Real-time Violence on TV By Randeep Wadehra

Social scientists, child psychologists and others of their ilk often express deep apprehension regarding display of violence in our movies and television shows. Even such popular cartoon shows as Tom and Jerry etc have come under the scanner. While the adverse effects of violence-as-entertainment cannot be gainsaid, a far more worrying trend has not yet attracted due attention. Of late there have been telecasts of actual violence shot real-time and, sometimes, telecast live.

One is not alluding just to, what can only be described as, celebrity violence. No, one is not talking of the likes of Salman Khan taking on media persons or Raj Thackeray’s men bashing up North Indian cabbies and throwing bottles, stones and such other brickbats at Amitabh Bachchan’s house. Most of these incidents hide much more than they reveal because these subserve the political and personal agendas of people in high places. It will be difficult to assess the impact of violence in which Bollywood icons get involved as instigators, perpetrators or victims. But let us also have a look at the televised violence involving common folks.

Violence on television has become so ubiquitous that there are specific shows (Vardaat, Crime Reporter, Crime File etc) on several channels dedicated to violence wherein personal and domestic cruelty, sadism and fury are brought into public domain with relentless regularity. Burning, acid-throwing, sexploitation, domestic violence and other such acts targeting women and children have become fodder for sensation-mongers on the small screen. What is remarkable is the timely presence of TV crew when spouses are ‘thrashing out’ their disputes. There was this show, wherein, a housewife was repeatedly assaulting her husband in her kitchen. Those who know about TV coverage will vouchsafe that it takes quite a bit of time putting things together for the crew to take telegenic shots. How could they have been ready for ‘capturing’ this domestic violence without prior notice? This question repeatedly crops up while watching, say, a woman being beaten up in Delhi by her neighbours even as the police remain disinterested witnesses, and several other similar episodes.

Then there is mob violence that has been threatening to usher in anarchy for quite some time now; take these instances that sent chill down the nation’s spine without even touching its conscience: fed up with police inaction women in Nagpur lynch goons not just in the city-streets but right inside court premises; people in Bihar, on different occasions, mercilessly beat up suspected thieves in the presence of policemen, and on one occasion a policeman joined the mob by tying the hapless victim behind his motorcycle and dragging him through the streets. If that is not bad enough legislature violence too has lately been regaling the couch potato. Slippers, shoes, mikes and such other ‘democratic’ missiles have been launched as vehicles of expression by our legislators in different state assemblies. Of course, our elected representatives have a sense of humour too – like floating inflated condoms inside the House! Wonder what next.

All this is shown on television. What’s the message to the future citizens of India? That it’s all right to take law into your hands? That violence is a legitimate expression of protest and political dissent? That the decorum of our legislatures is mere fiction and hence violable?

True, media has to highlight reality. But who will take up the task of mitigating, if not actually removing, such reality’s impactful ugliness? Think it over.

Of this slap and that By Randeep Wadehra

Harbhajan has landed the tangibly costliest slap ever in India’s sporting history on the cheek of cheeky Sreesanth. But we couldn’t witness the actual action because the concerned TV channel – Sony Max – withheld the footage. So we had to make do with the aftermath scenes and verbal description of the incident. But three crore rupees is a rather stiff penalty for rendering unto his ‘younger brother’ what more powerful men routinely dish out to common folks, without having to pay any tangible or intangible penalty. One is talking of a specific violent act. This too involves a celebrity and a slap. One is talking of Govinda the Bollywood star and a Member of Parliament (India’s most august and highest law making/legislating body). Channels like Aaj Tak, Zee News and even NDTV telecast this momentous event. Right Honourable Govinda rendered this ‘signal service’ unto a common citizen whose only fault appeared to be that he was watching a film shooting in which his favourite star Govinda too was acting. The unsuspecting fan’s curiosity drew him nearer to his idol. And was rewarded with a resounding smack on the face! And since cinema is not cricket and the victim was, unlike Sreesanth, not a famous star himself, Govinda went scot free. He even got away with the brazen ‘I’ll do it again’ iteration right on the camera. Assuming that the other fellow had said or done something objectionable shouldn’t Govinda have called in the police who remain at the beck and call of the likes of him? One didn’t see any debate on the issue in any of the famed talk shows of NDTV, CNN-IBN or our Hindi channels.

