Boycott of anchors: From the change of narrative to attack on media owners

New Delhi: The Congress, after facing criticism from within the party and members of the opposition alliance over the ‘boycott’ list of 14 news anchors, recently unleashed an attack on media owners to justify its ‘ill-thought-out’ action.

It all started on Wednesday last week at the coordination committee meeting of the INDIA alliance. The coordination committee authorised the Sub-Group on Media to decide upon the names of the anchors on whose shows none of the INDIA parties will send their representatives.

The decision was publicly announced by Congress general secretary (organisation in charge) KC Venugopal at the press conference after the meeting.

A day later, Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera released a list of 14 anchors on X, formerly Twitter.

The action was termed an ‘ill-thought-out’ decision by senior leaders of the grand old party which was creating a narrative of a ‘serious attack’ on press freedom.

Change of narrative

Bihar Deputy Chief Minister and member of the coordination committee Tejashwi Yadav on Friday said, "The sub-committee concerned took the decision not to take part in shows organised by those who are rabidly pro-BJP and try to give things an incendiary turn."

Yadav’s comments implied that the boycott was in protest of ‘no coverage’ for opposition by alleged ‘pro-BJP’ anchors.

Many senior leaders of Congress in private accepted that the decision to release a list by the INDIA bloc reflected intolerance, which it had been accusing the BJP of.

“By banning or boycotting individual anchors, Congress or the opposition alliance lost the right to attack the Modi government for alleged control over the media,” said one of the senior leaders who did not want to be dragged into any controversy.

It was the criticism that forced Congress to change the narrative to a plank of hate-mongering by certain anchors, which appeals to a larger audience despite the fact that only a few among these 14 anchors are accused of hate-mongering while the opposition alleged others to be pro-BJP.

Then, by design, the issue was intellectualised by the media machinery of the opposition alliance and it roped in its longstanding sympathisers in journalism such as Vir Sanghvi and Barkha Dutt to carry forward the revised narrative.

Sanghvi took to microblogging platform X to say that the press releases from the News Broadcasters and Digital Association and BJP were written by same person.

I do not support the boycott of individuals (as distinct from channels) but when you read the press releases from the BJP and the broadcasters association it does sound as though the same person wrote them both…. pic.twitter.com/YPdNzxNUXf

— vir sanghvi (@virsanghvi) September 15, 2023

Through his post, Sanghvi implied that the news broadcasters' body consisting of veterans such as Kalli Purie, Rajat Sharma, MK Anand, Rahul Joshi, and Avinash Pandey were compromised and hence they were dependent on BJP for writing a press release.

Questioning the integrity of highly regarded media owners by Sanghvi appeared ironical in nature who himself was named in Radia tapes.

Even though the Radia tapes matter was shut after over a decade following a CBI report and an apparent out-of-court settlement between parties, it had harmed the journalists involved as they were labelled compromised by the people of this country.

It was unfortunate to see Sanghvi and Dutt giving sermons on journalism as they ceased to be journalists after their names appeared in the Radia gate.

Thus, the grand old party managed to change the narrative from a boycott of ‘pro-Modi’ anchors to a boycott of ‘hate-mongering’ anchors.

Given that any such design would not succeed if the agenda is not taken to its conclusion, the Congress party apparently pushed the narrative of hate-mongering further with the help of like-minded alumni of Vasant Valley School, owned by India Today Group Chairman and Editor-in-Chief Aroon Purie. 

The alumni followed a tried and tested pattern of writing a letter by a few people of a certain ideology and claiming to be the voice of thousands of alumni passed out from the Vasant Valley School.

As it happens in the case of propaganda, the letter was amplified by the Congress-owned newspaper National Herald and the favourable website The Wire.

KC Venugopal announcing the decision to boycott, Pawan Khera releasing the list and then the first coverage around Vasant Valley alumni’s letter in the Congress-owned newspaper National Herald, all point fingers at Congress’ hand behind the attack on media owners.

Political analyst and senior journalist Shekhar Iyer termed the tactics as "a new low" and "bereft of ideas" to manage the message and the medium on the part of the Congress.

On social media, Congress roped in like-minded people like former Chief Election Commissioner S Y Qureshi and former Secretary Anil Swarup.

Hope Mr Purie doesn’t consider closing down the school or changing the principal to one Prof Sudhir Chaudhary! pic.twitter.com/6OS9v6odt3

— Dr. S.Y. Quraishi (@DrSYQuraishi) September 18, 2023

Pretty damning letter from Alumni of Vasant Valley School that was founded by India Today Group itself. Time for serious introspection by the Group. So many of its publications were admired by a large number of readers and viewers. @IndiaToday pic.twitter.com/n3qd8eVrAE

— Anil Swarup (@swarup58) September 18, 2023

This letter purportedly written by alumni was allegedly not circulated among all members and was rejected by others.

@aroonpurie



Both my kids passed out of Vasant Valley. They are alumni. No such letter has blanket approval of all alumni. Neither was one circulated. Only some disgruntled want to entitle themselves as being voice for the whole community which is a patently false representation

— Dr Sumeet Shah (@DrSumeetShah) September 19, 2023