My husband’s colleague Dubey Ji was one of the many ignorant people who joined the exodus in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic being considered an apocalypse. It’s just that unlike several other uneducated people, he is actually literate.
It is unquestionably true that the unplanned shutdown was one of the reasons for the havoc but another reason was that we, as people of this country, lack the presence of mind needed in dealing with a situation like this. Blame it on the low literacy rate, the genetic irrationality or an extremely low massive intelligence’s quotient, we somehow fail to be in decorum every time it comes to dealing with a tough situation where patience is vital.
Dubey Ji, along with others, was asked to go to Lalkuan in Ghaziabad where they got buses that were much lesser than the numbers required but were choked with as many people as possible. Later we learned that the buses dropped them at the hospitals, in the vicinities of their respective towns and villages, where they were forcefully admitted and isolated for 15 days. (Dubey Ji doesn’t go to meet his family for months all together but this time, he panicked and rushed. He was salaried and his salary wasn’t curbed, rather was transferred well in time.)
Blame it on anyone but the forerunners of those responsible for creating this are the media channels who have made daily soap sagas of their channels which look more like musical chairs in a childhood birthday party. These channels during the pandemic should have shouldered the complete responsibility by delivering facts and reasons for not panicking instead of telling the consequences or debating on things that didn’t matter. To show the Prime Minister as Shaktiman during this lockdown, they completely ignored the importance of the use of words which further blacked out few minds to panic.
The greed for TRPs and pat on the back from the monarchs have worsened what could have been handled with efficient use of words and wise management of available information. They instigate hate during riots, panic during a pandemic, marketing of political parties during free time and unethical journalism all the time. The reason why media revolutionized during the freedom struggle was that the ignorant, unaware and illiterate could have some source of “correct” information which could help them plan and work in the favour of the country and not get carried away by falsehood.
After independence, the same media became a puppet in the hands of the ruling governments which used it to manipulate the truth in their favour (which Doordarshan and Radio continue to do). The second revolution came with private channels taking over and today the condition is such that media has become synonymous with money and power (if you don’t believe me then listen to Arnab Goswami’s words before and after 2017) in which the volume of the voice represents success and TRP.
Media’s lack of sincerity and ethics is one of the reasons why people fail to see the truth, as their faith on news channels remains unperturbed while news channels continue to take full advantage of the trust of the blind followers (which accounts for about 80% irrationals in the population of the country.) They further practice unethical journalism which completely ignores the illiterate mass sitting estranged to realities and believing in everything they are shown: from Ekta Kapoor’s shows to Arnab Goswami’s Ramleela.