Indian Media : Fourth Pillar of Democracy Or Anti National Fifth Column?

Indian democracy rests on three Pillars as given in the constitution; these are Legislature, Executive, and Judiciary. In addition to above three, Indian media is termed as the Fourth Pillar of Democracy. Media plays an important role in keeping democracy alive. It is a connecting link between the Government and the people and facilitates the elected Government to keep people informed and get feedback about its actions and policies from the electorate.
Now let us see who is Fifth Columnist? It is a member of a group of people, who support the enemies of the country they live in and secretly help the enemy. The term is conventionally credited to a Nationalist general during the Spanish Civil War (1936–39). As four of his army columns moved on Madrid, the general referred to his militant supporters within the capital as his “fifth column,” intent on undermining the Loyalist government from within.

Here it may appear contradicting to call same agency as fourth Pillar and Fifth Column at the same time. Some may attribute it as pro government effort to malign media. Some may question as to how criticism of the government can be viewed as anti-national activity or isn’t constructive criticism the true sign of healthy democracy? Yes, but what is being exhibited in the recent times under the garb of constructive criticism is blatant display of propagation of anti-national agenda (barring few exceptions). Whether it is being done knowingly or unknowingly, willingly or unwillingly is for all of us to decide.

A question may rise as to why it is happening more prominently now than in the past and the answer to that is emergence of India on the global platform as a Financial, Industrial and Military power.

Why Efforts are being made to keep India Subjugated, Especially now ?

Since independence India remained a subjugated state especially to the erstwhile Coloniser. This may be due to British educated Prime Minister and ICS Bureaucrats. Further due to illiteracy, large population, perils of partition, extreme poverty, and our attempts to practice Socialistic economic policies, India remained a weak nation, always looking for external help to meet its basic requirements. In 1991/92 the Financial Compulsions forced us to open our economy and that became a blessing in disguise, when the true potential of Indian Entrepreneurs came out on the global stage. This coupled with our intrinsic potential in the IT, the Indian Industry started growing and earning.

Unfortunately since 1991/92 till 2014, India continuously had a coalition Central Government which resulted in Indian Government spending more time in pleasing its coalition partners and was not able to fully exploit the gains made by our entrepreneurs after 1991/92. Key ministries were allocated based on nuisance value than capability of the individual/ Party. In addition coalition government allowed corruption to proliferate and that ensured a marginalised growth and flow out of foreign exchange to Europe and America through various money laundering channels. So despite of exhibited Entrepreneurship India continued to be subdued nation.

However all this changed after 2014. In 2014, India Not only got a majority Government in the Centre, but also got a very strong, highly experienced administrator as Prime Minister with exemplary honesty, vision and single minded zeal for progress. With such strong Leadership, the emergence of a country with 140 Cr population from its slumber, is now considered as a threat to the European and American hegemony globally and a threat to the growing clout of Chinese in South East Asia. That is the reason why vigorous efforts are now made to bring India down to its earlier levels.

Theory of National Subjugation

Based on postulates by Uri Bezmenov ( A former KGB Undercover agent operating for spreading communism) the subjugation of a nation is achieved by a four pronged attack.

Demoralization. This is achieved by making the majority believe that there is something inherently inferior about their culture, religion and civilization.

Destabilization. Once the society is demoralised and cut off from its roots as well as traditional values, it is destabilized using various means. The sudden rise of Khalistan, Dravidistan, urban naxal , language wars, Islamic Radicals, Neo Budhism, Lingayat Movement, Caste Reservations are some of the examples.

Crisis. Next is to create a sense of disillusionment with the present govt. This is attempted by continuously chanting that ‘Democracy is under threat’, “minorities under threat” make wild , outlandish unsupported allegations of corruption in every decision the government is taking.

Normalization. Normalization is to achieve the earlier state of subjugated mind set so that emerging challenge is neutralised and the erstwhile beneficiaries start earning their incomes i.e. Lutyens Delhi returns to its power brokers, deal fixers, middle men and pimps etc.

How Media is becoming the Fifth Columnists


Evolution of Indian Media. The word media is used as an all-inclusive word for Print Media, Radio/ Akashwani, TV, Social Media and Cinema (in Indian context as we produce largest number of Movies per year)
Print Media. First News Paper in India was published in English in 1780. It was followed by First Bengali weekly newspaper published in the first half of Nineteenth century. In due course more newspapers in English and vernacular Press were started. Initially they were addressing the elite urban class but with increase in literacy the papers started addressing the issues of rural population also.

Radio / Akashwani. In June 1923 the first ever broadcast was made in India. Since then till 2001 it was all the time a Govt controlled Media. It was only after 2001, full time broadcasting licenses were issued for FM Band transmissions, mainly providing entertainment and some local news.


Television / Door Darshan. On 15 September 1959, the first TV channel in India started with brand name Doordarshan. From there till Asian Games of 1982, it covered very limited population in Metropolis. After Asian Games of 1982, when colour television came in to play, this media started expanding. The advent of private channels started in India in 1990 and since then this media has nearly monopolized all the media space and considerably marginalized the Print and Voice Media.

Social Media. The dominance of TV media as a sole entertainer and informer remained for nearly 20 years i.e. till about 2010 and since then the Social Media started acquiring the space and today when one says media, it is considered as Social Media or to limited extent TV Media. It has become the main media for providing news, forming opinions and creating social awareness. This media is sans border and faster than any other media. This is the media of today’s Information Age.

Film Industry. Though not generally termed as media , in Indian context it is also a media because we are the largest producer of Cinemas per annum. It has a very profound and lasting effect on our society and the Film Heros and Heroines are role models for their generations. The ethical values and acceptable practices in our society are influenced and guided by this media.

