Ex-Armymen should have dignity, keep away from news channels
The Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) issue discussed nationwide for more than a month now has come to a full circle at least temporarily after the release (on bail) of its student leaders Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya and earlier Kanhaiya Kumar. For more than a month a lot has been said about nationalism and this article is not an attempt to obscure this debate any further. Now, the time has come to reflect calmly and clinically on various issues raised during this chaotic phase.
For a vibrant democracy like India, it is but obvious that people would have a view and/or a counter view on any subject. The purpose over here is to present "a view" at the backdrop of JNU controversy on the "relevance" of Indian solider community (the retried lot) for electronic media.
Indian soldiers have a special place in the minds of its citizens. It is important to accept that the print and electronic media and even Bollywood has played an important role towards developing this public opinion by appropriately bringing to the notice of the citizens the valour of Indian troops.
The media also needs to be credited for promoting in a very forceful manner various just demands of the soldiers' community on wide range of issues: say from bulletproof jackets to pensions in the public domain. However, the JNU agitation has shown that now media (particularly the electronic) has also started "using" the soldiers community for their TRPs and this is where the soldiers need to be vigilant.
One issue which was unfortunately brought in the JNU debate was about linking this agitation and soldiers dying on the borders to safeguard the interest of the country. Some retired officers got sucked into this debate and appears to be unnecessarily have trapped themselves in this debate. It is important for them to understand that India has changed a lot and market economy is playing an important role in this change. The life is no more black and white. Presently, probably few retired military personals are looking at life with a different ethos than what was engrained to them during military training. Such change in ethos (by some) is not a crime however, it cannot be at the cost of bringing disrepute to the armed forces as a whole and that is what the fauijis needs to guard against.
Post independence, for many decades armed forces personnel (barring few exceptions) after their retirement from the services had kept themselves aloof from politics in the country. However, over a period of time this trend is changing and it needs to be welcomed. Indian politics would only improve when these people would bring in more professionalism in the system. Retired armed forces personal are also contributing towards the growth of private sector admirably. However, particularly the JNU episode has demonstrated that they need to remain cautious from getting manipulated by electronic media. The JNU agitation has made clear that the much extended honeymoon of the armed forces with the electronic media is over.
Indian television journalism is essentially "entertainment journalism" and Indian news channels are "strictly" entertainment channels. They require a "story" for everyday nine PM news slot. If there is no story then they manufacture one for entertaining people during their dinner time. TV anchors are brand conscious and strive for endorsement of their view as the only view. It's interesting that in India, commercially run airlines, hotels and other businesses are private business but, the commercially run TV news challenges strive hard to claim themselves as national news channels (only Doordarshan can be a national challenge, imagine instead of Air India, Kingfisher being called as national carrier!).
Retired service people normally called to participate in the TV debates particularly on issues like JNU or Indo-Pak or India-China are mostly called for the entertainment purposes. It is important for them to understand that they are being "used" to fight a so called war, under a virtual setup, not for their knowledge and understating of complicated strategic issues, but for the theatrics which inadvertently some of bring along!