Well the message is simple. Lawmakers can break the law with impunity. Celebrities can get away with poaching, crushing pedestrians under vehicles, indulging in bigamy, having extramarital marriages (yes, marriages and not affairs) by stealing the affections of someone else’s spouse, violating drugs and arms related laws. And be none the worse for it.

This is not to justify Bhajjji’s action. He had it coming for quite some time now. The point is, why the other celebrity offenders are not being made an example of? Is it because law is an ass or because its keepers/dispensers ...?

Women in politics, and at its receiving end By Randeep Wadehra

Reservations for women edited by Meena Dhanda; series editor: Rajeswari Sundar Rajan

Women Unlimited & Kali for Women. Pages: xl+390. Price: Rs. 600/-

What decides a more hospitable political space for women? If it is education and socio-economic emancipation then women in the West should have been better off than those in, say, Asia – which is not the case. If democracy is the enabling force then it is bemusing to note that women in Pakistan and China enjoy better representation than their sisters in India. Although women in India have enjoyed equal voting rights right from the time of our Constitution’s founding their empowerment still remains an issue. Women’s representation in parliament is poor despite a few individual successes. Should there be reservation for women? Before this question is answered semiological problems pertaining to commonly used terms like empowerment have been dealt with in the debate. Coming back to the question of women’s reservation in the political sphere feminists in the pre-independence era like Sarojini Naidu were not in its favour. However, in 1974 Lotika Sarkar and Vina Mazumdar advocated ‘special representation’ for women. This collection of well informed essays takes a comprehensive look at the status of women in politics – giving a global perspective to the Indian situation. It is not just the issue of women’s representation in the parliament, but the entire system from panchayats upwards that comes under the scanner. The historical, social, economic and political reasons for women’s sparse presence in political sphere have been discussed in detail.

Pratibha Patil by Kumar Pankaj & Ayushma Sharma

Diamond Books. Pages: 176. Price: Rs. 95/-

Pitchforked into limelight from the shadows of relative anonymity Pratibha Devisingh Patil became the first woman president of the Republic of India. And the most unlikely one too. Consider the more erudite and deserving women of substance whose presence in the august office would have been far more advisable – Najma Heptullah, Mohsina Kidwai and Nirmala Deshpande, to name just three. But the vagaries of Indian politics favoured her, albeit as a hasty alternative to another political/intellectual lightweight, viz., Shivraj Patil after more accomplished men like Pranab Mukherji and Karan Singh lost the race due to lack of consensus. However, so far there has been no occasion to regret her elevation to the President’s post. This book is understandably eulogistic in tone and tenor. It gives us glimpses of her personal and political life peppered with interesting trivia including her photo as a toddler.

Lali by BS Thapliyal.

Selective & Scientific Books, N. Delhi. Pages: 241. Price: Rs. 295/-

A consequence of dangerous and disgraceful political games, 1984 became a climactic year for Punjabis, Punjab and India. The spewing of communal hatred, the killing of innocents after pulling them out of buses and their homes in mofussil towns and the countryside, the failed attempts at ethnic cleansing of Punjab turning into general bloodbath, the Operation Bluestar, the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and the resultant anti-Sikh riots have left deep scars on our collective psyche. This novel portrays the travails of a Sikh family caught in the nightmarish anti-Sikh violence and its aftermath. Lali, the novel’s female protagonist, symbolizes the agony and abjectness of those evil days.

