Opinion False Alarmists

A microcosm of Indian society,media has always had its loony nationalist fringe. And there have always been ultra-nationalist leaders and thinkers ranting about hot pursuit and first use. They keep each other in business. But watching the preparations in Bhikhiwind for Sarabjit Singh’s funeral,one fell to wondering why his death has enlivened the political leadership and fired the national imagination while other men in similar circumstances have lived and died in obscurity.

Aaj Tak reported that three helipads had been set up to handle VIP traffic. It provided factual and relatively emotionless reporting in the early hours of the day,before the cameras gathered like flies at the cremation ground. But the studio sutradhar in Delhi kept up a rambling,vaguely threatening litany about blood,tears,sisters,daughters and so on,pausing only to inform the viewer of the number of bullets which had struck Chaudhry Zulfiqar Ali,special prosecutor in the Benazir assassination case and involved in one case against Musharraf. If Twitter is to be believed,that numerical obsession stemmed from Pakistan,where TV reporters had asked Ali’s son: kitne goli the? Just as incredibly,Aaj Tak’s visuals were accompanied by acry track. That’s the opposite of a laugh track.

Why has the slaying of Sarabjit Singh generated such extraordinary emotions? Why is Javed Akhtar’s tweet flashing across the Times Now screen: “Some day I may forget Kargil but will never forget Sarabjit’s murder.” And why has every channel been wrestling for days with the question of the Chinese incursion? The more civilised present it as a security concern,the TRP hunters as an excuse for polishing up the war drums.

However they are couched,these are extreme urges. But neither is this our first experience of Chinese pushiness,nor is Sarabjit the first Indian to be maltreated in a Pakistani jail,though his is an extreme case. Ask the fisherfolk who are alternately picked up and liberated (Rajdeep Sardesai was one of the first to draw attention to other prisoners). And China has painted Indian rocks,blown up Indian shrines,stolen the affections of neighbours like Myanmar and Nepal. When he was active,George Fernandes used to sound the alarm every time,quite loudly. No one paid much attention.

If the picture remains the same,maybe it’s the frame which has changed. For over a decade,television has been selling the story of India as a great nation and an imminent great power. Finally,the viewer seems to have internalised it and is ready to ask,how can a great power be so powerless?

This is the nuclear button that Narendra Modi was pushing in his Golden Spoon speech at Gulbarga,which was greedily sucked up by TV. He was at pains to remind his naujawan mitron that Italians marines had killed Indian sailors and fled,and the Supreme Court had to weigh in to bring them back because the lives of citizens is not safe in the hands of the government.

All this is scripted for the elections,nothing more. In the meantime,Aaj Tak,which had promised to inflame passions some more by inviting a “specialist” on the torment of Indians in Pakistani jails,instead brought on an astrologer who prescribed the summer remedy of carrot,kankri and coriander juice to soothe the inflamed mind. Good show.

pratik.kanjilal@expressindia.com