It is self-evident that Bangladesh and India, which share the longest border in all of Southasia – 4053 km – ought to get along, but that is far from the present status of the bilateral relationship, which is at a low ebb. That it is important that the media in its age-old and new-fangled forms try and restore a balance to this relationship, too, is self-evident.
Fortunately, notwithstanding its limitations and constraints, the media enjoys a good deal of credibility in the minds of the ordinary people on both sides. People tend to believe what is communicated by print media and television. The reach, power and apparent credibility of media have all increased with the proliferation of electronic media, and in particular since the advent of cable/satellite channels. As a result, media has evolved as a key actor in international relations.
Indian media reaches Bangladesh in two layers: those of the national English/Hindi media and the regional Bangla media. In the 1970s, both played an active and direct role in publicising East Bengal's war of independence, thereby creating a unique instance of foreign media becoming a key actor in a neighbour's struggle for freedom. While the government radio and national press in India might have backed the struggle out of strategic considerations, the Bangla broadcast and print media went out of its way to lend overwhelming support. Thus, Pranabesh Sen, an employee of the Calcutta station of All India Radio, would openly declare in his popular program Sambad Parikrama, that he was part of East Bengal's struggle as "a soldier armed with words." Much of this support could be ascribed to pan-Bengali feelings that touched Bangla media persons on the other side of the border.
There has been a rapid descent in this kind of involvement from the heights of the coverage of 1971. Today, Bangladesh is a marginal entity as far as the mainstream media in India is concerned. The dominant representation of the eastern neighbour is that of a kind of wasteland marked by utter poverty and religious fundamentalism, a den of anti-Indian militants from India's Northeast and an official sponsor of 'infiltration'. The familiar images are those of people neck-deep in flood waters, processions demanding the death of writer Taslima Nasreen, and the burning of the Indian tri-colour. While these images of course are not fictional, it is the choice of the press and television to highlight them that carries a certain impression of Bangladesh to the Indian masses. Interestingly, there is no difference between the government channel, Doordarshan, and the private satellite channels in terms of the stereotypes they present of the Bangladeshi character.