Ahem! Will the real “impact” please stand up?

Baisakhi may be some time away. But it was a full-on harvest festival for the five top news channels all of today on Wednesday, given that their vociferous, persistent and targeted four-day spectacle ‘campaign’ over the Chandigarh stalking had now yielded results. Vikas Barala, the son of Haryana BJP chief Subhash Barala, and his friend Ashish Kumar were now behind bars for stalking and attempting to abduct Chandigarh DJ Varnika Kundu on Saturday night. Every channel took it upon itself, and not anyone else, to heap praise on itself, well, the words Effect, Impact and Massive did heavy airtime on news TV.

Who impacted the most? Any doubts? Well, all of them cried hoarse for credit, same red triumphant stings! Republic TV shouted “Massive Impact” with a logo that looked a massive attack on vermillion. Times Now outdid Republic TV and went with “Massive Times Now impact”, let’s hope no TV viewer flipped channels or she or he may have found that all the five were busy clapping themselves on the back for the same story and saying the same things. Excuse us, there was no break but just a full-on TV news campaign which seemed to have worked because of the wall-to-wall coverage and not just for being a break of any of the five chest-thumpers.

While the media did over the last two days mount minute-by-minute coverage of the incident, some did go a wee bit overboard. Some even traced Varnika’s route, attempting to recreate the ordeal. Some scoured CCTV footage to push home the point.

Was it “Republic Campaign Impact”, or “massive Times Now impact” or did NewsX campaign “force action”. While NDTV stopped short of claiming credit for it, the rest of the channels continue to claim credit, but we’re not sure for exactly what. Because the accused were detained and then kept under arrest? Or because the victim and her father, IAS officer Virendra Kundu, relentlessly fought against the “VVIP brat”?

Let it be also known that we’re not discrediting the media for its coverage. In fact, this time, some of the most “objective” and “independent” channels (you know, the ones we are talking of) surprised many with their editorial stand on the matter.

It is commendable that the suspenseful tug-of-war in the Rajya Sabha elections and the resultant counting deadlock did not stop the television media from following up Varnika’s case with unflagging dedication. However, the only question that we are left with is – impact yes, but whose impact is it anyway? Apart from justice’s?