"The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum”
This profound observation by Noam Chomsky, from his treatise The Common Good, perfectly captures how media reporting creates the illusion of a fiery, aggressive debate, while completely shifting the boundaries so that the government is never questioned, and only the opposition's reaction is debated.
Remember those ancient times when mainstream media actually asked questions and TV news anchors held governments responsible? Back then, politicians were forced to answer to the public for their good and bad deeds through Parliament. Truly a primitive era.
Not anymore. If you want proof that those days are long gone, look no further than the recent prime-time meltdowns across national media channels. The anchors of these channels have been spending their energies screaming at the opposition and anyone else daring to ask where the missing public donations for the Ayodhya Ram Temple actually went.
In case you missed the theater, they strongly called out the opposition's "hypocrisy." They targeted the Congress party and other critics for having the absolute nerve to politically weaponize reported fund thefts and financial mess-ups at the holy site.
These loud, noisy spokespersons of the state heavily emphasized that the moment the corruption was caught, the Yogi Adityanath government acted with lightning speed. They fired and arrested the suspects immediately, proving they have a "zero-tolerance" policy, so please, do not look any further into the matter.
They then accused the opposition of pure opportunism, reminding viewers that the very politicians crying foul now are the ones who boycotted the temple's grand opening, questioned Lord Ram's existence, or fought the temple construction for decades.
Their grand, albeit subservient, logic was simple: instead of waiting for official inquiries to finish or praising the state government for its swift arrests, the opposition is simply using this holy robbery to score cheap political points.
Watching these anchors completely shred the opposition in a live debate, rather than questioning the ruling party about a multi-million-rupee scam, perfectly shows how much the Indian state and its media have "evolved" since 2014.
To be fair, these anchors weren’t entirely wrong. Opposition politicians are absolutely exploiting the temple scandal for political mileage instead of waiting quietly for a slow government inquiry to wrap up. That is what politicians do, and there is no blaming them for their politics. After all, political parties are there to do politics.
However, in their desperate rush to protect the government and destroy the opposition, these anchors completely ignored the massive political irony staring them in the face. The temple's grand opening was a masterclass in political branding, which is exactly why the opposition stayed away from the launch event in the first place.
Now, we all know that pocketing donation money ("chanda-chori") and stealing from the offering box happens in religious places everywhere, and there is no denying that fact.
But the hilarious tragedy here is that this massive financial scam happened in a temple built on the sacred promise of "Ram Rajya", a perfect, corruption-free paradise that does not even exist in history books.
In their frantic zeal to expose the opposition, these TV spokespersons also hid a funny truth: the most brutal attacks over this scam didn't come from the opposition, but from within the right-wing Hindutva ecosystem itself. This makes sense, considering how deeply the greed for political power has defined the entire Ram Temple movement.
Even critics secretly hoped that since the BJP had achieved total political domination and built the temple, they would at least maintain clean governance and transparent accounts. Instead, those high standards are in absolute tatters. Yet, rather than asking how this happened, our brave anchors spent their prime-time slots yelling at the opposition.
Naturally, opposition parties, including the Samajwadi Party, whose Dalit candidate famously defeated the BJP in Ayodhya itself, are calling this a "brutal betrayal of Hindu trust." They feel completely vindicated, boasting that their old charge of the BJP using Lord Ram purely for votes has finally proven true.
Beyond the usual political mudslinging, the ruling party is facing a serious reality check. With constant school exam paper leaks, forced re-tests, corruption charges against Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav, diplomatic setbacks, depreciating rupee and a sinking economy, it is becoming very hard to pretend that everything is perfect in the kingdom.
For the millions of devoted Hindus who voted for the BJP's famous 2024 slogan, "Jo Ram ko laye hain, hum unko layenge" (We will vote for those who brought Lord Ram), watching cash, silver, and gold offerings vanish into corrupt pockets is a bitter pill to swallow.
Perhaps that exact bitter panic is what drove these anchors to scream so loudly at the opposition. Welcome to the “Naya Barath” : a perfect example of the 'Jhoot Bole Kauwa Kaate' (If you lie, the crow will bite you) syndrome. Only this time, the crows are biting the ones telling the truth."
