The Voice of the Actual Indian

Our Tuesday meeting was bustling with energy and chatter when the call to take one’s seat was announced. Perhaps this only paralleled the noise that our speaker, Faye D’Souza from the newly-inaugurated TV news channel Mirror Now, would discuss during her speech: With all the noise and clamor that surrounds Indian media, and news especially, why does our nation need yet another news channel to add to the cacophony?

“It’s true, India has a lot of news channels… And at any given point, they’re all doing the same thing,” D’Souza stated. Describing Indian news as a “food court where everybody is serving Punjabi food,” she highlighted the lack of options that audiences have when looking for news sources; it seems as if one turns on the TV these days to only hear the shrill screams of “intellectual” debate after debate running behind Target Rating Points and advertising revenue.

Nonetheless, choosing to focus on why it was important for D’Souza herself to begin such a channel, rather than Times Network’s business intentions, the journalist began with a memory that may have struck a chord with those in the audience – The 2014 General Elections.

“In 2014, as a country, we were feeling something. We had all [voted] in large numbers and we felt good about the decision that we had made,” she said. “Because we had voted for development. We voted for a better quality of life, roads, nicer schools…” The list goes on. But most importantly, “we acknowledged and realised the potential of being the youngest country in the world – and we said doubledigit growth.” Along the way, however, “the conversation changed.” From discussing growth and development, elections were fought over religion, caste, and language instead. “Somehow, all of the politics from 20 years ago were suddenly relevant again,” D’Souza claimed. “What happened to double-digit growth?”

D’Souza then asked a question that may have been familiar to those of us who recently travelled abroad. No matter what facet of development we may have encountered in a foreign country – an efficient metro system, potholefree roads, or a cashless economy – we were likely to have asked, “Why don’t we have this [at home]?” This may seem, to some, antinationalist. It is, of course, quite effortless to criticise our nation’s lack of development (undoubtedly with a certain sense of remorse). “But how many more years are we going to spend asking [that] question?” She challenged.

She then expanded upon our sentiments toward “nationalism,” the double-edged sword that seems to cloud our news stories and controversies. “Nationalism is as shallow as a teacup; we are measured not by our college degrees, experiences, or what we contribute to society, but by our nationalism.” She used our advertising industry as an indicator of nationalism’s influence on our citizens. From “Make-in-India” conservatives like Patanjali to companies like Kajaria Ceramics, they all want in on the sellability of patriotism. “Right now, it is such a brilliant and easy low-hanging fruit, to bottle nationalism and sell whatever you want.” It could be said that Indian consumers are now so blinded by the love they hold for their country that they are no longer able to see the layered and multidimensional way in which India’s policies affect our lives today.

Therefore, D’Souza stated that she believes India needs another news channel because “it’s time to ask the right questions.” From IT and Engineering students laundering money through fake online websites to drug peddlersin our schools, there are dangerous legislation failures occurring right under our noses – we are just too consumed by our patriotism to notice. “If we are going to become the country of the future and leave something better for our children,” she said, we have to formulate the correct questions, ask them at the right time, to the right people. “In that food court that is serving Punjabi – and some of it is 20 years old, so it could give you food poisoning – someone needs to come in and serve what is needed today.”

“There’s room to challenge the way things are done, which is why we don’t do politics,” D’Souza remarked, drawing attention to her everfamous slogan. “I will cover policy.”

“When they decide gay people cannot donate blood, if there’s a building that’s collapsed in Ghatkopar out of sheer corruption and people have died, if we have drugs coming into our schools – these are all problems,” she said. However, most news channels fail to report these stories due to their own individual political biases. In order to tackle this issue, Mirror Now hires journalists that have “zero political background,” D’Souza affirmed.

She also dismissed our nation’s contemporary label system. In the past, someone may have been referred to by their caste, but today, we are labelled by our political affiliations; congi, rightwing, uptown. “You can’t ask a question in this country without being branded one of those things,” the journalist stated.

Continuing, she presented us with a rather comical caricature of our present hierarchy of labels. “We all learnt how important the caste system is and why it had to be eradicated. Right now, this is the caste system: Nationalist, cow… And then everybody else.” As the room erupted with giggles all around, D’Souza displayed why this ranking, though humorous, is incredibly problematic. “There’s [imperative] policy waiting to be passed, but the government has had the time to pass a cow bill [instead],” she asserted.

“We are in a country that’s toying with our emotions,” she explained, “they’re strumming our sentiment and offending our intelligence on a daily basis.” At a certain point, it’s important for the intelligent people in the room to take a stand for themselves and their country, rather than stepping aside and watching from afar. Only then can we live in a country “where we have accountability, where we have purpose,” said D’Souza.

“That’s why I believe we launched this channel,” she continued. “In this food court, we will actually give you something that is good. We will not put it on air unless we are convinced that it is good. This, I believe, is the voice of the actual Indian; it is not political, this is just what the average Indian wants. And all we’re going to do is just ask questions – and have the audience decide for themselves,” she inspiringly orated.

Apparently, that was what our rotarians had in mind as well. After displaying a few short clips that summarised exactly what Mirrow Now is all about, D’Souza was asked a few questions by curious audience members.

Firstly, when asked to clarify her problems with nationalism, D’Souza simplified her thoughts on the issue. “There’s nothing wrong with nationalism, I believe we should all love our country. But nationalism should not be as a yardstick for how good or bad I am. Let’s be nationalist and ask how many starving children we saved, how many new schools we built, how many new hospital beds we supplied,” she replied.

Next, she was asked if she personally ever tries to close the cases she reports on her news channel, to which she responded, “it’s something that we’ve started doing. We get petitions signed and we forward them to the ministries involved. We’re trying, we haven’t achieved as much as I would have liked to achieve.” From issues such as child lock buttons in cars to taxation on cigarettes, D’Souza and Mirror Now have focused on trying to make journalism an initiativedriven force for positive change, as she explained.

Thus, as Mirror Now begins its metamorphosis of the news channel world, Faye D’Souza remains at the helm of this new era of journalism. With enough grit, determination, and accountability, Mirror Now and its anchors are nowhere but glorybound, ready to blast the voice of every Indian on our nation’s loudspeaker.