Accidental Patrakar

 

Ah, Indian journalism! What a delightful mess. Somewhere between news and kabaddi, fact and fiction, there lingers a creature I have often referred to as the “Accidental Patrakar.” One wonders how he arrived in the media arena—was it fate, nepotism, or sheer fluke? Regardless, merit had very little to do with it. What he does possess, in abundant supply, is flair—the flair to confuse, mislead, and parade ignorance as insight.

Recently, this gentleman committed a crime against logic. In a video that must have made philosophy professors weep, he equated government guarantees—Modi’s promises of food, clothing, housing, and water—with the Congress’s pre-poll populist circus acts. Imagine comparing apples to fireworks; both are bright, but only one nourishes. Yet, in the mind of our “Accidental Patrakar,” governance and vote-baiting are apparently identical twins.

Let me spell it out. A government’s duty to provide basic necessities is not a slogan for election posters. It is not a tactic to win applause or trending hashtags. It is constitutional, moral, and non-negotiable. The Congress’s pre-poll promises? Flashy, ephemeral, often laughable. To blur the line is to insult intelligence, not merely your audience.

This is symptomatic of a wider rot in Indian media: context ignored, facts twisted, subtlety mocked, nuance abandoned. The aim is no longer to inform, but to provoke, to provoke as if life itself depended on it. And our “Accidental Patrakar” leads the parade of this grotesque carnival, performing for cameras while integrity quietly slips out the back door.

Journalism is supposed to hold power accountable, not hold microphones for theatrics. Research, depth, ethics—these are not optional; they are the bones of the profession. Strip them away, and what remains is a hollow, rattling skeleton, a puppet dancing for clicks, likes, and Twitter rage.

This man, bless his misguided soul, has turned himself into a plague on a noble profession. Each careless utterance chips away at public trust, eroding the very reason the press exists. And at a time when the country needs clarity and courage in reporting more than ever, we get this circus.

So here it is, plain and bitter as whisky: the “Accidental Patrakar” is not merely incompetent; he is dangerous. He is a warning of what journalism becomes when ego replaces ethics, performance substitutes for research, and loudness masquerades as insight. The public deserves better. Democracy deserves better. And journalism, in its battered, noble heart, deserves far better than this.

Period.