Sasikala is sentenced to jail, she can’t even get bail; This means she can’t be Chief Minister, Will Panneerselvam become the A-Lister?
These are a few lines from Satshya Tharien’s news rap. The 22-year-old is a newsreader with a difference. Unlike others who read out lines from a prompter, Tharien raps the words on her Facebook page called News Rap, as she fills you in on the happenings of the country and the world — with a bit of her own opinion thrown in of course. “It’s the most effective way to get your point across — the visual medium,” she says, about her choice of broadcast medium, if you will.
As someone who has previously uploaded explanatory videos on the Uttar Pradesh elections, the Ramjas College fiasco, a breakdown of the 2017 Union Budget, the Jallikattu protests and more, Satshya isn’t new to receiving online backlash. But she takes it in her stride. “Some people want to go against you just because they want to, not because there is any valid reason. I understand if you criticise me for getting my facts wrong, but most often, they do it because my idea of a certain thing doesn’t align with theirs. Also, it is the easiest trick in the book for them. Just because I’m a girl and I have an opinion, they think it is okay to troll me or call me names,” she scoffs.
News Rap doesn’t aim to provide unbiased information — it aims to provide a platform for discourse. “I’m giving the audience a base out of which they can form their own opinion. So in a way, News Rap is like my version of a column. They may not agree with it, but at least they have a perspective after which they can choose to do what they like with that information,” she shares.
Quoting lines from First They Came For The Jews by Martin Niemöller, she says those are the words she lives by. “As long as everyone is given the space to formulate their opinion, express their disapproval or dissent, or exchange ideas, one can say that ones lives in a democracy. It’s the society I want to live in.”
