‘Every society has some form of intolerance’
The way we treat labourers is also a form of intolerance, says Rajdeep Sardesai
Now, news has been replaced by noise and sense by sensation. In the competition of breaking news, TV channels are airing irrelevant news. There is less TV and more ‘nautanki’
Rajdeeep Sardesai, journalist
Intolerance was always there in our society in some form or the other. And the way we treat our working class and labourers is also a form of intolerance.
Renowned journalist Rajdeep Sardesai expressed these views at the Lucknow Literature Carnival, 2015, during a session - ‘India Today: Challenges before the Nation’ - anchored by journalist Kamal Khan, on Sunday.
Raising the burning issue of intolerance, which was again in the news after Bollywood actor Aamir Khan’s statement, Kamal Khan urged Rajdeep Sardesai to elaborate on the issue.
Without going into the religious aspects of the issue, Rajdeep said: “Intolerance was always there in our society. The way we treat the working class - domestic help at home and labourers in diamonds fields of Chhattisgarh - are all forms of intolerance.”
Every society has some form of intolerance, he asserted. Rajdeep, however, emphasised that such people were now coming into focus as the media was providing them a platform. Referring to the intolerance debate on TV channels, Sardesai said: “Now, there is less TV and more ‘nautanki’.”
“Now, news has been replaced by noise and sense by sensation. In the competition of breaking news, TV channels are airing irrelevant news,” he asserted.
News channels’ decision to take sound bites from Shiv Sena or any other Hindu organisation on Aamir Khan’s statement is totally irrelevant, he said.
“We all know what will be the answer. But then also TV channels take reactions on such issues. This is just the result of breaking news competition, added Rajdeep.
Offering another reason for this ‘sensationalisation’ of news by TV channels, the author of ‘The Election That Changed India 2014’, said: “TV is now governed more by business model. It is more of commerce than journalism.” Replying to another question by Kamal Khan on why TV only represents urban India and not rural India, where majority of the Indians still live, Rajdeep said: “Channels do not go to villages where farmers commit suicide but prefer to show news related to the Sheena Bora murder case.”
“New channels get TRP (television rating point) by airing news related to the latest developments in the Sheena Bora murder mystery and not by showing the plight of farmers who commit suicide,” he added.