To bend or crawl

Once celebrated as the fourth pillar of democracy, the Indian media has now become a weapon of mass distraction. Corporate houses with vast business empires and political loyalties and those promoting social division control most major television and digital outlets. Editorial independence has been bartered away for boardroom and political interests. Anchors who should be watchdogs of power have willingly turned into lapdogs, amplifying the narratives of the ruling elite while silencing critical voices. Even when monumental scandals rooted in crony capitalism have erupted-scams that shake the very foundations of governance-the media has chosen against probing and exposing them unlike in the past. Instead, it has played the role of defense lawyer for the corrupt. Whistleblowers and opposition leaders who raise uncomfortable questions are dismissed as merchants of falsehood and ridiculed, their reputations smeared, and their credibility destroyed on air. The strategy is clear- shift the spotlight away from wrongdoing by vilifying those who dare to point it out. In doing so, the media has not just abdicated its responsibility-it has actively collaborated in the erosion of democracy. The sedation of minds is enormous and awesome. Viewers and readers are overfed with a constant stream of ruling party narratives, while opposition parties are grudgingly given a few minutes to outline issues but never the time or space to dismantle the government’s claims. Prime-time debates resemble kangaroo courts where anchorpersons double up as prosecutor, judge, and executioner. The opposition is shouted down, critics are demonized, and the government walks away unscathed. Independent media still exists, but barely-like the last of the Mohicans. A handful of print outlets and digital platforms continue to ask difficult questions. Yet they remain under-resourced, harassed by legal threats, and vilified as “anti-national.” Their survival is precarious, and their reach is dwarfed by the vast propaganda machinery of mainstream channels. The decay does not end with the press. Almost every key institution of Indian democracy has been compromised. Central probe agencies are increasingly weaponized against political opponents. Regulatory bodies like the RBI, SEBI, and the Election Commission no longer inspire confidence in their impartiality. Instead of defending the rule of law and serving the larger interests of citizens, these institutions now appear aligned with the ruling establishment’s agenda. The erosion of institutional independence has left citizens exposed, with no buffer between arbitrary state power and individual rights. This moment is more insidious than the Emergency of 1975. Then, censorship was declared and imposed from above; today, the media and institutions have willingly surrendered from within. There is no formal decree, only complicity. That makes the propaganda more dangerous, because it masquerades as free speech, and repression is disguised as nationalism. A democracy can survive flawed governments, but it cannot survive when its media becomes propaganda and its institutions become enforcers of political will. When truth itself is manipulated, citizens are denied the very foundation of democratic participation. Without an independent press and credible institutions, democracy shrinks into a hollow ritual of elections, stripped of its spirit. India’s true crisis is silent, creeping, and corrosive. Unless journalism rediscovers its courage and institutions reclaim their independence, the republic risks being reduced to little more than sloganeering on television screens, defended by cronies, and applauded by citizens too dazed to realize that freedom has quietly slipped away.