Search the Internet          Tips

Govt nervous over media hype

Sheela Bhatt in New Delhi

Politicians, diplomats, National Democratic Alliance leaders and even the Prime Minister's Office are bothered by the excessive media hype surrounding the upcoming Agra summit between Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf.

Rediff.com sources said that one of the reasons behind NDA's decision to not attend the Saturday's 'High Tea' party hosted by Pakistan High Commissioner Ashraf Jehangir Qazi was the euphoria created by the media.

"Summit's coverage is full of hype and not at all rational," said former foreign secretary J N Dixit.

The Bharatiya Janata Party has also been consistently saying that one should not expect too much from the summit.

BJP leader Narendra Modi said, "The media is trying to set the agenda of the Agra summit."

According to sources, when the meeting of the coordination committee of the National Democratic Alliance chaired by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee met on Wednesday NDA members were told that to counter the 'propaganda in the Pakistani media' Vajpayee will also grant an interview to a TV channel and Jaswant Singh shall meet the press.

Interestingly, media hype of the summit has spread such a scare in the corridors of power that Rajiv Shukla, a journalist turned Member of Parliament proposed in the meeting that, 'let there be some strategy in case of a failure of the Agra summit'.

Shiv Sena's Suresh Prabhu also said that media is influencing the summit. The government is worried about the people's expectations, he added.

One security expert in Delhi was annoyed by the coverage Musharraf was getting.

"Clinton deserved it, does Musharraf deserve it?" he asked. He also accused Musharraf of using the 'friendly' and the 'democratic' Indian media to keep him in news.

"Whether it is allegations of American pressure, or the matter of DGMO's visit or his mother talking about her son, he is keeping himself in the spotlight," said the expert.

Narendra Modi said, "It's a case of media overkill. The matters which the prime minister is going to reveal on the discussion table, is also debated on the pages of newspapers. I wish media would judge the event keeping in mind the track record of Pakistan."

Tarun Vijay, editor of Panchjanya, said, "Instead of having a serious deliberation, media is in the mood of celebration. For some strange reason media has become euphoric. No visiting personality has got so much positive publicity as Musharraf has got. Though Vajpayee went to Pakistan with a love in his heart, he was criticised in Pakistan's media. I think Musharraf has won the first round in creating the media hype."

While there are quite a few who are peeved with the kind of coverage General Pervez Musharraf is getting, there are others who are not disappointed with Pakistan media's coverage of the Indian position.

Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh said that media in Pakistan is giving enough coverage to the concessions announced by India. He added, "hamari baton ko vahan kafi support mil rahi hai (We are getting enough of support in Pakistan.)."

But not all are criticising the media hype.

Pranad Mukherjee, a senior Congress leader said, "I must say coverage of the summit is much wide. The media is articulating people's strong desire to have a settlement with Pakistan. It appears to me that media too wants to express and support it fully. This is a positive sign."

But he was quick to add that it's possible that the media might dub the summit a failure if an agreement, especially on Kashmir, is not reached.

But the man who is one of centres of the media hype is surprisingly philosophical about it. Reacting to the hype Vajpayee said, "Its all the making of the media, what can we do?"

Indo-Pak Summit 2001: The Complete Coverage

Back to top

Tell us what you think of this report