EDITORIAL
The damage is done, and we can only lament over split milk now. What should have been India’s moment of fulfillment in Nepal has turned out to be a season of shame for us. With the Indian media teams on the prowl there, wantonly indulging in an over-kill and inviting massive protests from the quake-hit, India has unwittingly lost a golden opportunity to build bridges with a valued neighbour. This, despite the fact that much help has gone in Nepal’s way from here in the past over a week.
With Nepalese in their thousands turning to the social media and raising the slogan, “Go Home Indian Media,” India has virtually lost much of its plot there. What was done there with good intentions too has lost its shine. A shame on India and shame on Indians – one must say.
It is a pity that we ended up with mud on our face despite all the tireless efforts undertaken by our rescue teams and security personnel after the visitation of the tragedy there April 25. It was in their hour of misery, misfortune and disaster that the Nepalese had to put up with the antics of the Indian media – its coverage perceptibly or even spectacularly loaded with bombast. All those who watched Indian news channels, especially those like Headlines Today and Aaj Tak, could not but be baffled at the way they went about making a hero out of India. That too, in the midst of a people who were battling with death and destruction of epic proportions.
Not just the media, for that matter. Take the case of a Baba Ramdev or some of the top RSS functionaries, who all found this as the most opportune time to gloat over the great circus that India was performing in the midst of a natural calamity and human peril. It went as far as the claim that “PM Sushil Koirala got to know of the quake from PM Modi’s tweet” (while on a visit at Bangkok). By doing so, we showed how insensitive we could be — and that too in such worse situations. We damaged ourselves, our interests and the interests of our government as well. With their bombast and loose tongue, these men created more of negative vibrations. That is bound to take its toll.
Sadly, our TV channels not only vied with each other to project the “great” work India was doing there, but also made special efforts to belittle the Nepal government. Asking loaded questions like “What did your government do in this hour of crisis,” our media personnel gleefully elicited the standard responses from the harried Nepalese, like, “Our government did nothing,” and then beamed this to the world. The media’s insensitivity at this painful juncture has perhaps no parallel.
Indian media, in their recklessness, also took special care to downplay the good work others were doing in the quake-hit areas. The Chinese came in with men and material, and did a good work. So did the US that sent in hefty material support. A Dutch team went there with trained sniffer dog squads to trace people lying buried under the rubble. And, the Japanese were there with help. But, for much of the Indian media, the focus was on what Indians did, and not on the plight of the people there. With all the projections they did, which went down to most Nepali homes as well, there was little of surprise as to how the youths of Nepal have flooded the social media with such a disdain — to condemn those who were out to demean them.
With all our might, we simply cannot take a (small) nation and its people for granted. That too, at critical times like these. Their self-respect was called into question. The mistrust and distrust that was so created at this painful hour are not going to fade away. To our utter discomfiture, this is bound to last for a long time. We spoiled such a good chance to be a nice neighbour. Instead, we created an enemy where none existed.