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Breaking all records

PUNJABI ANTENNA

 By 

Randeep Wadehra

If one looks at the various long running television shows one finds that, with rare exception, these are based on music. And no anchor has lasted long enough to notch up 2K nonstop appearances before. At least not on Indian television, one is tempted to remark. And, if we tell you that this feather is firmly ensconced in the pugree of a Punjabi TV show which has also been garnering highest TRPs all the while? You wouldn’t believe it of course. But it is true.

Two thousand and going strong! That’s the score of Pawan Sharma the astrologer-cum-anchor of Zee Punjabi’s twin astrology based TV shows Ajj Da Rashiphal (Monday to Friday 8.30 a.m.) and Tuhadde Sitare (Saturdays 8.30 a.m.) – he completed two thousand non-stop appearances on 25 April. He clarifies that Tuhadde… is the weekend edition of Ajj… a la our print dailies. Actually he has appeared on the shows 2700 times uninterrupted if you take into account the seven hundred episodes of fifteen-minute duration that had preceded the present thirty-minute long version. This must be a world record of sorts, and certainly an Indian record.

The feat becomes all the more creditable when one learns that the shows remained top-rated since inception – unique for a non-musical Punjabi TV show. When congratulated on the occasion Pawan smiled modestly. A reticent person, it is a job getting him to talk about himself. Although his great grandfather was a respected astrologer Pawan remained indifferent to the profession till he reached college where he would read his peers’ palms. Thence he took to astrology seriously. He was noticed for his articles on the subject and was featured in Zee TV’s documentary Astral Baby. Thereafter, he was signed up by Zee Punjabi (then Alpha Punjabi) and the rest is history that promises to flow into a bright future. When quizzed about the response of his viewers his face lights up as he reveals how he gets letters via speed-post and registered mail. Among the queries from anxious people the prospects of one’s migration to the West feature prominently.

How effective are the upayas in averting impending adversities? He firmly believes that our present is the sum total of our past, but avers that although one cannot escape one’s karma adversities can be mitigated. Upayas also act as psychological boosters that strengthen one’s resolve to face up to the vagaries of life. When pointed out that astrologers often make favourabe predictions that turn out to be false, he agrees and says one should not make misleading predictions.

He further asserts, “I prefer to say things as they are without sugar-coating. I prepare people mentally for their tryst with destiny by telling them the truth. Knowledge is the best upaya because it is the most effective anti-dote to superstition.” Is it any wonder that Pawan Sharma has become Punjabi television’s record breaking host?

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Good government By Randeep Wadehra

WHAT is good government? This question, albeit rhetorical, has been exercising thinking individuals the world over. John Jay Chapman would like to give credit to private virtue for a good government. But, as we all know virtue is not exactly in abundance anywhere. As it does not grow naturally, it has to be enforced or instilled with the help of a strict regimen. Some compare it to cultivating a barren land — but that appears rather harsh.

Why is it necessary to have a government at all? As Shelley states in An Address to the Irish People, “Government is an evil; it is only the thoughtlessness and vices of men that make it a necessary evil. When all men are good and wise, government will of itself decay.” In other words we need a government because we have not yet reached the stage of enlightenment that would make all external forms of governance redundant.

Indeed, if only we could govern ourselves and lead a life of virtue all governments would vanish. But then where would politicians be? And our junket hungry bureaucrats? Imagine, no annual ritual of IAS exams and mug shots of preening successful candidates in the local press! No comic scenes of the grown ups going through juvenile wiles just to get a piece of the sarkari cake. Life will lose a lot of lustre... and colour. The US journalist HL Mencken takes a cynical view when he states: “Government is actually the worst failure of civilised man. There has never been a really good one, and even those that are most tolerable are arbitrary, cruel, grasping and unintelligent.”

Some have tried to compare different forms of government like democracy, communism etc. However, they have not been able to conclude whether our system of governance is an abject failure, a resounding success or a mixed blessing. No attempt has been made to differentiate between a systemic failure and the individual inadequacy.

