What makes the 2016 Tamil Nadu Assembly election “the mother of all elections” is the Tamil TV news channels which play the role of accompanying artists in a Carnatic music concert. All major political parties in Tamil Nadu, barring the BJP, have their own exclusive and dedicated 24X7 news channels. If one is to watch channels like Kalaignar (owned by the Karunanidhi family), Sun News (owned by Maran brothers), Jaya TV (official channel of the AIADMK), Captain TV (Vijayakant’s DMDK), Makkal TV( owned by Ramadoss of the PMK), Vasanth TV( belonging to H Vasanth Kumar of the Congress) and Megha TV (owned by Thankabaalu of the Congress), chances are that the viewer would end up confused, perplexed and aghast!
The news content beamed by these channels differs depending on their political affiliations. “The major casualty of the channel business is that news has become a victim and it is in the Intensive Care Unit on ventilator support,” said Sundar Das, Tamil Nadu’s media critic.
Since the State is going to the polls on May 16, the channels are working overtime to ensure the victory of their political masters. The tragedy is that Press conferences being addressed by some of the political leaders end up as slanging match between the leaders and reporters affiliated to these channels.
How politicised the Press meets have become could be understood from a recent press meet addressed by Anbumani Ramadoss, the Chief Ministerial candidate of the PMK. One of the TV channel reporters kept on asking Ramadoss questions after questions about some irrelevant issues. Ramadoss asked the reporter whether he was from the Sun TV for which the latter replied in the affirmative. “I am not at all surprised why you keep on asking such questions,” said Ramadoss.
For the first time in Tamil Nadu Assembly elections, the parties have started airing TV commercials. The AIADMK and the DMK, the main protagonists are the ones which use maximum TV commercials. But the commercials aired by Sun TV, according to the AIADMK legal wing secretary Selvaraj Divakar, violate basic decency and all norms associated with advertisements. “We issued legal notices to the DMK and also approached the Election Commission with our complaint. The DMK has taken off some of the advertisements in which they had portrayed AIADMK general secretary in poor light,” said Diwakar.
Programmes and analysis telecast by the party affiliated channels too have degenerated to that of campaign materials. “News bulletins, debates and discussions remind one of a kind of media blitzkrieg and truth has become the biggest casualty,” said N Kalyanasundaram, Tamil Nadu’s political chronicler.
A saving grace during this election time TV programmes is some of the programmes like Ayutha Ezhuthu (Pen as a weapon) and Makkal Manram (People’s Gatherings) aired by Thanthi TV, the reigning lead channel. Two young TV journalists, Hariharan and Rangaraj Pandey has broken all conventional styles of programming and has tore apart the claims and counter claims put forward by politicians. People’s Gatherings, a talk show shot at different venues in Tamil Nadu featuring top leaders of major parties and compered by Pandey has become one of the most watched Tamil TV programmes. Equally popular is Ayutha Ezhuthu, a live panel discussion which see sparks flying between the AIADMK and DMK representatives. “The fact that we have succeeded in bringing the AIDMK and the DMK spokesmen to the discussion table itself is an achievement,” said a channel spokesman. This has made both the AIADMK and the DMK appointing vibrant an bubbly youngsters as party spokespersons. “While party channels have ended up as propaganda materials, independent channels have changed the rules of the game by airing informative and entertaining political shows,” said Das. He wanted the election Commission or the Government to frame guidelines for news bulletins telecast by these channels during elections.