Rahul Gandhi’s jacket worn at the Peace Concert in Shillong became the highlight of national television channels. And that was fed by someone from the rival political party just to square up things with the AICC President who once called the BJP led NDA Government at the centre, “suit boot ki sarkar.” Prime Minister Modi was verbally lacerated by the Gandhi scion for the suit embossed with his name during his visit to the USA. The BJP has not forgotten this slur and have taunted the Gandhi scion about graduating to an expensive Burberry jacket from his otherwise non-sartorial kurta pyjama because the economy under Modi is doing well. Such crass debates take away from the substantive issues that plague the state of Meghalaya. Surely that question should not have been a priority for the media. That it became the first question of the day when Rahul Gandhi had his informal interface with the press, exposes the falling standards of journalism here and anywhere in this country. Media ethics is all but forgotten in the quest for “newsy” stuff.
The Meghalaya Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) on its part erred by inviting media persons to ostensibly share their views about the grand old party and to tell them what ails it and what the media pitch should be. Is it the role of the media to tell a political party how to conduct itself? The media is not expected to lean towards any political party. But that’s an unwritten code that is broken time and again. And having invited the media to interact with Rahul Gandhi is it prudent on the part of the Congress party bosses to tell the media not to report the proceedings of the discussions. Of course Rahul Gandhi was honest enough to say that if the interaction is informal then he could be more open about a lot of issues otherwise he would be guarded in his responses. But that is neither here nor there. Rahul Gandhi is in Meghalaya to rejuvenate his Party which has suffered a major attrition in the past two months. That’s understandable. What is not understood is why the AICC President should spend so much time discussing the BJP and Modi since the media is well briefed about those issues. The media wants to know the Congress road map for winning Meghalaya but that was not articulated. The Meghalaya Congress has not got its act together yet.