Media and political party fixed games exposed by Cobrapost

We have witnessed developments from political parties about the declaration of sources of their funding. Lawmakers, who are major beneficiaries from anonymous donations make the rules in a way that they can accept it without telling anyone. Present government has gone one step further by allowing donations from minor overseas partners of Indian companies. With unaccountable donations received from unknown donors used to buy votes, election campaigns etc.; where else these political parties spend the huge sum of money? For some people answer might be very obvious and others just don't care. If you believe that three pillars of Indian democracy (Legislature, Executive and Judiciary) are working perfectly, you might be wrong because greedy politicians are expanding their reach and manipulating the laws to benefit some selective interests.

Where does this end? Media which has the authority to question the three pillars is considered a fourth pillar in our democracy. But it is not that simple as it looks. The answer to the question that where the political parties spend the money lies with the fourth pillar of democracy. We, the normal voters look at media debates and news as normal events derived from normal incidents. But it is not true as the topics and pattern of events discussed in media are pre-defined. If you read the events from multiple sources and follow ground realities, you can easily decode the pattern of events being discussed. Political parties fuel the media by offering money to them. This has been confirmed on camera by multiple people from some of the reputed media houses. The Month of May was one of the darkest month for the fourth pillar of democracy when Cobrapost released the videos of Operation 316-II.

In sting operations conducted by Cobrapost, owners and high ranking personnels from mainstream and regional media houses agreed to promote the campaigns which may lead to potential communal riots. To tilt public opinion in favour of their client, media houses quoted high price. Some of them quoted as high as Rs 1000 crore. Media help for political campaigns gives an edge to political parties during elections. Political parties fuel the idea, media houses propagate it and clueless voters fall into this trap and never get a chance to discuss actual government policies and their impacts. The media houses which agreed to run the campaign are Times of India, India Today, Hindustan Times, Zee News, Network 18, Star India, Paytm, Bharat Samachar, Bartman, Dainik Samvad, ABP News, Dainik Jagaran, Radio One, Red FM, Lokmat, ABN Andhra Jyothy, TV5, Dinamalar, Big FM, K News, India Voice, The New Indian Express, MVTV and Open magazine (source).

Following are the videos of sting operations conducted by Cobrapost. They are just 49 videos totalling 7.4 hours but we don't know how long it took to capture. Many journalists have been attacked in the past and lost their lives. They risked their careers to expose the fixed game between some media houses and political parties. Some media companies even approached the court to stop Operation 136-II. As a responsible citizen, it is also our duty to stand with the truth and do not fall in the trap of perception being created. If you come across any dubious info, confirm it with multiple sources. If you can't find a reliable source, then it is easy to directly contact a person in any corner of the world with a click. You can get connected to local people where the incident happened and get to know the real story.

Read the full Cobrapost press release in Hindi, English and cover story in Hindi and English.

Sting videos are posted below.