This week, one of the world’s largest religious gatherings, the Kumbh Mela in Prayagraj, took a tragic turn. Early Wednesday morning, a deadly stampede occurred at the Sangam Nose. But while news channels had no trouble giving us daily updates on the soaring crowd numbers, they suddenly struggled to report how many were injured or dead.
In less than 24 hours of the tragedy, anchors moved on to showcasing celebrations at the Kumbh. On India Today, for example, Gaurav Sawant chose to highlight the grand visuals of the Kumbh and told us how ‘Sanatan was all about triumph of hope’. Needless to say, he didn’t question the Yogi administration for not telling us the death toll even as 15 hours had passed since the tragedy.
Meanwhile, channels like NDTV quickly shifted to Modiji’s speech in the afternoon – only breaking away to show Kumbh Mela advertisements.
While some journalists did their job – covering facts and questioning those in power – many others did everything they could to avoid holding Yogiji accountable.
Bonus: Since podcasts are the flavour of the month, we bring you our version of what an honest interview with our Dear Leader would look like.
Watch.
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