In most of the countries the agendas for international level talks especially in case of bi-lateral discussions are worked out and set by the respective foreign offices. Not in case of India. Here, the agendas are set by the biased and prejudiced media especially the electronic one which acts as a spokesperson of the extremist fundamental groups. In case of the recently held Indo-Pak talks, the agenda was being dictated by the electronic media. In fact, they had already declared that the talks are doomed to failure even before the Foreign Minister had taken off for Islamabad. An interesting sidelight of the media campaign was the sudden and total blackout of Kashmir situation. This was in line with the Foreign Minister’s contention that Kashmir was an internal matter for India. For last few weeks the electronic media had gone totally upbeat in reporting every instance of protest and street violence in different parts of Kashmir. “Kashmir on the boil”; “Kashmir on the edge” and a number of similar other captions were repeated in every news bulletin. Live coverage of many incidents was given by most of the channels. Some started taking the line dictated by the Home Ministry that all these protests were stage managed by the Lashkar-i-Tayaba (LET), a Pakistan based militant outfit. The media hype suddenly disappeared for unknown reasons. In contrast, a new hype was started to virtually sabotage the Indo-Pak dialogue. As an anti-climax, the Pakistani media was creating a strong hope for a breakthrough. The event was projected as a positive step in moving the Aman ki Asha initiative forward. In earlier times the Pakistanis used to talk tough and they were not ready for any compromise. For them Kashmir was the core issue in any dialogue anywhere. Now it is India talking tough. This is happened after India substantially improved its relationship both with USA and Israel. They are now browbeating Pakistan and the media finds it as a God sent opportunity for Paki bashing. What is most unbecoming and annoying also is the way the media anchors put words in the mouth of various people interviewed by them. Sentences and even words are mutilated or put out of context to give a totally new meaning and the result is quite opposite to what the person, to whom these are attributed, wanted to convey.

In the instant case, before the Foreign Minister could say something, TV channels were carrying captions, “India to talk tough on terror”; “Terror on top of India’s agenda” and so on. Quite often the anchors of some of these channels turn psycho-analysts and they read the body language of the politicians and sometimes even read their minds! One wonders what makes these channels spend hours upon hours investigating and pursuing some small topics in different parts of India but as soon as Kashmir comes up, they very conveniently go into switch off mode after initial reporting! Usually it is the skewed national interest, ever-green security reasons, or a phone call from concerned authorities pleading for safeguarding the misplaced patriotism. Instant case is of July 15 when there was complete shut down in Srinagar. There were quite a few violent incidents in which many private cars, autos etc were damaged. The shut down was stricter than the government enforced curfew during the army flag march. Strangely the incidents were hardly reported by the electronic media. Another interesting sidelight of this biased media is the roping in of so called “experts”, a number of whom are basically rabid communalists in their respective fields. They are used to reinforce the pre-meditated conclusions of the anchors and also take on fights with genuine and honest commentators. In spite of the Indian media’s voluntary gag on Kashmir situation, it gets extensively reported in the foreign media. The only motive of these chauvinist pseudo-patriots seems to keep their own people in the dark. By their attitude these people are doing more harm than good to India’s long term interests both within the country and abroad.

As already predicted by the electronic media anchors, the Indo-Pak dialogue did not result in a break through. Nothing dramatic was given out in the joint press conference. It was an apologetic Pakistani Foreign Minister and his “big hearted” Indian counter part giving an appearance of superficial bonhomie! It appeared that the Indian delegation had perfectly followed the agenda set by their media. In fact, immediately after the press conference, a number of Indian TV channels started reporting with sadistic pleasure that the talks had been deadlocked. They were reporting with glee that nothing substantial had been achieved thereby feeling vindicated in their forecasts. In fact, just on the eve of talks the statement of the Home Secretary, very widely telecast by these channels, accusing Pakistan’s ISI of direct involvement in Mumbai attacks had worked as a spanner in the works. Unless the channels are promoting agendas of some covert groups not interested in the sub-continental détente, they would have been the positive aspects of the dialogue. It was after more than a year that such an event had taken place in a very cordial and friendly atmosphere. This was profusely acknowledged by the Indian Foreign Minister. The way these channels go berserk in the negative direction one can be sure that the trust deficit, the removal of which was the primary purpose of the dialogue, can never be bridged. If the two countries honestly want to bridge the trust deficit, they will have to first put on a strong leash these run away channels along with their “experts”.