Something's missing from television — it’s called civility. Perhaps more than ever before, people on TV are boorish, ill-mannered, abusive, loud and violent. They behave as they please, they say things they shouldn’t. Who can forget Vinay Katiyar’s disparagements of Sonia Gandhi and her family during the 2004 election campaign? Uma Bharati has been only slightly less offensive in the last one month: when she speaks on TV — and she does so frequently — she unfailingly makes ‘‘firangi aurat’’ sound like a four-letter word.Thanks to Somnath Chatterjee and Doordarshan we have watched MPs disrupt Parliament with unparliamentary behaviour. Logic argues that politicians wish to be seen in the best light possible, but no: while on candid camera they seem to delight in unruly behaviour — isn’t that perverse?When a man of usual courtesy, Yashwant Sinha, can call Manmohan Singh a ‘‘shikhandi’’ in front of the cameras (well aware of its double meaning), there’s a line that has been crossed. Last week, TRS leader K Chandrasekhar Rao bragged that he would drag Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan to the bazaar if they did not fulfill the promise of a Telengana state. Then, he, shamelessly, claimed he meant no disrespect, but we saw replays of the original, buddy, and they don’t teach you that kind of language in etiquette classes. Don’t mind it, if Sonia closes down your shop.Most politicians who participate in discussions or debates, try to be loud, combative, insulting. Five years ago, or even three, it wasn’t so: is it that the greater exposure on an increased number of news channels has loosened tongues?The Prime Minister’s live, televised press conference, a few weeks ago, should go down as a model code of conduct for politicians when they speak either to the media or know they will be quoted by it. He answered each question, he was polite, dignified and never once committed an impropriety.Our fictional characters behave rather worse. After you have made huge allowances for our love of the melodramatic, our venal villains, there is scope for improvement. It has become a matter of routine for TV characters to behave like unhinged doors: ‘‘I will kill the entire household,’’ ‘‘I will kill you’’, ‘‘You are a bloody murderer’’, ‘‘I hate you’’, are routine terms of endearment in TV serials.Worse are the remarks uttered by the characters who epitomise virtue, uphold our glorious traditions and are seen as the repositories of all that is good. Loving father Abhay not only tells his daughter Kali, ‘‘My daughter Kali is dead for me’’ but for good measure slaps her too. So does her mother.There’s no understanding Tulsi, either: this wise badi ma has lost all sense of proportion. Nowadays, she never fails to remind poor Karan that he is Mihir’s ‘‘mistake’’, that he is illegitimate, and therefore only vice can be expected of him. She throws him out of the house on the suspicion of harbouring tender sentiments towards her bahu, Nandini, whom she turns away from like she’s a bad smell. Is this how kind, understanding admirable Tulsi should behave?Get a handle of Om Aggarwal, Tulsi’s male equivalent in Kahani. This man of human kindness is uttering the kind of remarks that would make Gabbar Singh blush: when daughter Shruti decides to separate from husband Aryan, when she sides with her friend Sambhav on a rape charge, he tells her that she is ‘‘dead’’ for him (what is wrong with Abhay and him?). ‘‘Our relationship is over. and I will forever regret the day you came into this world’’. Isn’t this rather excessive? Wouldn’t ‘‘I am disappointed in you’’, have sufficed?The Minister of I&B and the Censor chief, Kher, are getting hot under the collar over ‘‘adult’’ late night shows and that obscenity called the music video. It’s easy to be censorious of sex but wonder what they would say if they saw how adults behave on TV? Maybe, mind your manners — and your language?