Financial Compulsions: Evolution of Financial Model of All Media.

Starting from 1780, the basic aim of media operators was to provide news, facilitate information exchange and earn sufficient revenue to sustain this operation. It was not meant to be business venture per se. This model remained in force for all forms of media till 1993/94.

With advent of multiple TV Channels the existence of print media got threatened. At this time, Times Group came up with a totally different model of selling the periodicals at very low price but design the periodical in a fashion that basically promotes advertisement. In addition the newspapers started patronising certain political groups and individuals and business houses to earn more revenue through Advertisement and selective reporting.

On the other hand the TV Media started expanding very fast specially in entertainment Industry and this field got saturated with similar programmes, serials and musicals. Aaj Tak and NDTV came in to the news business and created its own space with innovative reporting. Seeing their success, very soon a number of channels came up in English, Hindi and vernacular languages and the field got fully saturated.

It is at this stage, intense competition started to earn maximum revenue by any means to survive. Earning advertisement revenue became the sole goal of these channels. They tried one-up man-ship in speed of reporting but they were no match to the speed of Social Media.

Since TV Media was beaten in speed, they devised new methods of entertaining audience by means of political debates, seeking political patronage and support from International NGOs. Today most news channels are only conducting political debates during prime time or are busy serving their political agenda or creating discussions on any news item first published in western media (without any authentication) as a part of Tool Kit provided by the NGOs who are working as cover organizations for pursuing hidden agenda of their Governments.

Our Media : The Fifth Columnist.

Let us see why and how our media is playing in to hands of anti-India forces. Whether willingly or inadvertently is for them to decide.

Intense Competition. Intense Competition to earn higher revenue created a business model based on Television Rating Point (TRP). Higher the TRP higher is the rate of advertisement. To get higher TRP, ethical as well as Non-ethical practices are blatantly followed to capture more audience. Surveys are made to find the liking of public and such news reports are constantly generated.

Negative News. Because of 1000 years of slavery, Indian public in general still thinks that the Government is an ‘alien power’. We as nation are yet to get the confidence in believing that “We are the Government”. The subjugation theorists also want people to be in the same state of mind. So continuously keep streaming news of failures, of accidents, of delays, Riots, Caste Wars, lethargy and corruption (based on interests of the financial group controlling it), which is accepted by public due the feeling that the Government is always “alien”.

Play Foreign Card. With tendency to believe foreign media, the negative news reported in foreign press, especially Western Media is reproduced here without any verification/ Authentication. The social media also gets involved in it by ‘Tool Kit ‘Operations.

Head Line Syndrome. Daily newspaper is published with a headline. The problem is we may not have news worthy of the head line every time, so some negative news is brought out or some second or third rung leader is made to make a controversial statement worthy to become head line and print it without naming the originator and gain audience.

World of Cinema. Indian Cinema is global phenomena and has overtaken Hollywood in Number of films produced per year. This is single media which has a vast impact on our society. Naturally the Subversive elements have to perfectly use it for their agenda. See how our Police are projected in the Films. They are shown as villains in khaki, who are ready to do any criminal action for money. Our Politicians are also projected in the same fashion. Just think, if Politicians and Police were so bad then could we have progressed so much. Cinemas are also used to project Majority religion in bad light.

Virtual Leaders. This new type of leadership is a gift of the present day media. This is different and far more dangerous than hereditary leaders. Here media projects and creates a Simple looking, utopian speaking, ‘Holier than Thou’ preaching, as leader of new India. A number of subversive groups start indirectly or directly financing him. Once he gets some power (that means access to public funds), he immediately starts using public funds at his disposal in financing his advertisements in all forms of media. This not only projects him as leader, it also ensures that his small group of Hypocrites is represented on all discussions and debates, thereby projecting them as national leaders. Such leaders are biggest threat to any country, because after assuming leadership they start building their vote banks by distributing goodies and bounties. A poor voter falls for it, which ensures their victory and thereby bargaining power in a split verdict. If such leadership is allowed to flourish then the countries dissemination and destruction is expeditiously ensured. Look at Pakistan’s chaos after emergence of Imran Khan or financial chaos in Sri Lanka.

Discrediting the Icons. Discrediting the national icons is another hobby practiced to earn headlines. Our business houses and strong business leaders become an easy target for such shoot and scoot news reporting. One more tactics followed is “First Make Allegations and then Apologise“. By utilising some American or European Firm for publishing some adverse report, the news so generated is run for some time causing lot of unnecessary volatility in stock market.

No Long term National Interests but only Myopic Opportunism. As forth pillar of Democracy the Media has to take on certain responsibilities suo moto. Due to democratic compulsions political parties are afraid of taking hard decisions as they have to face a backlash of voters group which rallies against such decision due to sheer personal greed. It is for the media to ensure that correct long term interests of nation are projected to public at large to defeat such designs. One example could be restart of Old Pension Scheme (OPS). Employees pressure and short term political compulsions are likely to revive this scheme which will have disastrous consequences after few years. Public opinion has to be rallied against such revival which only Media can do.

To Conclude

It is the duty and the right of free media to do constructive criticism of the Government. But free Media has to understand difference between Swatantra and Independent. Our meaning of Freedom is ‘Swatantra” i.e. A nation which is run by ‘Self Rule’ and Not “Independent” i.e. without any Rule or Free for all.

While media has to survive in the intense completion by becoming fittest, it has to draw a ‘Laxman Rekha’ and ensure that it is NOT crossed under any circumstances as it will help the design of Anti India Forces. Remember what RL Stevenson has said "Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant." And lastly about patriotism, let us not forget the words of John Adams “Our obligation to our country never cease but with our lives.”