Opinion Crossing the Border

Does thinking in the mother tongue make you sharper? Because as the counting of votes began in Karnataka and the Supreme Court was expected to light a rocket under the CBI,ETV was calling trends far quicker than English TV stations. Meanwhile,Hindi anchors were steering more interesting discussions than their Angrezi peers,who were all busy claiming that they had read Bangalore right,though it would have been a feat to get this one wrong.

Live India had guests who were perhaps not as celebrated as Vinod Mehta and Meghnad Desai,the stalwarts over at Times Now,but they were sharply aware of recent history and not taken by the moment. They took a long view of the question that Arnab Goswami had been asking since 8 am: was the Karnataka result a foretaste of the general election? They recalled Devraj Urs,attributed the verdict to local factors,pooh-poohed the Congress war room,disparaged the Pappu-Feku brand of politics that big banner media loves and concluded that no great national truth had been exposed in Karnataka.

Zee News Uttarakhand split the screen down the middle to contrast the celebrations at the AICC headquarters in Delhi,with a shaadi band and firecrackers,and the empty KPCC headquarters in Bangalore,with leaders keeping away for fear of having to name a CM. On Rajya Sabha TV,Kapil Sibal explained how it works. Bangalore gets to discuss. Delhi gets to decide. The Live India panellists suggested that the reluctance of the high command to devolve power would scupper the UPA in the general election.

The Lok Sabha TV footage which showed Shafiqur Rahman Barq walking out while Vande Mataram was playing suggested that despite Mayawati’s alphaness,her MPs have some free will. But the rash of debates on the issue suggests that we have lost all sense of context. NewsX presented Surajit Dasgupta,president,Youth for Democracy,who explained the etymology of the Sanskrit noun vandana and pronounced it excellent. That’s irrelevant. It’s a song in a Hindu accent from a book with a Hindu air,Anandamath. To the Muslim believer,that’s what matters.

But we had started talking about Pakistan. They vote today over there and while Indian news channels have not had enough time for them,they did try hard in the last lap. CNN-IBN sent a correspondent over to a PTI jashn and they were so excited that they ran her story with the breaking news slug. It was the last day of campaigning. Nawaz Sharif’s white tiger was down with heatstroke and Imran Khan was in a life-size sling after his fall. There was little news to break. But NDTV’s The Social Network connected with a Website which teaches rural Pakistanis to use social media politically. It will have no effect,of course,but it’s always nice to see Delhi studios reach for the far-flung parts. Even if they’re foreign parts.

pratik.kanjilal@expressindia.com