By Avay Shukla
18/Oct/2020
Even for a
country, which is perpetually in outrage mode, the brouhaha over the TRP
scandal “takes the cake, if not the bakery,” as a colleague of mine who knows a
thing or two about hot spots would put it.
The logos of two news channels and some of the brands
that sponsor them. Illustration: The Wire
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Experts –
lawyers, advertising gurus, doyens of journalism, film stars, celebrities –
have been vocal about condemning something they all knew about (and did nothing
about) for decades. And as usual with TV experts, they have got it all wrong.
The likes
of Arnab Goswami, Rahul Shivshankar and Navika Kumar will now stew in their own
juice for some time, and one hopes the steaming will result in at least some of
the toxins in them being flushed out. But they are not the only villains in the
current TV eco-system of fake news, communalism and bigotry which masquerades
as news in India today and which drives the TRP system.
They are
like brainless, amoral viruses which know only one thing – how to replicate and
amplify their hate. The real villains are the hosts who provide shelter and
sustenance to these viruses, but nobody is talking about them.
I speak, of
course, about their corporate sponsors, the companies which give them millions
of rupees of advertising revenue, thereby enabling them to continue injecting
their deadly poison into the social fabric of the nation. Hatred and bigotry
gets TRPs, which in turn gets advertising revenue, which keeps this vicious
cycle going. Without this money the cycle could not sustain itself.
These last
couple of weeks I’ve been indulging in a bit of masochism, watching Republic TV
and Times Now, something which makes me sick.
But I’ve
been watching, not their programmes, but their ad breaks. The idea was to find
out who their advertisers and sponsors are.
As
expected, it’s a who’s who of Indian industry, a veritable rogues’ gallery of
honchos who put money above conscience, perversely justifying something I’ve
always noted, that in a sewer line it’s the muck that floats at the top. Here’s
an illustrative list, compiled after hours of self inflicted torture:
Republic TV and Republic Bharat: Raymonds,
Muthoot Group, Jio, Max Bupa, Kent, Air India, Star Health Insurance, Nissan,
Dabur, Mahindra, Amazon, Samsung, Sony, Maruti, Nerolac, and Toyota.
Times Now: Cadbury, Toyota, Hyundai, Nerolac,
Birla Group, Amul, Skoda, Mercedes, Ceat, Samsung, Bluestar, HDFC, Sony, TCS.
These are
the corporates (and others like them) which fund the toxicity, the hatred and
bigotry, which our news channels spew out 24×7 and which has led to the TRP
race. The total TV advertising spend is about Rs 70,000 crores every year, of
which roughly 2% goes to the news channels.
TRP
determines which channel will get how much of this Rs 1,400 crore pie and
according to current ratings, most of it goes to Republic, Times Now and India
Today, all three of whom are these days waging an incestuous family battle to
apportion blame, reminding me of a sight I witnessed in Masai Mara many years
ago – a pack of hyenas turning upon each other.
But this
battle is throwing up enough of a dust cloud to conceal the culpability of our
corporates.
Why do
these companies continue to fund these renegade channels? Surely they cannot be
unaware of the toxic and divisive content which is the mainstay of these
channels? A corporate entity has the same legal rights as an individual, surely
it should then have the same moral and social duties as an individual – to
condemn immoral ideology, to abjure hate and communalism, to not incite one
community against another, to distinguish between the truth and falsehood?
And yet our
corporates are blind to these responsibilities, just so long as they can get
maximum eyeballs and continue to get a healthy return on investment. They are
not bothered about the real return on their investment – a society and country
being torn apart by the channels they fund.
Our
corporates aspire to be global entities but fail to espouse global values. In
the developed world, companies are increasingly taking positions on tech and
media platforms that spread fake news and incite hatred or violence.
Facebook
has been boycotted by the likes of Adidas, Diageo, Ford, Honda, HP, Hershey’s
and Coca Cola. Inexplicably, however, in India these same companies continue to
do business with sections of our electronic media which are even more toxic and
strident than Facebook. What is missing here is perhaps the pressure of a more
active civil society.
All
responsible companies should boycott these venomous channels and civil society
should mount pressure on them to do so, or face a boycott of their own
products. A stirring of their conscience appears to have begun – just last week
Bajaj and Parle announced that they will no longer advertise in some of these
channels or networks because, as Rajiv Bajaj stated, “I do not want my children
to inherit an India built on hate.”
Brave
words, but then he is not known for mincing his words. The French car maker
Renault has also been boycotting Republic TV and its Hindi mutant since May
this year. But it did not do so out of any pricking of its conscience, but
because of a campaign launched in France by Indian Alliance (a group of
diasporic Indians) with the hashtag
#RenaultFundsHate. The crusade was joined by Stop Funding Hate, another
activist group in London, and by the French chapter of Sleeping Giants, a US
based group which has been responsible for as many as 4,000 companies
withdrawing from Breitbart, a channel which is Donald Trump’s preferred
purveyor of hate and racism.
Unfortunately,
the good work of these corporates has been somewhat undone by the Tatas and
Tanishq this week by their withdrawal of an ad promoting inter faith marriage.
This mighty
conglomerate did not have the spine to stand up to the communal trolling for
even one day! This supine surrender will only encourage the religious maniacs
to further intimidate anyone who stands up for religious harmony.
Notwithstanding
his tall claims to philanthropy, Ratan Tata always knows which side of his
bread to butter, and this is usually the winning side. His action in not
standing up for his convictions, along with the fact that his group continues
to fund these toxic channels, has demolished all the principles that his
predecessors stood for.
But I’m
still hopeful that not all of Indian industry belongs to the invertebrate genus
and that more will follow the example of Bajaj, Parle and Renault.
The lesson,
which emerges from the TRP implosion, therefore, should be that it is not only
that channels like Republic and Times Now should be boycotted, but that the
pressure and the boycott should extend also to those members of India Inc. who
continue to support them with advertisements.
For
corporates, too, are citizens of this country and should be judged as such.
It’s bad enough for them to cosy up to the government, but must they also jump
into bed with bigots, mercenaries and fanatics? Surely, there are better ways
of making money than by pandering to the mob on prime time TV.
Our
captains of industry may do well to harken to the words of John Ruskin: “You
may either win your peace or buy it; win it by resisting evil, buy it by
compromising with evil.”
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Avay Shukla is a retired IAS officer. A version
of this article appeared on his blog and has been edited by The Wire for style.
Original Headline: In Funding Hatred, India's
Corporates Have Compromised With Evil
Source: The Wire
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