Killing Absurdity

After the ceasefire, albeit one with some duplicity by an errant neighbour, it's time for India to move on. The next battle — nip the media's mad rush for TRPs

- RAJEEV NARAYAN

"Exclusives stories aren't always so. The media puts labels on everything to annoy rivals. I once put 'Exclusive News' on the weather by mistake." — Piers Morgan (British Journalist)

India has taught Pakistan a sobering military lesson, reining in (albeit temporarily) this rogue neighbour's obsession with terror and military skirmishes. The ceasefire between the two nations appears to be a 'forced' pause, because Pakistani drones and missiles are somehow still finding their way into Indian air-space. It is up to Islamabad now to man up and put an end to its repeated dalliance with deadly surrogates and mercenary elements.

For India, this is a landmark moment, one that would be more meaningful if it cracks the whip against its own television media as well. Pakistan's military generals have been tamed. A section of India's TV media needs to be bridled too, stopped from the theatrics and absurdity that seem driven not by a hankering for news or national interest, only by a mad lust for TRPs. A victory has been achieved on the border battlefields. A second one beckons, in India's newsrooms.

This may be an appropriate moment to get India's TV media to reflect on its dangerous descent into farce. The recent military escalation should serve not just as a triumph of strategy but as a mirror to the madness unfolding nightly in TV studios. If the ceasefire marks a military victory over Pakistan, a deeper, quieter triumph would be reclaiming our public discourse from the grip of self-aggrandizing anchors and fabricated nationalism. The real win would be restoring sanity in a nation where screaming headlines often drown out truth, and studio lights blind good judgment.