Patna,(BiharTimes): Perhaps, it is after sending the editor of a Hindi daily, Harivansh, to Rajya Sabha that Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar understood the real design of the media. Of late, he is repeatedly accusing journalists and photo-journalists of giving undue coverage to BJP’s prime ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi. He may be right when he called NaMo the darling of the media. But what he missed in the process is that from October 19, 1994, that is on the day Samata Party was formed, to June 16, 2013, when he snapped ties with the BJP, none else but Nitish was the darling.

During the 1995 Assembly election campaign the media projected him as if he, and not Lalu Prasad, is going to sweep it. But his Samata Party, which contested in alliance with the CPI ML, suffered humiliating defeat. It could win only seven seats––all in Nalanda––in the House of 324.

He continued to be the darling of the media as the railway minister even though during his tenure several horrendous accidents took place, be it head-on collision between Awadh Assam Mail and Brahmaputra Mail in Gaisal (West Bengal) on August 2, 1999, in which over 400 perished or Rajdhani Express mishap of Sep 9, 2002 leading to the death of over 100 passengers.

In Bihar no chief minister got so much favourable media as Nitish. He got Best Chief Minister, Best Politician and other such awards from different media houses. Not only the Indian newspapers, magazines and channels, even the international media did exclusive stories on him. The Public Relation
department of the government often came out with the quotes––saying “Hum nahi zamana kahta hai.”
Media may be giving undue publicity to Narendra Modi, but then even his most bitter critic cannot deny the fact that he is prime ministerial candidate of BJP, which can win at least 10 times more seats than Janata Dal (United). In contrast the media found prime ministerial material in Nitish when his party won just 20 seats in Lok Sabha––and that too in alliance with the same BJP.

No doubt he did some good work initially but on many occasions he got credit for the work he never did. For example, the media applauded him for several massive central government projects and even some of the works which started during the previous regime, but ended during his rule.

Advertisements to media increased manifold soon after he came to power in November 2005. BiharTimes did a couple of stories on how even small vernacular dailies got advertisements worth lakhs annually and bigger ones got in crores. All these years Nitish was always appreciative of the media. However, the fact-finding team of Press Council of India (PCI) accused the state government of arm-twisting the media to function as the “undeclared mouthpiece.”

However, in Narendra Modi the Bihar chief minister found a match. The clash between the two was natural as both have some similar qualities. They both have the knack to take all the credits for whatever positive happens in their respective state and blame others––Congress in Gujarat and Lalu Prasad in Bihar––for anything which goes wrong.

As BJP has a long history of influencing the media Nitish lost the battle. As if that was not enough, he started attacking Modi and finally on June 16 snapped ties with the BJP.

It is only then that the media turned somewhat hostile towards him. It is not that the state government is not giving advertisements. It certainly is. In return the media too is giving coverage to his rallies and speeches. Yet what the media is doing is that it is certainly giving more coverage to Modi and not
criticizing the BJP.

Nitish may be right that as a partner the BJP is equally responsible for the success and failure of the government during the seven and a half years rule. The media never exposed the role a BJP leader played in the immediate transfer of Patna SP when he raided the business establishment of a trader engaged in producing and selling fake goods. The media did not flayed Narendra Modi when Sadhu Yadav met him in Ahmedabad. Nobody is today asking as to how Ranvir Yadav, a convict in a massacre, can even dare to say that talks are on with the BJP for Khagaria Lok Sabha seat.

The media never exposed the role the BJP leaders played in the Forbesganj incident or in the Rupam Pathak case. Media often ignored major public concerns too like appointment of fake teachers and cases of rampant corruption and misgovernance.

Yes the media is often biased, but it was prejudiced in Nitish’s favour for full 19 years too.