“What’s happening?” I asked rushing into my friend’s home as I heard a deafening din, “Some catastrophe in the country?The anchor is screaming?”

“That’s what he does everyday!” shrugged my friend, “He calls people onto his show, then like an executioner, he bullies, batters and bludgeons them, and grinds them to pulp!”

“Why don’t they try and outshout him?” I asked, then realized as I watched, that the ordinary looking fellow, by raising the volume of his mike and lowering that of his panelists, made it appear they were mumbling and muttering while his words shouted vehemently and forcefully and obviously prepared well in advance towards a defined objective, was heard clearly by viewers, whereasthose uttered by panelists seemed like irritating interruptions to this man’s well-rehearsed speech!

Cunning and extremely clever, I must say!

Anybody who’s studied, ‘mob psychology’ knows any crowd can be incited to do reckless and murderous acts if whipped by loud rhetoric. This, I realized, is exactly what is shrewdly and subtly happening through this channel. It’s not just the shouting down of an invited panelist, but this chap’s clever veering of the talk towards a well- prepared hate agenda.

My daughter was a TV anchor for one of the biggest TV channels in the world, and since she insisted on me watching every one of sometimes three shows she anchored daily, and along with talks I had with her about anchoring, I do know something about the subject. An anchor’s job is not to tell. His is to let others tell, while he or she moderates and allows, yes allows everybody’s views to be heard. Not his, but those who have been invited. Anything less is not anchoring but openpropagating, nothing less!

And here, it looks like a propaganda machine is at work:And let me tell you, such talk and behavior would never have been tolerated in this country a few years ago, but now this man flourishes!

Lesser individuals, on flimsier grounds have been arrested inside our university campuses and elsewhere for inciting hate between communities, whereas here nothing is done, as like a crowd of Talibanists or ISISwatching an execution cheer the beheading of so called infidels, this man does the same as he openly with louder mike instead of sword, words instead of bullets, inflicts injuries, and goes for the kill with the baying of viewers who have come to watch another beheading of some ‘other’ who doesn’t belong to their religion, ideology, or political party.

This TV show is watched by men, women and also youngsters, who later like frenzied mob armed with same hate and hostility, help towards the polarization and division of our beloved country.

What needs to be done, is to have this harbinger of hate arrested and taken off the air. Anything less is meaningless and useless.

Start with refusing to join the mob, for the sake of the republic of India..!

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.