THE MEDIA’s ANNUAL ORGASM
The media loves non-events, which are hyped up as if they are earth-shattering happenings. The financial papers are as guilty of this as the film press, in fact, it is appearing more and more as if film and tabloid journalists are writing our so called “respected” pinkies.
Take the budget. It has lost its importance over the years because we have moved on from being a controlled economy. In the olden times, when Big Brother dictated what we should consume and what we should not, the Budget would have been important. Today, however, when an entire IT or BPO industry can develop on its own without the government having even the faintest idea how it all happened and belatedly having to appoint an IT ministry, the Budget is simply a relic of the bad old days of the British Raj and of the Soviet Union style controlled economy. The sooner we get rid of this, the more objective can we become about our economic policy.
Yet, the papers, more so the pink ones, and the TV channels, had their annual multiple orgasms in the first week of March after the smug Finance Minister presented his budget. There is little analytical comment or sharp analysis. TV channels were asking inane questions to random people who they had managed to corner, while The Economic Times spent more of its energy in making stupid pictures.
The Economic Times went several steps further in its idiocy last year. “India takes on the World, ” it declared, showing the Finance Minister dressed as a knight of some sort, pointing to the fact that at least its orgasm was a faked one. How a silly budget could result in India taking on the world remains a mystery, because there was nothing in it that really put us at par with the US or Chinese economy, for instance. After reading the headline, I wondered whether the minister had privatised the railways or fired the army of unproductive inspectors of the government that actually hinder our growth. Since nothing of the sort had happened, the colourful illustrations and the childish headlines could hardly justify our taking on the world. If the minister lacked guts and could not take on his own bureaucracy, conquering the world was a long way off indeed. I also wonder how many people really liked the silly graphics of The Economic Times.
The coverage of the budget was more or less like the group of blind men who went to see the elephant. Each described as to what was his perception, and that showed the limitation of the person, rather than the elephant. As people spoke on the budget trying to sound self important, one could not help thinking about the blind men and the elephant!
No amount of Economic Times’ computer graphics can change the importance of teh budget, or the lack of it. As for us taking on the world, I can well imagine the Chinese sitting in their country looking at the papers and chuckling to themselves that how Indians have a knack of making a fool of themselves. When our economy remains shackled, how can a few percentage points here and there make any difference to the way we are?
It is hardly surprising that Economic Times has to reduce its price to Rs 1.50 to stay in teh market, what with newer and more sensible papers hitting the market!