Media malfunction : news about 23 medals in athletics and five shining golds in physics Olympiad ignored

By Our Correspondent

Agartala, July 14, 2026

Misplaced priorities of conventional media spanning print outlets and electronically driven TV channels continue to dominate public discourse as petty party politics, SIR, NRC , ‘Chanda Chori’ in temples hog the prime spaces. This is nothing new as politics is the staple of day-to-day life in the country what strikes readers as positively bizarre is the non-chalance of the media outlets to real achievements of the country in spheres other than politics and diplomacy such as sports and academics.

At a time when almost the entire nation is gripped by cricket mania , even after the drubbing suffered by India in the current England tour and the football world cup continues to hit headlines, the Indian under-23 athletics team have won as many as 16 medals-3 golds, 4 silvers and 9 bronzes- in the just concluded inaugural Asian under -23 athletics championship held in the Ordos city of China. Having achieved this remarkable feat the Indian under23 athletics team arrived in Delhi’s Indira Gandhi international airport terminal to a deafening silence . Only a few officials of the athletics federation of India (AFI) and journalists of only one leading TV channel were visible at the airport lounge . The athletes who made India proud suppressed their disappointment and spoke normally to the only media outlet present there . Of course, the prime minister Narendra Modi is reported to have congratulated the team and appreciated their performance in a message.

What however seems still more shameful is the silence and apathy of the media to the outstanding performance of India’s high school students in the just-concluded World Physics Olympiad held in the Colombian city of Bucaramanga in South America. The team of Indian high school students made a clean sweep of all five gold medals and topped the world event alongside China, Kazakhsthan, Russia, South Korea and Taiwan. By any reckoning this is a outstanding feat but only one print media outlet of Delhi has published the heartening news , little realizing that coverage of such successes incentivizes our brilliant student crop. The five students who captured gold medals in the World Physics Olympiad are Kanishk Jain, Riddhesh Anant Bendele, Rishit Garg, Shreshth Suraiya and Savrit Joshi from the states of Maharashtra, Gujrat, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.

Dr T. K. Samaddar ,a physics teacher , rued the apathy of media to such a ‘great news’ about students of the country. “The media should realize that they also have a role to play in the emergence of India as a developed and powerful nation ; I doubt the ability of media bosses to assess the impact of their positive and constructive dissemination of such good news ; this serves the nation and the sooner they realize it the better” said T.K.Samaddar in a depressed tone.

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