The recent sting operation by Zee Business channel… there’s been many reactions to it. Siraj Bolar, Editor-in-Chief, VisionPlus Magazine, shares his opinion on the same
As happens with most media related events these days the ‘shock value’ is highlighted more than the ‘actual content’. I have been involved in the optical and ophthalmic industry since before we launched OpticPlus in 2000. Before that I had strong relations with very important members of the industry and it was at their behest that we actually started the magazine to serve as a platform for the industry to get together.
So today, I cannot sit back and just let a media sting undo all the efforts that the industry along with other associations have been doing to uplift the profession.
I think everyone in the industry wants professionalisation and is working hard at getting more qualified optometrists into the industry. And all said and done, an optical store does have to ensure its products are sold along with providing the right advice to the patient.
The media sting operation made it sound like the opticians were trying to convince uninformed patients to buy spectacles. It was a very unfair assessment as the media person seemed to purposely move the conversation towards a controversy and frankly they didn’t even seem to understand that a patient’s reading can be subjective. And ‘especially’ when the subject is a media person looking for TV ratings, the ‘subjectiveness’ can be amplified the way he chooses to.
BonTon Opticians, Dayal Opticals and Titan Eye Plus are very important and respected opticians and to undermine their credibility with just the use of ‘decibels’ is rather unfair. However I would like to give the industry an opportunity to vent their feelings and share their opinions on our platform. Please do let us know what you think about this. And you don’t have to agree with me… please feel free to say what you want to say in the comments below and we will ensure that your views are shared with our readers in an unbiased manner.
