Channel surfer
By
Randeep
Wadehra
Is a fourth front in the offing?
The question assailed TV mandarins when Team Anna declared its intentions to enter
electoral politics – later, Times Now aired the news regarding Team Anna’s
disbanding, while The Last Word (CNN-IBN) discussed its implications. On
NDTV’s Buck Stops Here and Big Fight some panelists expressed disappointment
although others were cautiously optimistic but felt that Anna Hazare’a latest
gambit is without any roadmap to its political destination. But, aren’t we
witnessing the infusion of, what PM Manmohan Singh had called in the economic
context, the ‘animal spirits’ (a Keynesian term denoting spontaneous urge for
action) into Indian politics? Meanwhile,
just when the Devil’s Advocate’s (CNN-IBN) attempts to pin down the
wriggly Salman Khurshid on the government’s handling of Team Anna were becoming
a bit comical, a commercial break showed a dog chasing its tail assiduously;
animal spirits, indeed!
The Nobel laureate Amartya Sen,
pointed out on CNN-IBN, “Even a child can tell that corruption is undesirable”;
and there was a need for changing the system that “incentivizes” corruption.
Would the Anna brand of politics do the trick? Incidentally, Team Anna’s “withdrawal”
of fast invited mudslinging, reconfirming that in politics smudging is
inevitable; you can either be a selfless crusader or a not-so-selfless
politician; when you try to be both you become mealy mouthed and tetchy when TV
journalists ask uncomfortable questions. Feral animal instincts were evident at
Jantar Mantar where Anna’s followers attacked media persons after Shanti Bhushan’s
rather animalcular speech which was repeatedly shown on news channels.
TV news highlighted beastly
instincts in full play: massacre in Assam, violence in Manesar, moral vigilantes
tormenting girls in Mangalore and molesters pushing another girl from a
speeding train elsewhere in Karnataka, teachers stripping a girl in West Bengal,
Geetika and Anuradha (Fiza) in Haryana... The ensuing politics would make even
an insensitive beast blush. The Tamil Nadu Express train tragedy elicited
similar reactions. Railways Minister Mukul Roy discerned great conspiracy in
the calamity! Mercifully, beastly instincts have a spirited foe in Ranchi’s
indigent but bighearted Husn Bano (Akhtari Bai in the TV show Lakhon Mein Ek,
Star Plus) who adopts baby girls dumped into municipality’s garbage bins; her
unwittingly trenchant remark? ‘Nobody abandons baby boys…’ Lakhon Mein Ek
– a worthy successor to Aamir Khan’s Satyamev Jayate – may well help
fight beastly instincts of the Apna Ghar type.
In London Olympics when India
opened its account with a piddling bronze everybody behaved as if we have
toppled China from its perch at the top. Celebrations and congratulatory
messages were aired with infantile zeal. TV anchors and Sports Minister Maken crowed
as if imbued with animal spirits. India has been participating in the Olympics
much before Communist China and, yet, has been a perpetual laggard. On the
Games’ conclusion we shall see the familiar pattern – excuses turning into long
winded explanations and eventually sinking into a vicious blame game – something
we excel in! There is something terribly wrong with the way our sports are
being managed. Will we ever feel mortified enough to introspect over our
chronic mediocrity? Will our athletes keep floundering like hobbled horses? Would
the authorities do something to galvanize animal spirits among our sports
federations and administrators?
Published in The Tribune dated 19 August,
2012
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