Impact of Press on Government policies

SOMETIMES THE Press reflects the popular mood and sometimes it creates the popular mood,” says the Secretary. Home Affairs, K Padmanabhaiya. True. Since time immemorial. newspapers and the people are inseparable part of the society. Newspapers have always influenced the people and people have naturally affected the newspapers.
In our so-called systemised, democratic society, bureaucrats play a crucial role. They  draft policies, deliver plans and they all read newspapers. Does a newspaper change their perception or helps in making policies whatsoever? Says Padmanabhaiya, “I won’t say that it affects our perceptions but it certainly gives tremendous amount of Information, arguments and ideas.”
Media does play a great role in creating and changing the perception of people. But retired Secretary, Foreign Affairs, JN Dixit is not as optimistic as the Home Secretary. Dixit says, Both the nature and the spirit of the Indian newspapers have changed drastically  It is no more serious, analytical and  over a span of time it has become more  a product than an additional instrumentality which  provides education and information to the people. In the name  of investigation,. sensationalism has  become a routine, And since what sells is the criteria,  accuracy has suffered.
It is not that the newspapers work totally in vacuum, contradicts a  senior editor of the  Times of  India, Amulya  Ganguly. yes we case more about what will  sell more but the ideology and. policy are reflected in  the editorials.”
As a matter of fact, all the offices of the ministries have a proper clipping section. And every morning the concerned clippings from the dallies are produced to tile bureaucrats. Moreover, all the major newspapers are delivered free of cost to the bureaucrats which are “obviously meant for reading”.
“But bureaucrats in their usual manner interpret and justify their point, if the situation so desires, without affecting the policy,” asserts Swap an  Dasgupta, Associate Editor of Indian Express. “In any case,” feels Dasgupta, “Indian Press can most easily be manipulated.”
It has also been observed, that due to an internal ego problem among the Press itself, the media has not been able to make its presence felt. “If some story is broken by one newspaper, the other dailies never follow the story which dies Its own death,” observes Dasgupta. Bofors is the only case, which was pursued by all the newspapers.
Not denying the fact that Indian bureaucrats are quite competent and innovative, “with an appropriate motive to do something constructive”, the total bankruptcy and incompetence among politicians, leave the Press with too many responsibilities and expectations.
Unfortunately: in recent times, unlike, the past, “the debates over a policy has become a responsibility of academicians, educationists, scientists and journalists’, which however, “happened to be the, general phenomenon of parliamentarians,” says Swapan Dasgupta. As a result, “We end up, providing arguments, analysis and not exactly the structure on which any decision or policy can be championed,”
“But. that is aspiring too much,” feels Dixit,”because they do not have much information of inner, views and workings,” Ironically, governments here, at Central and State levels, have traditionally been so possessive of information available to them as to have functioned secretively for the most part. The Instinct of authority at even’ the lowest rung is to sit tight on what it knows.
Even today, the number of key reports remain undisclosed to the public. Which include the Henderson-Brooks report on the 1962 North-East military collapse during the Chinese invasion, the LP Singh report on reforming Information and Broadcasting and Central Bureau of Investigation. .the I&B’s report to the Home Ministry on the flow of foreign money. to political parties, and of course. the Thakkar Commission report on the Indira Gandhi assassination case.
Yet. in the case of India’s help to arm and train the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam guerrillas in camps in Tamil Nadu, which in any case has been an open secret but not officially confirmed India Today had published an extensively illustrated feature on  such training camps, clearly establishing the fact, The policy objective, however, was to help an oppressed: minority defend. itself against its oppressors. in this case the Sinhalese majority in Sri Lanka as well as  the Lankan army.
Interestingly, a report prepared by: the Information and broadcasting Ministry in 1989,
admits, “The tendency to treat everything as secret comes from an anxiety to prevent the people from examining how a decision was taken. Therefore, in a poorly informed society. there Is no such thing as enlightened public opinion the role of the people conveniently ends with the election of their representatives.’
This results in poor availability of required information, which at times is desperately required by the decision-makers. For instance: In the Korean War of early ‘50s, when North Korea was designated as the aggressor and the United Nations had deployed their troops. India’s Foreign Ministry also decided to send its combat troops to Korea but “it was the Press who warned us that it was an aspect of Cold War, and finally the Ministry realised this and sent medical help instead,” says Dixit.
The, forth round of so-called secret talks between India and the United States is a classic example of purposeful leakage to the Press. Interestingly, the talk was never revealed in India but was “purposefully” revealed in the United States to Aziz Haniffa of India Abroad News Service. Says JN Dixit. “Since the controversy blew up we had to take a very peculiar stand in the negotiation, later held in London, and that affected the total orientation of the dispatch.”
But the office of External, Affairs was found to be very disturbed over the way the Indian’ Press blew up the comments on Kashmir by. United . States Assistant Secretary of Stale. Robin. Raphel. Opines Dixit, “The Press played a very negative role by giving undue. importance to a simple comment made by as low a dignitary as an additional secretary of an office and sensationalised the whole issue.”
Meanwhile, the Indian press has done a great job by reporting the reactions of Pakistan to the Commission of Jurists According to the Home Secretary, Only then, did we come to know that the document was leaked to Pakistan, otherwise’ we would have been in the dark about this development.”