Garga Chatterjee’s intervention on CNN News18 has sparked a debate of sorts. Here’s what happened. Chatterjee, a political commentator who often doubles up as a Trinamool Congress supporter, was on a news show where anchor Shreya Dhoundial and panellists were speaking in Hindi. In response, Chatterjee decided to speak in Bengali — his mother tongue. When Dhoundial interrupted Chatterjee, he pointed out that since the anchor did not interrupt others speaking in their mother tongue (Hindi), she should let him speak too. “You did not interrupt anyone else speaking in their mother tongue, suddenly my mother tongue becomes a problem for you,” he said.
But why was Dhoundial speaking in Hindi on an English news channel? Many English channels have been putting out Hindi shows to capture the Hindi-speaking audience. Times Network, in fact, was one of the first channels to do so with a Hindi Newshour in the morning. The idea is simple. Hindi news has way more viewership than that of English news channels. In fact, according to data shared by Chrome Data Analytics and Media, English news genre has only 0.07 per cent total viewership in the urban space as compared to Hindi news genre that has a viewership of 3.78 per cent. By showcasing some shows in Hindi, English news channels are trying to capture a wider audience for and, in turn, greater TRPs.
However, in times of intense debates on Hindi imposition, there is the question of English news channels alienating their non-Hindi speaking audience. The move also point to a bias for the Hindi language as a so-called national language that Indians across states are expected to understand.
The sparring one witnessed on CNN News18 over language, however, has its precedents.