The propagation of such narratives and portraying farmers as ill-informed shows a recurring theme of corporate-owned platforms. The majority of news organisations in the country is owned either by political parties/leaders or corporate houses. Zee News, for example, is run by Subhash Chandra, a Member of Parliament of the upper house. Bennett Coleman, the group that runs the Times of India, runs a massive network, exercising a virtual monopoly across media.
It is noteworthy that even Prime Minister Narendra Modi was seen in a full-page advertisement for Reliance Jio in September 2016. Unsurprisingly, the media, corporate houses, and political leaders all share close ties with each other.
As rural affairs expert and founding editor of Peoples Archive of Rural India, P Sainath, said in a podcast of Indian Journalism Review last June: When we started out in journalism, there were still newspapers that were the only business the owner had. They were dedicated to the journalism business and what they earned they poured back into journalism. Now one major newspaper owner has 200 other interests.
With the media being increasingly corporatised, it has buried the story of rural distress, that has been deepening in the recent past. An average of 28 farmers die by suicide every day in India.
Three years ago, we earned the average national daily dedicates 0.67 percent of its front page to news of rural origin where 69 percent of the population lives, Sainath had said in the podcast. That 0.67 percent figure is a huge exaggeration. It is a five-year average with an election year in between. If you take out the election year, coverage is between 0.18 and 0.24 percent.
He added: For today's media, 75 percent [of the] population of the country do not make any news. When I joined journalism in 1980, every single newspaper had a labour correspondent, an agricultural correspondent, actually covered farming. Today, the primary function of the agriculture correspondent is to cover the agriculture ministry.
Starting their own newspaper and social media platforms is the protesting farmers statement that they are not ill-informed or nave, and that they have the courage to face mainstream media channels head-on, as Ajay Pal Natt said. If we cannot defeat them, we should at least fight to reclaim the narrative.
Between romanticism and reality
We are here to protect our land. They call us Khalistani and everything, let them say, said Balweer Kaur, who came to Singhu all the way from Amritsar. They do not know anything about Punjab. One of my sons is in the army, another in government service. We will not be deterred by these propagandas. We will not go back until these black laws are repealed.
She continued: We have been sleeping in tents, arranging everything we can to survive the cold. It is difficult but we will fight.
The farmers arent contending only with outright misrepresentation. In an attempt to highlight the farmers woes, well-meaning accounts on social media and news platforms have romanticised the struggles, with eloquent accounts of their hospitality, hookah, foot massages, and courage. If one were to step back from romanticism, they would sense the protesters anxiety, fear and lack of trust in their own government, and their struggle for survival and their livelihoods.
The protesting farmers are struggling for clean drinking water and proper sanitation. Sleeping in the biting cold, away from the comfort of their homes, poses serious health issues, especially for the elderly. The raging Covid pandemic is far from over. The situation only worsened after heavy rainfall: tents and blankets were soaked, roads were muddied, and the farmers tried to clear waterlogging at Singhu border.
In cruel contrast was images of the union home minister eating meals in West Bengal, where elections are due, spotlighting the inattention to protests just a few kilometres from Delhis ministerial bungalows. The prime minister addressed farmers in different states, but not those protesting in and around Delhi. Channel tickers, such as Atmanirbhar Push and Mega Vikas Push, whenever the prime minister has a live telecast show how the fourth pillar of democracy functions.
One for all and all for one
Corporates will not do any good to the farmers. Their whole purpose would be to make money out of everything, said Jaspal Singh, who came to Singhu from Ludhiana for the protests. It is the responsibility of the state to protect us. The government is selling everything to these corporations, including the railways. How can I trust such a government?
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Reclaiming the narrative: What farmer protests and Trolley Times tell us about the medias systemic failure - Newslaundry