Anna rules the web, the electronic media, and the print to a great extent. He leads a massive protest demanding the Parliament to pass his team's Jan Lokpal Bill, the practicality of which is a highly debatable issue. However, the culture of modern electronic journalism hides many a things from the public, seeks for news that makes the headlines and celebrates them with undue hype while ignoring many. The Anna saga was widely covered and many other top stories were hidden from the public eye under the Lokpal shadow.
2G Spectrum Scam
Surprisingly Anna Hazare's second freedom struggle broke out at a time the UPA-government seemed to be at a point of collapse, at least on the moral side. Kanimozhi has apparently argued that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and former Finance Minister P Chidambaram were in the loop during the 2G scam. This was a serious blow to the already shaky government which was hunting for a shelter to hide from the accusations of former Telecom Minister A Raja that PM and Chidambaram were aware of the 2G transactions. "I will get the PM, then Finance Minister P Chidambaram and the present Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal summoned as witnesses to prove there was no loss in 2G allocation," said A Raja.
Cash for Vote Scam
The cash for vote scam, which was a big blot on the great Indian democracy, was back again on the news for the last few days. However, it vanished from the spotlight as Anna's agitation got the momentum. Former Samajwadi Party General Secretary Amar Singh along with six others including two former BJP MPs and the former close aide of LK Advani have been charge sheeted by the Delhi police. It is alleged that alleged that Amar Singh conspired with his former aide Sanjeev Saxena and others to bribe the then MPs and Advani's former aide Sudheendra Kulkarni played an "active role" during the confidence motion
China Installs N-Missiles on Indian Border
If the U.S. government is to be believed, India close neighbor and a constant enemy China has deployed advanced and survivable solid-fuel nuclear capable CSS-5 MRBM missiles at our borders. The latest report from Pentagon suggests the mistrust between India and China is deepening despite increased economic ties. However, our electronic media seemed to be in no mood to bring this into the limelight as it was busy covering the drama at Ramlila.
Unmarked Mass Graves in Kashmir
In a shocking revelation, Rights group Human Rights Watch said it has found 38 unmarked sites with thousands of bodies in Indian-administered Kashmir. The organization also urged the India government to hold an independent inquiry into the unmarked graves. It's believed that several-hundreds of these bodies are of the civilians who went missing ever since the uprising of ethno-religious insurgency in Kashmir. Although these news could make it into the Indian media, it's a painful fact that the ongoing anticorruption upsurge killed the news. A Srinagar-based 'Association of Parents of Displaced Persons' revealed that at least 8,000 people had disappeared since the start of insurgency. Many believe that this frightening news that shook the human conscious needs to be highlighted rightly so that it forces the truth out and put an end to the large-scale human rights violations in the Kashmir valley.
These are just a few of the news that the leading electronic media conveniently ignored to have their nonstop coverage on Anna Hazare and his protest. The mining scam in Karnataka, the CWG scandal haunting Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, the political crisis in Andhra Pradesh etc have been out of the news channels' radar for a while now. Do you think Anna's protest is overhyped? Or is it ethical for the media to ignore such important news?
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