Opinion Telescope: Such ado at India Gate
Modi government’s celebration of itself made for some bad television.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi.It was a song and dance about something but should it have been five hours long — if the idea was for viewers to watch it?
“Zara muskara do”, we were advised on Saturday evening when the prime minister and his government celebrated “Ek Nayi Subah”, aka two years of the NDA government, but it’s impossible to smile for that long, right? The setting was perfect: a cool, breezy Delhi evening, India Gate in the background, soft lights, lilting music, energetic dances (reminiscent of the reality show India’s Got Talent), Amitabh Bachchan and Narendra Modi. Perfect. Congratulations, Doordarshan.
Except, the film star didn’t recite famous lines from his films but spoke on Beti Bachao with such earnestness you felt the Congress barbs of his participation in the event had hit home. And a bevy of Union ministers took to centrestage for a series of Q&A discussions on the government’s programmes. Yawn on the lawn: Such sessions are for seminar halls or TV studios, not the green, green grass of Lutyens Delhi. Who said? The romantic atmosphere of India Gate, that’s who; good television, that’s who.
So what did private news channels do? Many came and went like visitors, dipping into certain parts of the show and then returning to scheduled programming. Everyone, but everyone, however, turned up for the PM’s speech. By then, the extravaganza had lengthened into the night and though he woke us up with his passion and eloquence, you wanted to go right back to sleep when he folded his hands and left the stage.
Since May 26, there has been much celebration of the BJP-led government — by the BJP. There are print and TV ads with Modi’s photo — smiling — and the PM himself spoke at Saharanpur while many ministers have given a series of interviews to the print and electronic media. That’s unusual: other than Arun Jaitley who soundbytes every day on TV, Modi’s men are a mum lot. For instance, when was the last time you saw, heard an interview with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj?
All is well, has been the general tenor of the BJP message but when wells across the country are dry, it makes you wonder whether the Modi government is falling into the “India Shining” trap which ensnared the Vajpayee government?
In a lighter vein, Amar Singh gave a delightful interview in which Bhupendra Chaubey repeatedly asked him about Amit bhai, Jaya behen and his soured relations with them (IBN-7). What will you do if confronted by Jaya B in the Rajya Sabha? If they can embrace Rekha then..he replied. Is there a side to Bachchan that we don’t know? He leads a make-believe life — “har samay kalakaar hain”, retorted Singh.
On Monday, all hell broke loose as Tanmay Bhat’s infamy spread across news channels most of whom ditched Robert Vadra — except for NDTV 24×7 and its exclusive on his house in London — for the AIB comedian. Up until the time TV news got hold of Bhat’s parody of Sachin v/s Lata, only social media addicts went viral with it. But TV can’t leave well enough alone, it must rush in where sensible people refuse to go. As a result, it repeatedly showed us the less than attractive face swaps of Tanmay as Tendulkar and Mangeshkar, debated Bhat’s humour, humourlessly, endlessly all day and into the night until Bhat had got as much free publicity as Donald Trump in his US presidential campaign.
Some channels were not in the least amused: when Bhat tweeted that Snapchat which hosted his video should pay him for free publicity, News X cried out indignantly: “Tanmay wants money for insults too” and Aaj Tak reported that he demanded money from Snapchat.
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