Kanchan Gupta and Nalini Singh, Mihir Sharma, and Swapan Dasgupta discuss the might of the Lutyens’ media.

The Media Rumble’s second session, The Power of Lutyens Media, was moderated by Ashok Malik, the newly-appointed press secretary to the incoming President of India. The panel included veteran journalists Kanchan Gupta and Nalini Singh, columnist and ORF fellow Mihir Sharma, and Rajya Sabha MP Swapan Dasgupta.

The panel’s discussion ranged from the mythical Lutyens’ media and its impact on news narratives, the credibility of mainstream media and the problems facing the Delhi-centric media. Kanchan Gupta was of the view that, “The problem with Lutyens’ media is that you decide what is good for your reader, you set the agenda.” He also said that media themselves are responsible for the lack of credibility. Taking about Lutyens’ media Singh said, “We are the only country in the world which has socialist ‘socialites’.”

Following a critique of the Lutyens’ media’s coverage, Dasgupta said, “If you wish to do away with the Lutyens’ media mindset, you have to do away with Lutyens.”