George Orwell had presciently stated that the people will believe what the media asks them to believe. Even he would have been  horrified  to see the  unscrupulous use  of the media by wily politicians to incessantly craft  deceitful  narratives  and  keep misleading the masses .

We live in a “Media dominated Society” where propagation of lies is  relentless, and perceptions are insidiously being created by reiterating convincing untruths innumerable times.

Currently, politics has been reduced to enticing votes by lying and befooling the people by propagating and promising a narrative   which is  farthest  from the truth.

The agenda  is clear- gigantic  lies are perpetuated  by our politicians, through the  pre- paid media outlets, with pro-twists  given by the so called experts and political analysts duly supported by the pro anchor, and they   take avatar as the truth.

Spreading lies and false narratives has become the  mantra of unethical politicians of every hue , but  leading the pack now is Arvind Kejriwal, who, while campaigning in Gujarat, promised to provide the people of Gujarat a “corruption-free” government if the Aam Aadmi Party comes to power in the state currently governed by the BJP.

He conveniently forgot to tell the people that some of his most prominent cabinet ministers are behind bars on serious charges of corruption. Even then, Kejriwal, who has been accused of being neck deep in the now infamous “ Delhi Excise scam”, running into thousands of crores of rupees, had the temerity to say that I give a guarantee that when the AAP forms the government in Gujarat, it will provide  corruption-free governance.

It was shocking that the media did not promptly  negate this  brazenly false assertion. How could the mainstream media remain silent and allow Kejriwal to propagate and deceive the public in Gujarat that he would provide them honest governance?  Are scams, like the excise scam in Delhi, where the public exchequer got poorer by thousands of crores and the  ill- gotten wealth of Kejriwal’s coterie multiplied  several fold, salient examples of ‘’corruption free” governance?

The art of lying has been practiced to such perfection that the politicians veritably create a mountain out of almost nothing. These days it has been propagated ad infinitum, that India has in its midst the best education minister of the world in the form of Manish Sisodia. This slew of lies began to be perpetuated with the active help and connivance of paid media which was under the charge of Sisodia as education minister of Delhi. The Kejriwal government supposedly did wonders and transformed education – this was wrapped up and packaged  as the‘ Delhi Model’ to befool the country. The official data analysis shows clearly that the ‘ Delhi Model’ is a blatant attempt to deceive the public through  presentation of misinformation.

The Delhi chief Minister highlights that free treatment in government hospitals and free education in government schools has been the hallmark of his so-called Delhi model. However, he deliberately omitted the fact that every state government, across the country, has been providing the same free education and free medical treatment for the public, through all these decades.

The excise scam, bus procurement scam etc. have completely exposed the true face of this so-called anti- corruption campaigner. This unravelling also prompted his one- time close aide and mentor, Anna Hazare to write a scathing letter to Kejriwal, denouncing the corruption ridden excise policy. He wrote that “ the excise policy will spur corruption and this thing is not at all in the interest of the people. But still, you took the decision to bring the new liquor policy. Like addiction to liquor, there is an addiction of power and it seems that you have sunk into it.”

Hazare also added that the policy shows that a party which was born after launching a historic agitation is now walking on the same path of corruption like other parties, which is painful.

It is astonishing also that the same Kejriwal, who used to demand resignation of people on the slightest pretext, is silent when his own minister was arrested on corruption charges. Mr. Kejriwal has allowed him to even continue as a minister in his cabinet, although he continues to be behind bars, for months now. This shows his hypocrisy.

Befooling people to get votes and win elections is old statecraft. But spreading humongous lies after lies, misusing thousands of crores of public money to spread a false narrative, is a crafty tool invented by Mr. Kejriwal. He has found it very handy because a lie uttered repeatedly, if left unchallenged, leads people to believe it implicitly. Unfortunately certain sections of the media have become an accomplice of those who are spending crores on advertisements.

The time has come for the public to become aware of the falsehoods being perpetuated by such people and discard them. The media also has to realise the immense damage  being caused by these false narratives which are perpetuated by our political class constantly.

The media just cannot bury themselves under the weight of paid advertisements and shun their responsibilities as the fourth estate. They have to realise that democracy cannot survive without an honest, vigilant and pro people media. Serving the  commercial interest  of their media house is not  journalism. They have to come together to put an end to the web of lies and falsehoods perpetrated by politicians like Kejariwal and others  of his ilk and heed Goebbelian  warning ,’’think of the press as a great keyboard on which the government can play.’’

Also Read: https://www.indianarrative.com/india-news/is-the-liquor-scam-the-beginning-of-the-end-of-kejriwal-44813.html

(Vijay Shankar Pandey retired from the Indian Administrative Service. He has an established record of raising his voice against corruption in public life. Views expressed are personal and exclusive to India Narrative)