It may be too early to say this, but it appears like the Telangana agitations that appear to have flared up all over again yesterday after the
Srikrishna Committee report was made public, may not be as raucous as they were last year, or affect the city as much.
The foremost reason may be that the Telugu TV news channels, that went berserk with competitive sensationalizing last year, to the extent of beaming live images of self-immolation by students and repeating those gory visuals ad nauseum, appear to have been significantly gagged. Yesterday a channel was even blacked out for some hours for trying to show the violence in OU.
The news channels had aggravated the situation significantly in late 2009 and early 2010, by giving mileage to just about everything controversial that the agitators (whether Telangana or Seemandhra) were saying and doing. As a result, highly provocative and divisive views, both from leaders and ordinary people in the countryside, inciting violence gained mass visibility.
TV channels desperate for bytes would even go to the districts to get quotes from the "common man" and ascertain the "pulse" at the grassroots. Obviously, however, only those people with strong opinions and willing to say virulent things on camera would get mileage, creating 2 issues: (1) even if only 1 person in every 5 felt that way, it would appear like everyone felt that way, and (2) to be seen on TV, you had to say sensational stuff. Indeed, it's hard to recollect many people speaking reconciliatory language.
The net result of giving mileage to only a few with strong opinions was to enable them give out versions/impressions of their choice to the masses, which slowly led more and more people to believe in these versions/impressions, and increase the number of people participating in arson and violence.
In an era where mostly only informed and accomplished people had access to mainstream media, such a scenario where the state got polarized through bigoted opinions would not have arisen.
Last year also had channels competing for TRPs hyping things without a sense of proportion, and making it look like the whole of Hyderabad was burning when a few incidents happened in specific pockets of the city.
The high mileage for such acts increased the number of perpetrators.
Considering that the government appears to have issued an unofficial gag order, this time, hopefully, things will not go out of control due to an errant media. However, TDP's Telangana political leaders are already protesting the restrictions.