Sting operations - good or bad
This has been a season of sting operations by various TV channels. And politicians were at the receiving end in most of these cases. The latest being the expose by CNN IBN 2 days back. In a startling revelation, CNN-IBN and DIG exposed the deep-rooted rot in Uttar Pradesh’s political set up - cutting across party lines. Three MLAs, one each from BJP, Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party, were caught on camera accepting bribe and admitting to heinous crimes like trafficking, drug peddling and hawala racket. One minister Mehboob Ali even offered to transport heroin worth of 5 crores in his state car. God, to say the least, I was shocked when I saw this the other day on TV.Some weeks back, Headlines today did another sting operation in which 11 MPs were shown as taking money for asking questions in Parliament. This isuue rocked Parliament and resulted in the expulsion of the tainted members from Parliament.

The Tehelka expose 5 years back can be termed as the mother of all sting operations. The concept of the sting caught hold in India with this one. BJP leaders Bhangaru Laxman and Jaya Jaitley were the casualities of this operation. It is another story that Tehelka and Tarun Tejpal had to face many hardships after this. Tehelka is now dabbling in the newspaper industry with a not so widely circulated tabloid.

Indian politics has long been a haven of corrupted men and hardened criminals. All these years, they had no fear of getting caught and did all that they wanted. But, suddenly they find themselves being targetted by all those umpteen news channels. These sting operations would surely serve as a deterrent to the politicians. They would now think twice before accepting a bribe for allowing something illegal. Not only in this, in whatever they do, they would have a feeling of being watched by some unseen eye. But don't expect all those souls corrupted from birth to become purified overnight. We can hope that atleast the next crop of politicians would set everything straight.

Now, Lets take a look at the bad side of the sting operations. The present situation in the Indian news channel industry is such that there are almost 20 players and each one is vying for the viewers attention. Only 2 or 3 channels manage to get a regular viewership in almost all the cable connected homes. The remaining channels resort to sensationalism to raise their viewership. This is when sting operations cross the line and becomes invasions on privacy of an individual. This is exactly what happened in the case of India TV, which used girls to seduce unsupecting actors. The main thing that they failed to understand is this kind of operations doesn't have any use to the public. They don't serve a purpose other than give some more stuff to talk about for the gossip junkies. The media should restrain thmeselves from such unscruplous reporting, aimed at getting high ratings. Channels like NDTV and CNN IBN are good models for them to follow.

Lets hope that the future sting operations will all fail. Because that means Indian politics is cleansed of all its bad souls. he hee.....impossible u might be thinking.....But, political parties like Paritrana, which was floated by 5 IITians, are coming up, with the soul aim of allround development of the country. That day is not faraway when educated young men venture into mainstream politics. That would be the death knell for uneducated idiots like Laloo and criminals like soren.

with love, your crusader Praveen