There is no media in the world that can exist without some form of bias. Some are biased in favour of the government or a political party, while others are opposed to them. However, in a vibrant democracy, the different biases tend to balance each other out, resulting in a healthy debate. Unfortunately, this is not happening in India right now. There are hardly any voices in the media that are holding the government accountable for important issues.
Just as an example, India has the fastest growth rate of the Covid-19 cases in the world. It is poised to overtake the US as the world leader in Covid-19 cases over the next few weeks. Even so, no one is seriously questioning the government about why this is happening. Is it a failure of the government policy or its implementation? Are the policies at fault? No one seems to be asking the tough questions, and unless these questions are raised, there will be no answers.
Officials are repeating the line that India’s recovery rate is among the highest in the world. This may well be true, but is anyone in the media performing its function of challenging the claims? Has any journalist verified if the government figures are correct and that the cases are being reported correctly?
This has nothing to do with media bias. It has more to do with the basic responsibility of the media to carry out its function of challenging. Who knows, if this challenge is carried out correctly, India’s response to the virus might get better and save thousands of lives.