Third Eye

The two TV sting operations have achieved what nothing else has in a very long time in politics: united Parliament and found Sonia Gandhi and the BJP breaking bread (or chapattis) at a dinner hosted by the Lok Sabha speaker Somnath Chatterjee! They have also somewhat redeemed the reputation of the genre by providing strong evidence without resorting to sexual inducements.

However, sex was on sale elsewhere. There was the Jharkhand IG of Police supposedly cavorting with a lady in order to render her the assistance she had asked for. Star News footage in question was of such cloudy quality that the evidence was hazy picture. The IG was suspended.

The picture was much clearer when it came to MPs at Bihar Bhavan in Delhi, like the IG, doing what they should not have been with nubile young women (India TV).

Aaj Tak went to jail and bribed the prison officials to permit them inside the sanctum sanctorum of the Delhi jail. You saw averted eyes and outstretched hands. Also, you might have seen hospital personnel selling off kidneys and eyes if the price was right.

The prize for the covert camera operation without any sting goes to India TV’s expose of Bollywood’s casting couch phenomenon. Actors Shakti Kapoor and television’s Aman Verma were captured up close with a woman reporter pretending to be an aspiring actress. How personal it got, in terms of physical contact, is unclear from the footage and the dialogues. The two men come out of it looking silly, but culpable? Can’t tell.

SO it’s been a case of hits and misses for sting operations. Many a time, we saw money exchanging hands but while the likes of Duryodhan and Chakravyuh have had an immediate impact and fall out, not all the others were so lucky or deserved to be taken seriously.

The swift political response and reaction from politicians to Duryodhan suggests that they have learnt something since that most famous of all sting operations—Tehelka (March 13, 2001): don’t be in a state of denial. Accept that often, the camera tells the truth. In Tehelka’s case, other than the resignation of Bangaru Laxman as BJP president and a serious army investigation into officers role in trying to facilitate a fake defence deal, there has only been an effort on the part of those caught in action, to dismiss the operation as completely fake. So we have come some if not a long way, baby.