By D.N. Singh
There seems to be an end to the month long hustle-bustle of the 2019 general election in the state. Posters wear a forlorn look and specks of torn ballot chits litter the localities. The break in the blare of loud-speakers and on the wheel campaign vans have come as a great relief. It is a kind of intermission that many of us were craving for.
Now there will be a shifting focus when the shouts on the streets will sieve down to the television studios where each news channel can be seen holding to its editorial lines and tell people what could be the permutation and combination after May 23. Even the news anchors can be seen in the pain of the divide of narratives of each news channel driven by different political leanings.
For the common man the debates may appear enlightening coming from a group of experts who exude an air of know-alls and for some people it is just entertaining for a while.
Reason is simple. Like elsewhere in the country, in Odisha too, allor most of the media houses are owned by the politicians of yesteryears and other entrepreneurs those who can’t vouch taking a straight line of approach.
The count is in the finger-tips and interestingly, each media house owner is not only a politician but, barring a minority, they are political aspirants and have managed their way into active politics and are now candidates in the 2019 elections.
At the top of the list is the leading Odia channel OTV owned by Baijayant Panda, who has given many years into politics and this time is a candidate from the Bharatiya Janata Party for the Kendrapada Lok sabha seat where it has become a battle for survival for him. So, it goes without saying that, watching the above channel usually reveals its persisting crisis of somehow showing the dispensation in bad light.
The ruling Biju Janata Dal appear to be in advantage having more number of channels under its control. There is nothing like advantage by default because, virtually rest all are in the BJD caravan.
Be it News World Odisha, which is now owned by the BJD MP R.K.Jena, or the recently metamorphed Kanak TV, owned by Soumya Ranjan Patnaik, or the MBC Tv owned by Pranab Prakash Das of the BJD. The most recent in this field is Kalinga Tv owned by Achyut Samant now a familiar face in the BJD.
Jena tries his luck for the second time from Balasore Lok sabha, Das is viewed as one of the members close to the power corridor also fighting to defend his assembly seat. Samant who after a few hick-ups made a niche in politics few months back as a BJD Rajya Sabha MP, is fighting for the Kandhamal Lok sabha seat.
Soumya Ranjan Patnaik, an old timer in media world and politics, tries hard this time for an image make-over by winning the Khandapara assembly seat that Patnaik failed to win in last two general elections.
That makes the whole thing very easy for the people who are ardent television watchers. Just watch and don’t be serious about anything.