For example, was the Emergency an example of a chink in our Constitution or was it because our ruling elite could not uphold the principles of our Constitution in letter and spirit? Is the current spate of violence – political, social, and domestic – in different parts of the country a proof of our governing agencies’ ineptitude or some deeper, more sinister malaise? Why is the common man left to fend for himself — generally speaking?

Let Thomas Carlyle have the last word: “Men are to be guided only by their self-interests. Good government is a good balancing of these; and, except a keen eye and appetite for self-interest, requires no virtue in any quarter. To both parties it is emphatically a machine: to the discontented, a ‘taxing-machine’; to the contented, a ‘machine for securing property.’ Its duties and its faults are not those of a father, but of an active parish-constable.”

Your sentiments exactly, dear reader?

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The ‘Content’ of Leadership By Amar Nath Wadehra

We have graduated from stones and clubs to computer-guided heat-seeking missiles, our military strategies are more sophisticated and the nations and armies involved are larger and more complicated—but our reasons for fighting have not changed much since the Bronze Age. Nor have the values and ethos of the military changed much – we can still admire the men like Kanishka, Leonides, Babar and Yoshimitsu – military men remarkable not only for their grasp of strategy but for their qualities of leadership.

The fighting man’s self-image as a man of honour and principle goes back to the prehistoric past. It was one of the things at issue in the Mahabharat. The officer in the Indian Armed Forces has much to draw on, not least of which is the model of the “gentleman officer” handed down by the British.

But in every military organization there are two principles that tend in different directions and are not always easy to reconcile: on the one hand, the military value system exalts bravery, skill, the ability to take quick decisions, innovative and/or unconventional behaviour is valued, provided it results in victory; but on the other hand, the military is also closely defined by formalities, standardizations, bureaucracies, procedures and protocols.

Habit and heroics don’t often mesh very well. The plus side of a highly bureaucratized set up is that it pays off in high-stress situations; one can maintain a functioning organization even when personnel are suddenly replaced.

The down side is a tendency to become ossified, to lose one’s flexibility and ability to think for oneself and make independent decisions and to become adept at manipulating the system for one’s own benefit.

The military also faces a major problem when the society it is drawn from is rapidly evolving from long-established feudal ways into a democracy with a free market economy. The military tries to insulate its ways and values from forces at work beyond the cantonment, but this is possible only to some extent. Today both jawans and officers enter the armed forces with very different expectations. A middle level officer is often able to “hide” his weaknesses from his superiors but he never succeeds for long in hiding them from his subordinates. In earlier days, the jawans might have been overawed by an officer’s aristocratic pretensions — but not any more.

Another way to look at the problem is in terms of content and form. When leadership “content” declines, there is a tendency to place increasing emphasis on “form”.

The content of leadership is, first and foremost, competence — closely followed by fairness, honesty and upright behaviour. “Content” is seen in times of crisis but it is also the sum total of the man’s day-to-day attitudes and way of doing things. The sort of things that goes down on the credit side of an officer’s leadership “account” can be of the most minor nature—simple gestures, you might say.

A story illustrates this, it was told to me by a retired Master Warrant Officer, Darshan Singh, who joined the Royal Indian Air Force during World War II. During the war he was posted in Burma. One day he happened to mention to his commanding Officer that his family back in Punjab was finding it difficult to get their share of rations.

A couple of weeks later a letter from home arrived, one that was full of astonishment. An Air Force Officer had turned up at Darshan Singh’s house with a veritable cartload of foodstuffs. Not only did this raise the CO in the eyes of Darshan Singh, but every man in the unit took pride in this deed. Across thousands of miles, at the instance of a single commanding officer, the machinery of the Air Force had moved to help the family of one man, and that too the junior-most.

