How Ram Leelas on TV News are Twisting Reality

North Indians in their 40s or older will remember the neighbourhood Ram Leelas of the past. In big cities, local mohalla committees and community groups would erect stages and organise bright and lively re-enactments of the Ramayana. The audience, mainly children, would cheer for their favourite characters. The parents would, at the end of the play, tip some of the more popular characters. 

Actors who played Ram, Ravan, Sita or Hanuman had to remember long sentences and would often receive help in the form of prompts from behind the stage. After the televisions took over, Ram Leelas seem to have lost their charm. Television has has helped foster a new cultural space. But the festival’s more alluring street culture nature has suffered as a result. 

The new Ram Leela is not an epic performance comprising characters who, when they forget the lines, look for help from behind the curtains. In the modern-day Ram Leela, performed in news studios, anchors—all dressed up and sporting coats of heavy make-up—tug on their earphones for instructions. Some of these anchors even enjoy iconic status in people’s imagination. But while they might sound spontaneous, their scripts—disseminated across of millions of viewers across the country—are designed elsewhere. The debates and discussions that come across as democratic in essence are dictated by the masters who these news anchors champion. The discussions on different events, ideas and agitations are deliberately twisted to fit the narrative that these channels seek to espouse, colouring the perception of the viewers in the process.   

The interest of big media houses has corrupted the debates so as to suit the interests of a particular argument. According to historian Jill Lepore: “The broadcasters are profit-making corporations operating in an extremely competitive setting, in which ratings assume utmost importance. They would make travesty of the debates not least that they’d agree to whatever terms the campaigns demanded. We firmly believe that those who report news should not make the news.”

Some recent news debates expose the myth of fair analysis and that these discussions are democratic. The letter written by the four senior Supreme Court judges to the Chief Justice was presented with contempt deserving of an anti-national act as if they had attempted a coup d ‘etat. One can differ with the manner in which the manifestation of the anger of the judges has been exhibited, but to term it as a coup is defying the boundaries of reason. When a divergent opinion was expressed from someone on the panel, the effort was to snub it as quickly and as sharply as possible.

Welcome to the new Ram Leela. While in the old days one could whistle, hoot, cheer or denounce a character’s performance, in the newsrooms people are forced to subscribe to the argument that has been decided much before the discussion has even begun. 

Biased anchors end up conditioning the experience of the people, who may then go on to construct a reality that is skewed. Their reality, however, may just be a myth.