Breaking news: Indian channels battle the Chinese dragon

Apart from any geopolitical factors, there are two plausible explanations for the current focus on China India border, particularly on a few TV news channels in India. We are being daily fed with reports of Chinese incursions, China’s aggressive postures, China’s military build up, China paining rocks red, and then the media is blowing hot and cold over whether the Indian military is capable or ill prepared to deal with any situation that may arise. Indian government has repeated that there is nothing unusual happening on the border. Indian military has said there has been nothing unusual on the border. But of course the media knows better.

I know very little about the Chinese response to the war being waged in Indian drawing rooms. One report in Indian papers quoted Chinese officials urging Indian media to show restraint. Of course no can restrain the free Indian media, particularly when what is at stake is TRP. Particularly when many are suffering from an withdrawal symptom in a phase when there is no T20 cricket to keep the TV channels focused on the records made, the records missed, and records that might be made, both on and off the field.

Here are my two cent worth contribution on why China India border is dominating some TV news channels.

One, China is still relatively unknown to most Indians, quite unlike our other neighbours, and that makes it an easy target. For instance, Pakistan and its many non-state actors are a known devil, so whatever price they make us pay every time we are at the receiving end of their firework, we soldier on. There is very little personal animosity between ordinary people on both side of the Indo-Pak border. On the other hand, historically and socially, China has always been on the periphery of awareness for most Indians, and the Himalayan range only reinforced that perception. Shekhar Gupta writes in his weekly column in Indian Express, that the defeat of the Indian army in the 1962 war at the hands of the Chinese in the Indian north-east may have scarred the Indian psyche for generations. So today, the little known China, coupled with the trauma of 1962 are casting a shadow on the reality of Sino-India relationship in 2009.

Secondly, like the Bollywood films which seem forever eager to try and capitalize on any prevailing popular perceptions, there are some in the Indian media who think they now have an opportunity to try and leverage the Chinese dragon. In an economic slowdown, the competition among news channels for higher TRPs have become hot, and what better than a T20 thriller between China and India. The channels had a field day predicting a close election, when it was anything but that. Then it was the Swine flu, with running commentary on deaths triggering a panic. Then the monsoon or its failure, and the media descended like vultures at the prospect of picking at the worst drought in a century. And now it is time for a China India to face off, a battle has been joined with hardly anyone from the media actually visiting the border. Wait for the next media sponsored breaking news event. Far from being the messenger, the television channels seem to want to create news! Welcome to the media war in the information age.

Nevertheless, a war of words on TV channels is far more tolerable than any exchange of artillery between the armies.