INDIA VS HINDUSTAN

I have access to 3 Hindi channels in my hotel room in Seoul, Z Music, Z Smile, and Sahara Uttar Pradesh(UP) Uttrakhand(UK). Being born and brought up in UK(UP in our days), I watch Sahara(Hindi) to catch up with local news in UP and UK. As a north Indian worth my salt, I am catching up with election news by watching English news channels as well as Sahara. Sahara doest not match English language channels either in sophistication or in articulation. But what Sahara succeeds is in connecting to real India. The media in India has clear division between real India(call it Hindustan) and India of people living in big and modern cities. The Hindustan, representing 70% of Indians, lives in small towns and villages, while India, representing 30% of Indians lives in cities. Lets us face it, in spite of buzz around India growing 70% of the Indians lack basic amenities. So, as you watch the debates and discussion in sophisticated media and compare it with naked realities of Hindustatan, you perceive disconnect. The one media seems hell-bent on passing their views (or bytes) while what we should be interested in is their news. One can see complete disregard for the issues pertaining Hindustan. Also, expert comments on candidates and politics of Hindustan, which given disconnect, doest make sense. Some of them have hard time swallowing many candidates, as they don’t match their expectations of sophistication. But logically 80% of the parliament should be represented by people from small towns and villages. Unlike sophisticated media, Sahara and BBC connect to 80% of population so they are more popular and trusted in Hindustan. Both reach out to Hindustan, I see debates organized by Sahara in towns like Hardoi, Sitapur, and Robarts Ganj (most of us in city don’t know these places exist!!). These debates may seem average in presentation and articulation but they are heavy on content. They touch on real issues and give the common man a platform to voice his opinion. Unfortunately articulation is taken as a measure of ability in India.