In the land of “unprovoked firing” and “befitting replies”, Times Now has slapped together yet another provocative hashtag: #MindItPakistan. But no royalties have been offered to Quick Gun Murugan, the man who gave “mind it” a pan-Indian footprint. They could at least have couriered him a whiskey and a masala dosa… But elsewhere, people are lightening up. Opindia.com, whose mandated purpose is to fix the liberal press with its beady eye and seek instances of human error which can be gussied up to look like skulduggery, has developed a sense of humour. It has run a what-if about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s correspondents’ dinner at 7 Race Course Road, which never happened and never will. The host is found to be limber because of Harshvardhan’s shoulder massages, which he recommends: “He will give it to you. Not like he is busy or something these days.” The PM, on the contrary, is so busy he has visibly aged. “I look so old LK Advaniji called me ‘uncle’ the other day.” [related-post] While the Lok Sabha proxy-warred over the Finance Bill, suits, boots, soojh, boojh and all, the Rajya Sabha spent at least as much time deliberating on the issue of marital rape, where Kanimozhi asked Parliamentarians to unite against the phenomenon. The Home Ministry packaged it like a TV dinner for the media, saying that the idea of marital rape cannot be applied in India because the majority regards marriage as a sacrament. Decades ago, a similar argument used to be trotted out to suggest that India was not ready for democracy in its splendid European form, and that had invited media frenzies, too. The marital rape debate could have taken an interesting turn — if the sacrament is the problem, it could be replaced by the idea of marriage as civil contract. Indeed, that is its legal status. However, one can’t imagine droves of Parliamentarians being enthusiastic about it, in the nation of hurt sentiments. It’s unusual for a US state to declare a state of emergency because of a human catastrophe rather than a natural calamity, so Maryland is a permanent fixture in the headlines. It’s a complicated story since Baltimore, its biggest city, has had a string of black mayors and other office-bearers, which sort of colours the issue of race. Surprisingly, CNN ran a neatly segregated feature by the photo artist Nate Larson, Holding that Line: Portraits from Baltimore. Portraits of black citizens and white cops appear in alternate order in a slideshow. Seriously, all the citizens are black, and all but one of the cops are white, and the odd cop out is of unclear race, behind his visor. He could be white, too. It is a relief to get away from the news these days. In comparison to the craziness on the news channels, it is so easy to linger over DD India, which was running a long, unhurried programme about the fort on Janjira island yesterday. Who would have imagined that Janjira is a corruption of Al Jazeera — “the island”? At the exact same moment, DD Bharti was tracing 5,000 years of monumental sculpture in South Asia. It does give you a sense of perspective that #MindItPakistan lacks. pratik.kanjilal@expressindia.com
