abhay kr dubey - delhi metro & media - politics of depoliticisation

8/12/2019 Abhay Kr Dubey - Delhi Metro & Media - Politics of Depoliticisation

1/11

1

(

Delhi metro and the Print Media / Part One

Politics of De-politicisation

Abhay Kumar DubeyEditor, Indian Languages Programme, CSDS

The structure of Indian print media has always been such that it has favoured

middle classes and their shifting versions of democracy and modernisation. At times it

has cudgelled on behalf of the struggling sections of people and has engaged positively

with the idea of the political. Also, on some other occasion it has betrayed narrow class

interests, and has tried to snap off linkages between the processes of modernisation and

politicisation. In between, media has mostly liked to play the ball according to the rules

fixed by the powers that be. It would be interesting to note that in several commentaries

about its rise, a clear marker over medias class origin remains conspicuous by its

absence.1Another thing these commentaries never mention is the fact of the caste profile

of media practitioners. Since the hitherto unspecified caste identities of the overwhelming

majority of journalists have now been excavated by a pro-active group of socially

concerned intellectual-activists2, one can make some sense of the structural overlap

between their membership of the traditional elite and their claim of being the

modernising instrument of society.

Irrespective of the theories about the development of democracy in India, as a middle

class value, and modernisation as a process of politicisation,3the existential

considerations have dictated fluctuations in the life and times of media, trajectory of

which have regularly been affecting various aspects of our public life. In colonial times,

1For instance see, several issues of Seminaron the media related themes, such as issue no. 343,

March 1983; issue no. 453, May 1997; and issue no. 458, October 1997.2The character of this survey was at best rudimentary, but it elicited huge response from editors

and other journalists. The survey was done by a team of researchers and journalists under the

leadership of Yogendra Yadav of CSDS in response to the blatantly partisan coverage of the

current anti-reservation stir. It was broadcasted on IBN & AWAZ news channels.


2/11

2

with its founding principal based on a high moral ground, the print media and its main

protagonist the journalist fashioned an exciting career as a nationalistic pamphleteer. In

post-independent era he became a conscience-keeper of the nation and made a wonderful

use of the genre of investigative and development journalism. During the restless

seventies and eighties, through this very genre print media showed a rebellious streak of

politico-social activism. Stories constructed on the basis of governmental leaks, from the

facts extracted out of ambivalent journalist-politician nexus, on the issues of

environment, violation of gender and other human rights and massacres by landlord

armies gave media the aura of an institution capable of transcending the grip of capital

and other class interests. All this came as a whiff of fresh breeze as it introduced the

occasional sparks of episodic radicalism in the otherwise mundane world of

newsgathering and edition making. Its long affair with adversary journalism was proved

most creative in terms of accelerating the ongoing process of politicisation.

But, with the advent of globalising nineties, and according to one media watcher, along

with it came the demand for media product. This could only be supplied by the active

and deliberate politics of de-politicisation. Other connotations apart, in the particular

context of media the expression politics of de-politicisation simply means deployment

of a professional mechanism by which centrality of the politicisation can be denied in the

affairs of state, society and their development. In practice the politics of de-

politicisation also meant planned discrediting of political class and a drive for the

establishment of techno-economic state, where politics of the day gets reduced to only as

an instrumentality.4

The face-off between the socially concerned media and the de-politicising media is still

going on. The scale of editorial preference has already tipped towards the newfound

category of human-interest stories rather than the humanistic stories with political

content. It seems that the transformation in the offing is going to be stark. The watchdog

3See, Rajni Kothari, The politics in India, Orient Longman, Delhi, 1969; andRethinking

Democracy, Orient Longman, Delhi, 20064P. Sainath has done a thought provoking analysis of the impact of this process in one of his

article. See, Amnesia, Seminar, issue no. 458, October 1997.


