Read on Twitter
It's the shrug in this tweet that is part of the problem. If you share the survey minus a context where you explain how constitutional morality (as opposed to majoritarian morality) is supposed to work in law-making & life, you make the results seem like a mandate. #journalism https://twitter.com/sardesairajdeep/status/1352635036810567683
Such findings are not surprising. What @IndiaToday @sardesairajdeep could do for context for eg: discuss SARI surveys which found that most Indians across caste lines want intercaste marriage outlawed. No govt said that's a mandate for such laws? Why not? https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/Still-frowning-upon-intermarriages/article16955131.ece
SARI surveys, which are high on context & analysis not clickbait, also found that a majority practices untouchability. That is not a mandate for legalising untouchability, and that needs to be underscored, explained when shared in media @IndiaToday https://scroll.in/latest/864755/untouchability-still-high-in-uttar-pradesh-rajasthan-and-delhi-finds-survey
Interesting: studies show that among youth, the opposition to intercaste/interfaith marriage is weaker than it is amongst older folk. There tends to be more support for it, more ambivalence, less rigid opposition. #context @IndiaToday @sardesairajdeep https://www.statista.com/statistics/732759/young-adults-attitudes-to-inter-caste-marriage-india/
Above all, what media needs to tell society & government is that in a democracy, "Majoritarian views, popular morality cannot dictate constitutional rights", that is the essence of constitutional morality of which Ambedkar spoke. https://www.firstpost.com/india/majoritarian-views-popular-morality-cannot-dictate-constitutional-rights-after-157-years-section-377-is-struck-down-5133021.html
Instead when channels like @IndiaToday and anchors like @sardesairajdeep give these regressive attitudes the status of #MoodOfTheNation, they help the far-right peddle the idea that those who do stand for constitutional not majoritarian morality are "anti-national".
Perhaps a majority supports untouchability, wants women's rights curtailed, believes communal propaganda. Media's job is not to declare this to be the #MoodOfTheNation. Media owes a social duty to point out that this "mood" is anti-national, anti-constitutional. @sardesairajdeep
