(This write-up appeared as a 'Quick Take' in The Print)
It is time journalists remove their tinted glasses and see
Modi for the man and the PM he is
As chief minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi sustained a
double-digit growth rate and started several innovative schemes, but was never
credited in the media.
In the last five years too, Modi started several schemes
that benefitted crores of people but an unbiased evaluation of these schemes
was missing from the op-ed pages of the Delhi print media, especially the
English media.
A section of the elite media sees him as an ‘outsider’ and
approaches him with a sense of ‘otherness’. This segment does not see Modi as
its representative. They are allowed to have their personal beliefs, but the
problem is that it gets reflected in their professional output. Modi is an
elected leader and even if journalists are unable to relate to Modi, they are
duty-bound to cast their personal bias aside when making a journalistic call.
If Narendra Modi govt has built national highways at double
the pace than the last government, if it has built crores of toilets,
transferred more than Rs 5 lakh crore in more than 450 schemes through direct
benefit transfer, or if it is talking about Dalit venture capitalist fund, then
why these issues do not get as much mention as they deserve? If these schemes
were implemented effectively, the benefit must have reached people from all
sections of the society.
If the media were to be believed, Modi’s austerity is for
shutterbugs, his interminable work hours a source of fun, and his nationalism
just for show. Perhaps, this media should not be believed. Or, perhaps, it is
time journalists removed their tinted glasses and see Modi for the man and the
prime minister he is.