3/11

3

of democracy already has become the keyboard-punching infotainment artist of the free

market era, and the upper caste born middle class creature known as Indian journalist has

gone from being an educated-patriot to a market-driven actor.5

Using the news-clippings, editorial pieces and other articles related to the mega project of

Delhi metro as the base material, provided by the research team of Lokayan6, this two-

part article intends to show how the changing face of journalism and resultant politics of

de-politicisation has converted Delhi metro into a media product, and how a powerful

nexus of media, politicians and parties of every variety along with the international profit

seekers of capital play the game of image building and create a broad consensus around

something as big as the metro project without any concern for social well being. Both

parts of this article contain an exhaustive analysis of news-items published in the Hindi

and English press. The first part gives an account of an urban rail project being depicted

as the symbol of the non-political and technological times, the second examines the

various other issues related to the Delhi metro, such as its cost effectiveness, concerns of

security and environment, justification for the technology used, and above all, whether

there were no other alternatives available for solving the problems of the daily commuter

of National Capital city. A disclaimer may not be needed here, because it is nobodys

argument that media should not have supported the metro project. This modest exercise

of media analysis wants to focus on the newfound obsession for the de-politicisation of

the social relationship of a development project by the most powerful opinion maker of

the democratic state system.

5. Sagarika Ghose, The Free Market Journalist, Seminar, Special issue on media trends, 458,

October 19976Five volumes of clippings of the period between 2002-2004 were prepared by the Transport and

Print Media project under the leadership of LOKAYAN. It includes one separate volume of the

English newspaper clippings, and one volume contained mixed items of Hindi and English both.

The other three volumes contain only Hindi news items.


4/11

4

History as Present

For newspapers the history of Delhi metro is rather well known in a particular way. It is a

short and crisp history surfacing rarely in the columns of the papers7and containing only

one major fact of an urban rail project consigned to the dustbin of political rivalry and

governmental inefficiency for several decades. One newspaper tells us that Delhi metro

was conceived at least 42 years ago; the same newspaper on the same date in another

item adventurously shortens this period to only 21 years; an English paper calls it a 50-

year-old dream. Apart from this typically careless research, newspapers also tell us again

and again why this project couldnt fructify in earlier times, and why the commuters of

Delhi were left at the mercy of the daily horrors of bus travel. This history does not

hesitate to put leaders like Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi in a dock because they had in

their times failed to implement the project.

The dream realised today was in fact seen first in 1960. Forty-two year ago a plan was designed for the

construction of the metro in Delhi and Calcutta simultaneously. For Calcutta the dream did come true many

years ago, but unfortunately Delhi kept encountering roadblocks. For three decades the plan remained

buried in files.8 The metro was conceived some 21 year ago on the initiative of Indira Gandhi

squabbling began on the issue as to who would construct and who would run it then came Rajiv Gandhi

but he did not want to 9Fifty years on, a dream for the capital is realised

10

In fact the construction of this small piece of history firmly locates itself in the present by

constantly referring to the ongoing glory of the metro project, and comes out as totally

aloof of its real past. For instance, hardly any columnist or editorial writer, any reporter

or news-analyst can be seen attempting to dig out the social reason as to why having a

metro became increasingly necessary. They fail to recall the debates of late eighties and

early nineties where a certain restraint policy about regulating the numbers of private

vehicles was advocated by some ethically oriented social activists and intellectuals.

Obviously, feebleness of those voices couldnt sustain against the powerful middle class

7Details of the metro history hardly occur in news items under analysis. In the more than one

thousand clippings only half a dozen items partially mentions this aspect of the metro project.

8Rashteeya Sahara, September 20, 2002

9Alok tomar, Metro Rail ka Shuru Hua Khel,Rashteeya Sahara, September 20, 2002


5/11

5

proclivity of having the comforts of privatised vehicles and enjoyment of the social status

derived from the ownership of cars.11

Delhis roads were, then, already choked. A

situation had arrived when resolution of the commuting problem in non-road terms could

be imposed as an easy option. It was an either-or situation, a choice between some kind

of flying bus service and the metro rail service. Both options had to be technology

intensive and resource guzzling. Soon they became the fashionable points of speculation

by media.

