a world where terrorists have the upper hand with a bomb likely to go off anytime. It is a country with regions like Bastar and Poonch where no normal life is possible; everyone who is a Muslim is against the Uniform Civil Code, and everyone who is a Haryanvi Hindu supports the Khap. In this world, Maharashtra and Maharashtrians hate outsiders, UP and Bihar full of murderers and everyone in Tamil Nadu hates Hindi. This is the world as brought to you by the news media. In short, it is a world without hope, without decency, without the desire for consensus and living in peace. But, is only this our world?
In reality, the world is a nicer and safer place than this. It is a world where more good things happen than bad. Yet, the bad makes the news and the good ignored.
Some points to ponder on:
• There is development – it may not be as much or as fast as we want it to be, but it would be erroneous to say that it is not there. It is not just big cities like Mumbai and Delhi where this is visible, but in smaller towns, in villages and remote tribal areas. There are young entrepreneurs who are coming up with innovative solutions to change the lives of ordinary people – bringing in electricity, water, education. And the State is also doing a lot more than it is given credit for. Ignoring development – be it villages powered by Solar energy in Gujarat or Self Help Group successes in Maharashtra or growing education in Tamil Nadu – to keep outraging about only the negatives does neither the media nor the audience any good.

• Most parents are trying their best to educate their daughters – if you remember the Nirbhaya case, what was striking was the father of the girl who worked over time to ensure that his daughter got a professional education. The patriarchy that wants to keep girls barefoot and pregnant and indoors exists – as is their attempt to curtail the rights of women. But, they are growing smaller in number by the day as millions of parents across the nation do their best for their girls. It is important that these parents become the norm and the role model, not the medievalists
• Politicians, across parties, work together to get things done – The last five years has possibly been the most combative period in modern India. Parliamentary walkouts, deadlock, and general posturing by both sides has been the norm. Yet, legislation has passed, work has progressed, and in cases public agreement with each other. While it is important to show the Opposition taking the Government to task, and the Government defending it’s stand, it is also important – for democracy – to show the points of agreement, of collaboration of co-operation. Where parties put aside their differences to work towards a greater good.
• Police and Intelligence Agencies stop most terrorist attacks – do a simple exercise. Log on to the internet and do a simple search with the following terms arms, explosives seized in India. Most of these will be small news reports. Yet, they tell you something very important – the police and intelligence agencies are not napping at the wheel between terror attacks. While it is important that one reports and analyses terror strikes, it is equally important one looks at foiled terror strikes. Simply because it creates confidence in the population.
It is the media’s role to point out the warts in society and one is not suggesting that the media abandon this to whitewash news and present a Pollyanna version of the world. Nor is one asking for the media to conduct a propaganda exercise that tells us that “all is well”. What one is suggesting is a balance. Some rays of sunshine, some crumbs of hope in a scenario that is filled with doom and gloom. A man who saves a child from abduction, a village that is fully literate, a tribal area connected by road for the first time in history, a child from a remote village who has aimed for and reached the stars. It is not that these stories have to be made up, they exist all around us.
There is a lot that is good about India. There is a number of individual achievements and state intervention that is transforming society. There is hope for a better tomorrow. Bad news may attract instant audiences, but there is only so much bad news most of us can digest. For long term audience engagement, maybe a bit of hope and sunshine is needed.