Political Talk Shows: One-sided Battle

The political talk shows in Bengali Television Channels often become almost a one-sided battle. The solitary TMC member to fight against all others. In general, there are 6 to 8 participants, including the various party representatives and political analysts. There exists some ex-police officers or army-officers, who also join the chorus of the oppositions.

Bombard of Political Talk Shows

As a part of noble duties of the media, they try to place the mirror in front of the rulers’ face.  The anchors attempt to grill with questions, which are mostly against the rules. The oppositions criticize the fullest extent and also bombard with questions. The poor TMC representative tries to justify as much as possible. Their prime key focus remains to cite examples of the past CPM regime or the BJP reigns in various other states governed by BJP.

The problem is that the anti-incumbency factor has reached the hilt.  Many corruptions and scams have surfaced in the recent past.  These are coupled with many notorious incidents in the recent times. The TMC spokesman often face it difficult to defend Mamata Banerjee. We do apprehend his situations, but he cannot escape from his holistic duties of defending the party line.

Things often escalate further when even the anchors begin to grill the spokesperson aggressively. Such journalism often prompt jittery responses and even counterattacks on the host.

Political Talk Shows on court cases

Everyone knows that there are a lot of pending cases lying in the High Court and Supreme Court. The representative desperately bypasses them, by labelling them as no comment on sub-judice issues. Just imagine the situation when the TMC representative has to justify the infamous SSC scam; which faced the bizarre ruling to cancel the entire selection process. Hence a workforce of around 26000 people got terminated. It becomes really difficult for TMC to justify against such inhuman event.

It has now also become a custom that as disciplined soldier of the party, the TMC representative also starts blaming the constitutional top authorities, following the leader, Mamata Banerjee. The panel of TMC also consists of teachers and lawyers. When a lawyer has to criticize a judge the situation becomes even more cumbersome. The situation becomes even more appalling when  a teacher has to justify an assault on the teacher. I remember one Doctor saying, “I can understand that the wound is not of bite, but is a scratch due to something else”, that sounds too funny.

Even in the DA case, when it concerns all the Government employees including teachers and others, a teacher has to support the party’s stance of not granting the DA as per the ROPA rules 2009 or AICPI. When a lawyer has to justify the notorious Abhaya rape and murder case, he knows at the core of the heart, how brutal it was.

Mamata Banerjee’s Stance

When it becomes evident that Mamata Banerjee has taken a U-turn, the poor TMC spokesman has to justify even that. Its often said that everyone has to echo the slogan and strictly toe to the party line. So the condition of the TMC representative becomes miserable. If some leader ever tells in any other line out of pangs of conscience, the representative has to justify it as his personal opinion. When he has to justify the condemnable languages of a Anubrata Mondal over the telephonic conversations with a police officer, the lawyer also fumbles. But they become helpless. It’s a party obligation, where the rule works as My way or Highway.

Gradually the debates become partisan debate, but the poor face and indomitable efforts of the TMC representatives are to be enjoyed.