The medias allegation that due to the political interference and haggling the metro

project couldnt have launched earlier seems to have a certain design. The picture is

completed when newspapers talk about the moment of decision and celebrate the event of

shovel breaking the ground for the first time to start the long awaited project. It is

interesting to note that none of the news items gives credit to politicians, as if

implementation of the metro project was to be decided upon by some non-political entity.

Only once a relic from the political past raises its head and we were informed in an

apologetic tone that some Jagpravesh Chandra also dreamt about the future of Delhi as a

city with an up-to-date metro service.12Apart from this fleeting mention, politics get

associated only with negative connotations in this very sketchy account of metros past.

Present as Non-political

The purported non-political character of the metro project constitutes the huge overlap

between selective media representation of its history and its current development. It

provides for a smooth sailing opportunity for media to go overboard in condemning

everything that is political in the affairs of the metro. Media had a field day when a tug of

war broke between the BJP lead government at the centre and the Congress government

10Hidustan Times, December 25, 200211Restraint measures for the vehicles means something like erected gates to charge fees for entry

in business centres and other busy parts of the city. In Indian context it also included the ethical

appeals for pooling the car resources while going to offices. For middle class reaction to these

policies, see Sanjay Mishra, Forestalling Transport Chaos in Delhi,Economic and Political

Weekly, June 10, 2000.12Punjab Kesari, Sehra Baba Ke Sir, September 18, 2002


6/11

6

of the Delhi state to take the credit for the successful commencement of first line.13

During the seventies and the eighties media defined the idea of development in the light

of political preferences and raised the democratic issues of its impact on the poor sections

of people. Obviously, the same print media couldnt have produced the editorial of this

kind:

Today neither the central government nor the state government can dare create the bottlenecks in the Delhi

Rail Project. They will be afraid to do so mainly because masses have nurtured the deep affinity with this

project and would not hesitate to inflict a heavy political damage on those who want to obstruct the

progress of the metro. In fact, the masses should hear the call of hour and come forward to force the

government for the completion of other belated development projects. Public must make governments

answerable on the issue of development14

Interestingly, while happily berating the government media does not produce even a

shred of evidence to justify this sort of clarion call. Even a cursory glance over the metro

related new items can tell us that although central and state governments did fought for

the credit, they did not leave any stone unturned to remove possible hiccups in the

construction of the metro. The managing Director of DMRC, E. Sreedharan concedes it

in an undersigned article that the two governments who jointly own the project made

sure that these constraints were not posed before the project. Sreedharan has gone to the

extent of praising the governments efforts in advancing their equity contributions by

almost a year and efficiently looking after the problems in land acquisitions.15

Given the

years of maturity that media has enjoyed after independence, it could easily have taken a

more realistic view of this politics of credit. Twenty five year ago the same media would

have explained away this episode of party-politics in terms of centre-state relationship

and would have used this opportunity to pontificate both the parties on the issue of

federalism.

13Media used the expression politicisation or rajnitikaran liberally in the headings, in the textof the news items and even in the editorials without making the necessary distinction in the

narrow and broader meanings of the word.14

Rashtreey Sahara, Ek sapane ka sakar hona, Editorial, Delhi, December 26, 200215

E. Sreedharan, The Metros Many Battles,Hindustan Times, Delhi, September 2002


7/11

7

The content of the editorial pieces also got affected due to the de-politicised attitude of

editors and assistant editors. By comparing the editorials16

published on the credit politics

in four different dailies, a homogeneous picture emerges in terms of ideas, arguments and

the polemics deployed. For any discerning reader it can only be called a strong command

performance where even the difference of language used could not introduce any

palpable variety. Every editorial without any exception used same parameters: showered

the wholesome praise on the idea of the metro for its high technology content, hero

worshipped the persona of Sreedharan, condemned without any exception the politics,

leaders and parties, declared a direct relationship between the metro project and the

people of Delhi, thereby ruling out the mediating role of democratic institutions.

The article written by Sreedharan referred above is a remarkable one from two more

angles. Firstly, it gives us an idea about the importance of understanding the intricacy of

the politics involved during construction work of the metro in its formative stages.

