An important lesson of history, however, is that the policymakers of any country hardly make any major policy shifts if not mounted effective pressure on them by the people. And here comes the democratic responsibility of the media, or in other words, the responsibility of the democratic media, to perpetually keep the public informed, and contribute to the development of awareness among the people of the undemocratic actions and inactions of the establishment that deter the mutually beneficial relations of the neighbouring countries.
We need to admit that the media of both the countries in question have so far failed to effectively expose the emotionally illiterate bureaucrats, short-sighted politicians and self-seeking vested groups who have been standing in the way of developing a much required healthy relations between the two peoples.
On the other hand, the enemies of good neighbourly relations between the peoples of India and Bangladesh have always been very active in vitiating the relations. The section of the Indian media, embedded within the country's establishment, not only distorts or exaggerates the bad news about Bangladesh on a regular basis, but also writes and propagates absolutely concocted stories to portray Bangladesh in the worst possible manner before the people of India and beyond.
A couple of recent 'news stories', originating from the Indian soil, would perhaps adequately corroborate the proposition.
The media practitioners in Dhaka saw on the Internet, with their eyebrows raised, in the morning of July 18, that more than a dozen of Indian dailies carried an Associated Press 'news item' claiming that 25 members of the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA), a militant political group fighting for the independence of Assam from India, were killed in Dhaka when gunmen attacked them the previous night! The report, released by the AP's office in Guwahati, capital of the Indian state of Assam, claimed that the ULFA rebels were holding a meeting in a hotel at Segun Bagicha in Dhaka. The report, written by an Indian journalist, who quoted Tripura police chief GM Srivastava, was absolutely baseless.
The government of Bangladesh reacted sharply and asked the agency to retract its 'report', and the latter did so on July 18. But, by then, a lot of damage had already been done to Bangladesh. Because the so-called news item was published prominently by a good number of influential dailies across the world, including more than a dozen of Indian dailies and some American newspapers, including the USA Today.
The media everywhere make mistakes — innocent mistakes — and correct them as usual. But many journalists in Dhaka refuse to accept the AP's mistake in question as an innocent one. Because, as soon as the report, released from Guwahati, reached AP's Delhi office on July 17 night, the Delhi office reportedly called its Dhaka office 'at about 11:30pm' to crosscheck the information. 'I told the Delhi office that no such incident has taken place in Dhaka on Saturday [July 17],' the chief of AP's Dhaka bureau, was quoted to have said to a Dhaka daily on July 18.
Another absolutely misleading report that astonished many in Dhaka was the one released by deepekaglobal.net, an Indian Internet news organisation, on June 20. The report, which was eventually circulated worldwide, claimed that 'a group of suspected terrorists attacked the local branch of the British owned Standard Chartered Bank in the heart of the business district in central Dhaka today [June 20]'.
'One of the attackers was reportedly killed in a shoot-out with police and the bank's own guards… After the attack paramilitary soldiers and riot police in the busy Motijheel business district in the capital Dhaka surrounded the building, which also housed the local office of the American Express Bank,' the report claimed.
In reality, two policemen were killed in an exchange of fire with armed criminals trying to rob Tk 55,000 from a businessman in a money exchange office at Motijheel. The incident was covered by all the major dailies based in Dhaka.
One hardly needs to take time to understand the possible implications of a 'terrorist attack' on a couple of British and American banks, especially in the times of the so-called Anglo-American war against terror. But the deepekaglobal.net did not even feel it important to withdraw the report the next day.
It is, however, not new for a section of the Indian media practitioners to write misleading, and dangerous stories against Bangladesh.
Only a few months ago, Agence France-Presse office in Kolkata, capital of the West Bengal state of India, released a cock and bull story. Quoting unnamed sources, the AFP claimed on October 4, 2003 that an unidentified aircraft coming from Bangladesh had intruded into Indian airspace in West Bengal and dropped some packets into a pond the day before (on October 3). Subsequently, the Indian electronic media, especially Alpha TV Bangla and the Star News, aired the report. Star went to the extent of airing an explanatory animation of the concocted story. The Indian print media also published the news item.
The next day, on October 5, the foreign ministry of Bangladesh rejected the Indian media claim, categorically saying that the report, emanating from India, was 'absolutely false and baseless'. 'After thorough verification from all relevant sources,' the acting foreign secretary of Bangladesh told newsmen in Dhaka, 'it has been found that no aircraft from Bangladesh intruded into Indian airspace.'
The Indian authorities eventually drew the same conclusion. After investigation by a team of the Indian Air force that visited the spot, some 550 kilometres north off Kolkata, they said that 'no plane, Indian or foreign, had dropped any packet into any pond'.
The examples, perhaps, clearly portrays the height of acrimony the pro-establishment section of the India media holds against Bangladesh.