Samikhsya Bureau
There is no second opinion that today’s politics thrives on hypocrisy, lies and double-standard. Role reversals here are faster than the click of a mouse yet politicians never get tired of pretensions. They speak today something like a gospel truth and go back on that the day next to say that, now “I have woken up to the reality which I failed to notice in the past and now , I have to stick out like a proverbial sore thumb”.
It took 22 years for Baijayant Panda to realise that the Biju Janata Dal has relegated itself to a manufacturing unit of corruption and monopoly.
Now, the sitting MP from Dhenkanal and owner of a daily Odia newspaper, Tathagat Satpathy, has suddenly discovered that the media in Odisha is muzzled by the ruling dispensation and plays to the tune of Naveen Patnaik. So he has decided to sacrifice his political career and concentrate on journalism. What a knack of injecting wisdom in hindsight!
As the owner of a newspaper, Satpathy knew well the prospects and perils of politics. Each and every media channels and mainline Odia dailies are owned by politicians who pander to one or the other political interest. Was his newspaper working under any coercion that he knows better. But suddenly discovering the rot and trying to play the role of an alchemist to purify politics does not hold any water.
There is a difference between political leaning and ownership of a media house. One of the most ardent critics of BJD, Soumya Ranjan Patnaik, not only has become overnight the man-Friday of the BJD but the editorial ethics he once used to espouse have been consigned to the flames of political agenda.
After he was sent to Rajya Sabha, his owned newspaper Sambad and the Odia news channel, Kanak TV, mysteriously underwent a radical transformation in ethics. The man force which is assigned to run the channels suddenly started avoiding issues that matters the most to the people and rather chose to tip-toe through the middle lines.
Not very different is another BJD leader-owned channel Kalinag TV. Its owner Achyuta Samant had enforced caution of not walk into any danger zone from the beginning, but now the content driving there appear challenged by many out of the box moratoriums making all wear a look of flaccidity.
However, the biggest and paradigm shift was noticeable in Baijayant Panda owned OTV. Regardless of the fact that it still enjoys the number one position among Odia channels, not even allowing any rival to breath down its neck, over-night it had to reposition itself editorially from signing paeans for the local regime to now eulogising the party he recently joined.
Another two regional channels such as MBC Tv and News World Odisha keep simply pussy-footing to avoid any noise that might invite political opprobrium. While the former is rumoured to be owned by one BJD leader in proxy, the latter too is stated to be run by a BJD politician.
Even, another self-styled protagonist, Dr. Damodar Rout, who still remained unwelcome by any political party after being ousted from the BJD, owns a newspaper.
All that must set a question for leaders like Satpathy or Panda or Rout, to tell people that media in Odisha is practically driven by politicians who after a good phase of rich political dividend turn pathfinders.