Secondly, seen from the point of presentation in the Sunday magazine of the Hindustan

Timesit reflects on anti-political prejudices of the journalists involved. As evident from

the above quotation the MD of DMRC have praised profusely the efforts of government,

the transport minister, chief minister and LG of Delhi and rightly so because without the

willing hand of the system, he couldnt have earned the kudos for the timely completion

of first the metro line. Then came the following comment:

As Delhi is directly under the scrutiny of VVIPs, DMRC had to be careful in each step that we took

DMRC had to navigate carefully between the central and state governments run by different political

parties. The high standard of professionalism helped us to sail through without annoying any particular

political party 17

Only once, while talking about the process of appointing the consultants, Sreedharan

complained about political interference, but he never used this particular expression. It

must be some member of the editorial staff who would have written the intro in an

16In fact, newspapers have written very few editorials on the issues related to the metro. Most ofthem appeared when credit politics was at its peak. Hindi newspapers found it more fit to

comment in their leaders.


8/11

8

aggressive tone and put these words in Sreedharans mouth, we did the job despite

political interference.18

As usual the intro of the article was presented in bold letters just

beneath the thumb-size photo of the famous technocrat and it must have created the

lasting impression on the minds of a-political readers. The journalists did not take any

cue from Sreedharans comment and never came up with any credible story about the

relationship between the day-to-day politics and a four hundred strong team of

technocrats. Under the influence of their anti-political fetish they entirely missed an

outstanding creative opportunity by subsuming it under the broad rubric of political

interference.

Medias campaign to de-politicise the metro project got a boost when the BJP leader and

Union home minister, L.K. Adwani and the Vice-President, Bhairon Singh Shekhavat

separately gave statements in favour of keeping development and politics detached.

Adwani, while inaugurating the trial run, repeated his favourite position that political

competition is desirable only up to an extent, and focus should be on synergy in

developmental matters.19Shekhavat went one step further and suggested that politics of

Delhi must learn to cleanse itself on the pattern of metros cleanliness.20Most

newspapers tried to use these statements for double effect. Both statements were given

wide publicity on the one hand, and on the other hand, behind the scene political

competition was described in a colourful language.21

Again a message was conveyed to

the reader about the vile and double speaks of politicians.

Human-interest Stories: a Device for De-politicisation

It was not possible to anticipate the repercussions of the changes introduced in the subject

matter of newspaper reports in early nineties. Against the backdrop of the volatile

episodes of the Mandir-Mandal politics, most editors belonging to the national press

17E. Sreedharan, Op.cit.,Hindustan Times, Delhi, September 200218See, especially the intro of Sreedharans article.19

Adwanis comments were published in every newspaper. His speech was in English, but when

translated by the Hindi reporter it became a blatant appeal for the de-politicisation. For a Hindi

flavour of his speech, seeJansatta, Delhi, September 18, 2002.20Dainik Jagaran, January 10, 2003.21Rashtreey Sahara, Delhi, September 18, 2002


9/11

9

began to assign the human interest beats to their reporters, as if the earlier work done by

these reporters were devoid of human interest. Accordingly the recruitment pattern of

reporters also changed.22

Non-financial dailies started covering the specialised aspects of

business. Besides removing the political correspondent as the central figure of a

newspaper, this development saw the demise of the full time education and the

specialised labour correspondents. The prevalence of rural poverty became a non-issue

for editors.

Since questioning the editor by any staff member is not practically possible under the

roof of a newspaper office, soon this new practice was able to take roots and without any

contest.23The expression human interest became an euphuism for pro-establishment

journalism. The proponents of the nation building as a non-political concept found it

much to their liking. Since newspapers were willing to take an overtly favourable

position towards the metro project, with very few dissenting opinions being publicised,

the related news items began to look like handouts given by the DMRC authorities. It was

like a joint activity of reporters and DMRCs media cell. Reporters were granted

extensive access to metro officials and fed steadily what one calls human interest

materiel. Hundreds of news headlines, if analysed in the context of medias social

responsibility, fail to provide the evidence of the professional detachment necessary to

write an objective story. To prove the point a few of them are given below:

English Headings: Visit the metro for the taste of politeness; thefts down: metro does what cops cant;

driving past a male bastion; dont think twice metro is alright; slum children taken for ride in metro; metro

stall is trade fares Indian attraction; metro mantra: shop while you travel; metro offered spotless festive

joy.

