When the Indian Express reported on the rift inside the Election Commission, some of the usual suspects on primetime news had a ready frame. According to them, the Election Commission’s own clarification highlighted that debate and dissent precede any decision, and that decisions were unanimous.
Of the eight Hindi and English anchors reviewed here, four used that line to argue that the report described nothing unusual and that the criticism was politics. Only NDTV’s Padmaja Joshi and India TV’s Rajat Sharma pressed the Commission on what it had not explained. Both asked why access to the system used to prepare voter lists had been restricted.