This officer gave his “ORs” (Other Ranks) the confidence that their problems would be heard and something would be done to set things right. Punishment could also be very severe in those days, but there was a general feeling that it was meted out without fear or favour. The officer’s orders brooked no delay, let alone disobedience. As a result, discipline was high and so was the morale of the rank and file.

Of course, that was wartime, when content usually tends to predominate over form.

Today the OR sees entirely too much form and feels unhappy with it. His officer seems not merely distant, but virtually cocooned from what is going on at his level.

In the Air Force, young officers come in with fancy engineering degrees. Trouble arises when their subordinates — rank-wise inferior but experience-wise superior —discover that the officer is unable to guide them when it comes to diagnosing and rectifying the thousand and one things that can go wrong in an aircraft. Respect goes out of the window.

If this same officer also seems to be more adept in keeping his superior officer happy, it takes no time at all for the men to comment on it — in the bitterest tones. It will be said that the officer has little time to spend on the shopfloor because sycophancy is such a time-consuming activity.

Form predominates — the paper qualifications, the rank structure and system of ACRs, the formalities of tables filled in and accounts submitted. But airplanes don’t fly on “form”; they fly on “content”— in this case the content of knowledge, skill, dedication and perfectionism embodied in a team of expert men led by expert officers.

This is true for all branches of Armed Forces.

When one pays attention to how things are done in practice in the various branches of our Defence Services today, one cannot escape the feeling that the balance has tilted toward form excessively. It may not be easy, but we are certainly lost if we cannot get back a higher proportion of content at all levels but particularly at the level of leadership.

A hymn for humanity By Amar Nath Wadehra

Sukhmani Sahib by Sri Guru Arjan Dev (Presentation: Syed Afzal Haider)

Izharsons, Lahore, Pakistan. Pages: ll+320. Price: Rs. 1200/-. US $ 33/-

In every community scriptures play a vital, multifaceted role. They act as guiding lights for smooth functioning of a society, facilitate spiritual discipline and elevation, and, during crises become sources of equipoise. Even if one is not a practicing theist prayers help him acquire self-confidence while facing vagaries of life. Sukhmani Sahib is one such font of spiritual, moral and psychological strength. There are any number of legends and parables highlighting its healing powers. One such relates to Hakim Alimuddin Ansari who was then the Governor of Lahore. He was suffering from acute and chronic stomach ailment. One day he happened to visit Amritsar. There Baba Buddha cured him with a massage and directed him to the fifth guru of Sikhs Arjan Dev. The latter asked him to listen to the Sukhmani recitation every day, which Ansari did and benefitted both physically as well as spiritually.

Variously described as the beatitude of mind, the jewel of bliss, the psalm of peace and the provider of comfort, this collection of hymns – authored by Guru Arjan Dev – is part and parcel of daily prayers in the homes of many a devout Sikh and Hindu. Forming a part of Guru Granth Sahib, Sukhmani Sahib has structural unity. It has twenty four salokas. There are twenty four cantos called Ashtpadis, each containing eight stanzas. Each stanza has ten lines that form five couplets. The saloka of each canto gives the general idea of the stanzas that follow. This archetypal hymn has thematic unity too, viz., moral, spiritual and temporal evolvement of the individual.

While presenting this tome Haider has underscored similarities between Islamic and Sikh precepts. To buttress this thesis he has juxtaposed certain aayats – both Arabic original and English translation – from the Holy Quran (Sura Nur, Sura Baqra et al) with verses from Guru Granth Sahib that preach monotheism or the oneness of God. He also acknowledges that Sikh Gurus were all well read in the field of comparative religions. Further, he points out the non-sectarian character of the composition. His expatiations on Zikr, Tauheed and the essence of Sukhmani Sahib are illuminating. What makes this excellently produced work a collector’s item is the presentation of the verses in Gurmukhi along with their translation as well as transliteration in Urdu and English. The translations are lucid and should attract readership transcending linguistic, religious and cultural stratifications.

The price is a bit on the high side, but then good things seldom come cheap.

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