On the morning of May 30, Congress party’s communications in-charge Randeep Surjewala tweeted that the party’s spokespersons will not be appearing on television debates for a month.

The move comes the day Prime Minister Narendra Modi takes oath for his second term as prime minister in a gala swearing-in ceremony.

Speaking to Newslaundry, Congress national spokesperson Sanjay Jha says the decision was triggered by mainstream media’s “jaundiced, premeditated bias in favour of the BJP and principally against the Opposition and the Congress party”. “Basically, we feel that large sections—we’re not saying everybody—of mainstream media, particularly television, have become cheerleaders of Mr Modi’s government. In many ways this was degrading journalism. The fourth estate has turned into real estate. You can’t treat journalism as some kind of a puppet in the hands of the government.”

Jha says it’s rather ridiculous that the mainstream media questioned the Opposition more than it questioned the government in the last five years. “In general we find that the whole approach has been to basically be very subservient to the orders of the bureau chief; I don’t know who the bureau chief is but he issues the orders and people follow through.”

Jha follows this up with an example: “A BJP leader used a very disgusting and abusive word against Mr Rahul Gandhi and the media did not even take it out. Nobody took it out.” Jha is referring to the Himachal Pradesh BJP chief Satpal Singh Satti, who, while addressing a rally in Solan in April this year, read aloud a social media post that called Rahul Gandhi “madarchod”.

Jha, however, maintains that this doesn’t apply to the entire media landscape: “We’re not saying all media is like that, or all the channels and anchors are like that. We’re not making a carte blanche statement on the entire media but we do believe that at some stage practically most have been guilty of batting for the government.”

But isn’t the Congress being unfair to the section of media that has been even-handed towards the two parties? Jha says no, because the decision will only last a month. In addition, the party is in “rethink” mode.

“At the end of the day, we feel that we need to rethink our media strategy. We need to go back to our drawing board and relook at everything, including how we approach TV debates. Maybe this gives us time to do that. In any case, we believe that the media will be kowtowing to the new government. They’re forming a government and there’s nothing new that’ll happen at this stage. We’ll use this time to go back and reconfigure our media strategy and how we need to go forward.”

With respect to how the Congress will engage over the next month, Jha says the party has various tools at its disposal. “At the end of the day, there is social media, there are blogs. Our press conferences will continue happening. And the larger direct contact with the people, which I think is the core strength of the Congress party and which we’ll use to get our message out. But this is not a permanent strategy.”

When asked whether the decision is a result of confusion within the party on internal issues and lack of clarity among spokespersons, as some have alleged, Jha says he cannot comment on it. “That is their view. The Congress is a democratic liberal party. We’re not saying that the media must not have its opinion, it needs to have a voice and we respect that. And we know that there are channels which are very BJP-friendly, and we have no problem with what they say. The US has Fox, and India can have its own Fox. But we have a right to disagree. We don’t have to necessarily be in any and every space. We’ll make sure our voice gets out anyway.”

India Today’s consulting editor Rajdeep Sardesai tells Newslaundry that even though the Congress’s grouse against media and television debates is understandable, the decision does not solve the problem. “A total boycott is no solution. I don’t know whether it’s going to resolve the larger issues of a one-sided political narrative that certain channels have resorted to.”

While a temporary non-engagement can’t really be called a boycott, Sardesai says it “amounts to an effective boycott of primetime channels. But the good thing for us is to focus on issues that are apolitical, the silver lining is that we’re going to work harder towards that.”

He adds: “I don’t know the immediate provocation, but the narrative on some channels has been grossly one-sided. But the way forward is to engage. Your non-engagement is not going to stop the agenda of certain sections. We have a group of news channels in this country which do not deserve to be called news channels. The party has boycotted these channels and they now bring on Congress sympathisers and supporters for debates.”

So will debates on India Today switch to Congress sympathisers in the meantime? “I don’t know. If I’m shooting a debate on primetime on an issue that involves the Congress, then how do I get the Congress viewpoint? I’ll have to find a way. The other way is to work a little harder and look at life beyond party politics.”

For Sudhir Chaudhary, editor-in-chief of Zee News, the decision hardly makes a difference. “We don’t invite Congress to our channel and it does not affect us,” he says. “They had a complaint against us. On one hand they talk about freedom of expression, and on the other hand they don’t like channels that criticise them. They make allegations against channels that they do not get space or that their editorial policies are flawed.”

In December last year, Zee News had sent a ₹1,000 crore defamation notice to Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu. This came after Sidhu had alleged that a Zee News video showing “Pakistan Zindabad” slogans at his rally was fake. A Zee News article had linked this to its ban on the Congress party: “The ban was imposed by Zee News channel on Congress after party leader Navjot Singh Sidhu threatened Zee Media and so if the ban is to be lifted, it will be done from the channel’s end.”

“They treat channels the same way they’ve treated BJP’s victory in the elections with their allegations: it’s either my way or the highway,” Chaudhary told Newslaundry.

The Congress entered deep water after its poor show in the recently concluded Lok Sabha Elections, where it won 52 seats against the BJP’s 303. The aftermath of this electoral defeat saw drama surrounding president Rahul Gandhi’s alleged resignation which the Congress Working Committee said it had rejected. Ever since, the grand old party has been in dire straits over its future course. In the light of this, a withdrawal from the crucial television space signals another collective hair-scratching within the party about its political direction.

It’s no secret that a certain section of TV media, for example, Republic TV and Times Now, have often adopted a blatantly anti-Congress (or any Opposition to PM Modi) line during their primetime shows. While Congress doesn’t usually send its representatives to Republic TV, the channel has a host of “Congress supporters” or “sympathisers” that make up for the vacuum, for example, Nishant Varma. A layperson watching the news may not be able to differentiate between these so-called sympathisers or supporters and an official party spokesperson. A reason why this temporary ban may remain ineffective when it comes to public perception: most of these supporters act as nothing more than punching bags for the anchor. One could argue, then, that sending an official spokesperson to articulate the party line would be a better idea, even on channels that the Congress perceives as hostile.