What a victory!

What a victory! What a victory!!! I not only could see the excitement in his voice, but also in his whole body language. He was running around as though India had just won the world cup (Cricket, of course, not soccer!). For a second, I was confused and had to check up whether I was on the right website. This, neither was entertainment news and neither did it have anything to do with sports.

Anyway, I was watching the Assembly election results in six states held across different parts of India. After watching election news all these years,, I can still safely say, without any presumptions, that Prannoy Roy was simply the best in business - calm, composed, and perfect to the point, with a good team of political analysts. Now, with the advent of time, and with the advancement in technology, there is so much access to statistics online, that anything and everything is just a click of a button away. But, those days, to compile everything methodically from different sources, was more like a salesman job, running from one house to another. Today, as media has become over hyped, and always in the region of over the top reporting, the style and class of the traditionalists can still not be surpassed.

So, as my friends and I tuned into one of the channels, and saw the ultra biased reporting, it was difficult for us to fathom the fact that journalism had become so one sided. There is a thin line between reporting and taking sides, and it required no Einstein to figure out which way the analysis, if that's the term you need to use, was headed. It was just half an hour since the results started pouring in, and we were really not sure who was more excited, whether the winning party or the channel. It was as though the party spokesperson was relaying the news of the election results.

Oh, X is winning by a landslide in state Y. So, we can definitely go on to say that X is forming the government in Y without any question. After a few minutes, as the gap closes in, it was equally amusing to hear the statement. Oh, We have no doubt that X is definitely heading to be the single largest party and is all set to form the government with the help of others.

As a neutral observer, the bias was easy to notice, and on an equal footing, totally disconcerting. From time memorial, there has always been some sort of an unspoken relationship between the media and those involved in the political circles. It was visible, but not explicit, as the print media, apart from a few scribes, were careful to disguise their affinity in well worded terms. Some of the brilliant journalists made sure that they conveyed their views in apolitical terms. That truly is straight from the heart journalism. But today, as the hype beyond proportions, reaches almost all sections of the society, it is disheartening to note that media has become vocal in a completely parochial sense.

After a few minutes, we were dying to change the channel, and as one of my friends rightly said, At least for the sake of this guy, I want party X to be vanquished in all states. And, if you have been following the election results even vaguely, you don't need to be a brilliant political analyst to figure out the protagonists.