Sinha, Dipankar creator text xu| 2002 continuing ng p.2803-809. The mass media have a significant role in facilitating the construction of both the public sphere and democratic politics and can aid in the shaping of people's orientations, beliefs and attitudes. In the multicultural setting of India, the construction of public sphere is a complex affair in which the mass media play a critical role. What if at a crucial point in the life of a democracy the supposedly democratic option of the media creates trends which effectively contributes to the refeudalisation of the public sphere? This paper seeks to examine how two vernacular newspapers - Ananda Bazar Patrika, a privately owned newspaper with the largest circulation in West Bengal and Ganashakti, owned and controlled by the Communist party Party of India-Marxist, which has ruled in West Bengal Since 1977 - contributed to 'reformulating' the public sphere during the Kargil 'war', from late May to July 1999. - Reproduced. Mass media Kargil conflict Economic and Political Weekly 180718