Hindi Headings: Metro builds a beautiful school for the corporation; who will purchase the first metro

ticket for Prime Minister?; Metro stations are decorated like brides; metro train more beautiful than plane;

22Since late eighties, the tribe that we all know as activists cum journalists or social scientist

turned journalists became persona non-grata in newspaper office. It sounded the death knell of the

Jholawalajournalist.23

As far as the internal democracy is concerned, the case of the newspaper office is a bizarre one.

The editor was and still remains the exalted autocrat, supposedly fighting the battle for thefreedom of expression outside the office, but at the same time not allowing any kind of freedom


10/11

10

metro was more talked about than Santa Claus on Christmas; metro used as picnic train; 100 poor and

orphan kids enjoy metro ride; far from habitation, connected to nature; an outstanding architecture: the

Kashmiri Gate metro station; one metro train would be more useful than 500 buses.

These are the kind of headlines that must have made an incredibly complicated selling

job very easy for the metros media cell. One scholar working on Delhi metro project

has estimated that due to the friendly attitude of media DMRC did not have to spend

much on building a society-friendly image of the project. Today the promotional effort

launched by DMRC can claim an astonishing success in a very limited budget. Media did

not report the components of this campaign, which included programmes like street

theatre, infomercials, volunteer education projects and exhibitions.24These events were

getting reported with the charged comments of onlookers and superimposed with the

positive impressions of the reporter also.25

In Lieu of a Conclusion

Incidentally, in another analysis of the news coverage of the metro, it was concluded that:

The opportunistic rush for political ownership over the metro created an environment where there was little

direct political criticism of the logic underpinning the project. The metro was projected in media as being

universally endorsed by all of the key politicians, which reinforced an image of the metro as the pride ofDelhi. Furthermore, even amidst the political wrangling for credit, the fact that cooperation had been

achieved between the rival political parties was a symbol to the public that the metro was an important

effort to address one of the most pressing societal issues.26

There are points with which the present analysis can concur with the above conclusion,

but not with the issue related to the political angle. Our analysis clearly shows that even if

to his fellow journalists. In office he is like the chief of a force and treats other journalists as his

foot-soldiers.24

For a critical appreciation of the publicity campaign launched by the media cell of the metro,

see Matti Siemiatycki, Message in a Metro: Building Urban Rail Infrastructure and Image inDelhi, India,International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Volume 3.2, June 2006,

Blackwell, UK,25

The Times of India, April 3, 2002.26

Siemiatycki, op. cit.,International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Volume 3.2, June

2006, Blackwell, UK,


11/11

11

there was some political consensus on the construction of the metro, media did not give

credit to the political class. Barring items few and far between, the reading of entire

news-clippings and a few available editorial pieces published between 2002 and 2004,

hardly do we have any information about possible or really existing contradictions,

paradoxes, tensions and other problems in the team lead by Sreedharan. It is difficult to

find any account of the inside working of the construction process from the news reports.

It seems that a clear-cut distinction has already been made between the political class and

the technocratic class. All kinds of criticism, vitriol and epitaphs were used against

politics and its practitioners. It would be an over-statement to say that media gave

technocrats a clean chit, because newspapers hardly ever found their attitude, thinking

pattern and reactions even worthy of critical gaze. Probably for the first time in India,

politics and politicians were relegated to the permanent back seat on such an important

issue like Delhi metro, and the likes of Sreedharan and other technocrats replaced them in

front. Thanks to media, at least one technology driven and de-politicise structure of

development is finally constructed.

(To be concluded)

abhay kr dubey - delhi metro & media - politics of depoliticisation

Documents