All this is not to deny the significant role played by the national media in exposing the ugliness of the 2002 Gujarat riots or the continued injustice towards minorities in the state. But there are consequences arising from the media’s sporadic disaster and personality driven mindset that has serious consequences at the regional level that need to be addressed.

Take, for instance, the persistent belief among local Gujaratis that the 2002 riots were a ‘creation of the national media’. Having been in Ahmedabad in the fortnight preceding the elections, and comparing the widespread level of disinterest among the locals with the screaming headlines in the media, one experienced a strange disconnect. One could drive in any direction in the city and see nothing but a frayed bunting or two and hoardings of media houses advertising the ‘dance of democracy’ and asking the question of uncaring passers by: ‘Kaun Banega Mukhya Mantri?’ Of course, elections were taking place but it seemed as if their excitement and significance were for show elsewhere.

It is a similar sense one has been experiencing in Mumbai over the last few years as the national media has been growing in size and scope. The tendency for instance, to treat every heavy monsoon shower as a moment of crisis, and so converting a hardship Mumbaikars are accustomed to dealing with in a routine manner into an extraordinary phenomenon requiring extraordinary precautions.

An outsider’s perspective can be a useful thing, showing up the flaws locals have become accustomed to taking for granted. But without empathy, it can also serve to alienate and create divisions where none existed.

... contd.