Opinion Black and White Television

Meanwhile,Times Now’s 2013 round-up,a potted pickle of slanging matches,raised intriguing questions. What moves Times Now? Since the channel is out to move the nation,the nation demands to know. It’s actually a feedback loop,since Times Now frequently poses as the nation itself. So the question is,what is the nation willingly learning to be moved by,in the echo chamber of the modern drawing room dominated by a huge TV screen?

It appears that Times Now is moved most powerfully by the fear of smallness,a reasonable anxiety in a nation that hopes to be a near-future superpower. This translates into the belligerent fear of being disrespected or,worse,ignored. And its best rants are triggered by people wrong-footed by history.

“Ladies and gentlemen,have you heard of Honey Singh? I have not heard of Honey Singh.” Though Honey Singh had been around for so long that he had been awarded the honorific of Yo Yo,Arnab had not heard of him. Arnab did not seem to be aware,either,that rap has a strongly misogynistic streak,and that the chorus “I am a rapist” is not altogether startling. Arnab did not ask why society had accepted so much misogyny already before Yo Yo Singh came along. In which case,was he accusing Singh of being in the wrong place at the wrong time,in a nation freshly sensitised to the ancient crime of rape?

Next target to peek over the parapet: Abhijit Mukherjee. “What do you mean by ‘dented and painted women’?” Arnab wanted to know. Pranab Mukherjee’s son’s statement about activists demonstrating for women’s security was completely execrable,out of time,out of place,out of line at any time and in any place. But the real question was,why do politicians like Mukherjee,Varun Gandhi and UP irrigation minister Surendra Prasad continue to believe that the countryside is elsewhere,when cameras are everywhere? Mukherjee made that statement in the poor bidi-rolling belt of Malda,where activism is as much a luxury as a Honey Singh concert ticket. And yet the news was picked up in seconds and Arnab hammered him until Mukherjee pretended to have gone deaf and left the scene,weakly saying,“Hello,hello,sound dekho,” while Arnab ranted on regardless.

Next target: Alyque Padamsee,whose haircut and spectacle frames have miraculously survived unchanged since 1969. On a debate about the Tarun Tejpal affair,he made the politically fatal mistake of alluding to JFK and Bill Clinton,suggesting that in cases involving powerful people,consent is never a clear-cut matter. But nuances are anathema on the channel that kept asking,“Why are people forgiving of Tarun Tejpal?” With the able assistance of Suhel Seth,Arnab tore Padamsee apart. Yet another battle won in his relentless struggle to keep television black and white.

pratik.kanjilal@expressindia.com