Na Bhoole Hain, Na Bhoolne Denge

"Na bhoole hain, Na bhoolne denge", "Justice for Sushant". Such were the slogans raised by the common class of people and politicians alike, across the nation, not a very long time back. Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput's suicide on June 14th,left the nation in grief. But this unfortunately event took a rather shocking turn when Sushant's family raised questions about his mental health and alleged his partner, Rhea Chakraborty of disturbing his mental peace of mind, ultimately forcing him to hang himself. This was a mere allegation until the media intervened and within no time, this made to the headlines of of nearly every news channel, with anchors shouting their lungs out, demanding a CBI probe into this matter. With numerous issues..... grave issues at hand, to cover, and the world fighting against a global pandemic, the media chose to run the story of Sushant's mysterious death. Every NEWS channel and every prime-time debate had it discussing as to why had Rhea conspired against SSR. Though the issue was still under investigation, the various news platforms had already declared Rhea guilty of Sushant's murder and of robbing him off all of his money. Numerous conspiracy theories had been formulated, some of which linked Maharashtra CM Udhhav Thackeray's son Aditya Thackeray, to Sushant's death. To add to all this hotch-potch, Bollywood actress Kangna Ranaut spoke out about about the nepotism and drug business going on in the film-industry and linked that too, to Sushant's death. She came out as the leader of the anti-nepotism group of Bollywood and became the voice of the oppressed actors. All of this, later turned out to be part of a bigger game, wherein her mother joined the BJP, and she tried to defame the BJP opposed, Shiv-Sena lead Maharashtra government. Among other media houses that portrayed Kangana as a fearless woman, fighting against the evils of the society, Republic Bharat was the foremost. R. Bharat gained the sympathy of the people by claiming to stand for the truth and by constantly demanding justice for Sushant. Such news channels acted like saints and patriots who'd lay down their lives in the path of truth and justice, while actually they acted like vultures, interfering in the private lives of various celebrities and passing verdicts, declaring them to be guilty of various heinous crimes, all of which turned out to be mere braggery, ultimately. These news channels conducted a character assassination of some notable celebrities, on the basis of a mere hypothesis. It was as if we were living in very normal times with no issues at hand, that news of this genre was being broadcasted all day long. India's territory had been breached, there were armed conflicts between the Indian an the Chinese soldiers at the L.A.C. ,the COVID curve was rising quite steeply, the migrant labourers moving back home, after losing their jobs had no aid from the government, which caused many of them to loose their lives, the unemployment rate had risen to almost 30%, the downfall of the economy, the arrests of various activists and journalists under false allegations and claims by the government... All of this had no importance in the eyes of these news channels when compared to the SSR death case. These issues were not even mentioned by these 'Government - Servants' alias News Anchors, let alone being discussed and debated over. Criticizing the government and their mismanagement isn't part of their scheme. Their prime motto is to to target the opposition and question them, and cover up all the mistakes and fallacies of the government. Thus, to fulfil this purpose and to maintain or rather, increase their TRP, they chose to talk about Sushant's mystery murder, day in and day out. And quite frankly, this plan worked and the majority of the news watching folks were quite satisfied and I'd go on to say, quite happy and convinced with the content being shown. Frankly, majority of the population is no longer interested in listening to news, because then they have to rack their brains and draw rational conclusion. But I dare to say, Indian viewers are a rather lazy lot. They prefer listening to conclusions and judgements passed out by these news anchors. The state of these media channels, too, was quite different before the introduction of news anchors in the late 80’s. So long as there were news readers who’d just read out the news, people used to involve in healthy discussions and draw rational conclusions, but with the intro of T.V. anchors news is no more just information, rather it is more of the anchor’s view of the events. This polarizes the viewer’s thinking, who completely neglects the other outlook, therefore news is mostly what the channel sets the narrative to.   Not only is the media to blame but also the viewers, who watch these news channels for such worthless news. The media houses, being commercialized, run over the revenue from the ad commercials, which depend upon the TRP, to gain which media channels show what people want to see. SSR’s case wasn’t significant in light of the much grave issues at hand, yet news houses broadcasted  and covered this issue, partly because the government wanted to distract people from the real issues and partly because people, themselves wanted to to see this. Most people weren’t interested in the serious news, rather they wanted was justice for SSR which by the latest CBI investigation and the report from AIIMS turns out to be hollow shell. This obsession over SSR’s death isn’t the first or last in the chain of incidents, wherein the govt. Along the media have to distract people from their mismanagement. In 1992, when the Babri Masjid was demolished, the film ‘Bobby’ was being broadcasted for the first time on Indian television to distract people from the ongoing riots. It seems that this practice has taken deep root into out society, the difference being, news houses, too are now a part of it. Anyways, it relies solely on the viewers to choose what they have to be serious about, and decide if they'd let these news anchors do the thinking part for them...