Opinion Dry Day
Holi prompted TV channels to discuss the importance of water
The pillars of the print media are irritable and out of sorts the morning after Holi. Its partly because of the excesses of the day before and partly because of sensory deprivation. The ear aches for the reassuring thump of the days newspapers hitting the doorstep. The absent sound hangs like a hole in the air. Meanwhile,one imagines,television journalists congratulate each other at the thought of monopolising audiences and shaping national agendas for a whole day. Or maybe not. Theyre such Twitter sluts. Bet they know that the Internet has busted all information monopolies.
But this Holi,television actually set an agenda or three. For starters,it was the chief promoter of waterless Holi. Maharashtra is indeed facing drought,but the rest of India did not care until Asaram Bapu celebrated Holi with his followers on Monday last week,drenching them with huge jets of water from a double barrelled water cannon. Even then,no one would have cared. But TV journalists perched atop a bus at the venue counted the water tankers,multiplied by their capacity and proclaimed that Bapuji had wasted 30,000 litres of water. And his supporters immediately started throwing things at the journalists.
After that,waterless Holi just had to become a national phenomenon. It is well-meaning tokenism,as ineffectual as Earth Hour,but the nation was happy to embrace it and channels were excited to report it. So,for example,a Sahara crew was at Javed Akhtars dry Holi party to learn how its done and to appreciate an impromptu couplet. Dry Holi. Such a bleak,dessicated name for a lively festival. Brought to you by your favourite channels.
Meanwhile,floods of tears made television producers deliriously happy as Sanjay Dutt pleaded with the media to stop debating what should be done about him. Personally,the sight of a grown man crying gives me the twitching horrors,and I do not think I am alone in hating tear-jerkers and the jerks who produce them. But producers dont care about viewers opinions and on Thursday,even reasonable channels like CNN-IBN were running Sanjay Dutt wall to wall.
No debate was really possible on the Dutt question,since its actually two unrelated questions. Has the corrective purpose of the law already been served? And does a celebrity enjoy special entitlements? These issues have nothing to do with each other. Justice Katju threw a googly by petitioning the President of India and the Governor of Maharashtra,even though Dutt wouldnt. It must be legal,since a Justice is doing it,but is it morally right? To save a person against their will betrays an Abrahamic zeal. TV stirred the pot by throwing in the convict Zaibunnisa Kazis daughter Shagufta. She was named by Justice Katju but CNN-IBN unaccountably kept her face in darkness to protect her anonymity.
While the other channels grappled with the Dutt question or questions,rather Zee News entertained itself by making fun of fat people,lazy people and people who yawn on camera. The provocation for its newsfeature on lifestyle diseases was Lancets Global Burden of Disease report which was news in dear God,it was released in December last year. A whole quarter later,we have this fine feature threatening that Indians who rest will eventually rest in peace. This well-intentioned promo for the active lifestyle was a bizarre parade of allegedly aalsi (lazy) people,with the camera highlighting fatness,paunchiness,greediness,shiftlessness and human ugliness in general. I am dismissive of political correctness but this was unacceptably strong medicine,administered well past its use-by date.
pratik.kanjilal@expressindia.com
Share
