Beware,Lalit Modi: your time has come. Just that like passengers stranded everywhere,your flight has been delayed. But depart you must: not only because television has predicted,demanded,announced your departure since last week but also because you announced you wouldnt be going anywhere. Thats precisely what happened to Shashi Tharoor. Last Saturday,he proclaimed he would not be resigning (NDTV 24×7). Within 24 hours thats exactly what he did. So when you told the TV microphones on Tuesday that there was nothing to worry about,we began to worry for you.
Television statements can be bad luck charms: the opposite of what you say may happen,especially when it comes to resignations or scandals. As NDTV reminded us,Natwar Singh had also proclaimed his continuance as external affairs minister after his alleged involvement in the Iraqi oil scam,and then promptly tendered his resignation.
No,you cant be too careful these days. Small wonder BCCI chairman Shashank Manohar did not respond to any of the questions put to him by a persistent Times Now reporter with anything other than,I cant answer any of your questions. Small wonder NCPs Supriya Sule,asked by NDTV 24×7 what she would say to Lalit Modi,smiled,replied,Hi,and wished him well oh dear,was that a fond farewell? What else could she have done? Cursed him for getting her embroiled in this mess? Nah.
Its difficult to believe what you hear on television these days. You are so befuddled by the sheer volume and speed of apparent developments and televisions relentless commentary on them. We had yet to recover from the Shoaib-Sania match-fixing tangle when the SMS scandal as India TV delightfully referred to the Shashi-Modi-Sunanda affair was breaking sweat across channels and it had nothing to do with the heat wave.
In the last ten days,the facts and fiction surrounding the three,the IPL,and the politicians have merged and occupied airspace like a gigantic ash cloud (all the way from Iceland?) so dense,we cant see or tell one from another.
Thus,within a few hours on Tuesday,we went from the meetings of top politicians to the meeting between a top politician and top cricket administrator (fact),to taped conversations of top politicians with Lalit Modi (unsubstantiated),to companies in Dubai and Mauritius being used to launder black money (unsubstantiated),to allegations leveled against Modi in one English newspaper (unnamed) on his disproportionate assets,his satta betting,land deals in Rajasthan,match-fixing,to his master plan for his exit (speculation),to the discussions on the business model of the IPL with at least one channel claiming that the IPL was worth Rs 40,000,00 crores!
Figures,facts and fiction. The beauty of television news is that it seldom attributes anything to a source or substantiates its claims. It makes announcements and we accept them with reports flying thick and fast,who can remember who said what when? Thats the beauty of television news: you cannot hold it to its word because theres no evidence of what it said unless someone is taping them 24×7.
An equally (un)attractive feature is that it latches onto a story like a leech and sucks it dry and then some. The whole of last Sunday was spent watching Shashi Tharoors car drive up to the PMs residence,and his disappearance inside because the channels were waiting for him to resign something the thoughtless fellow didnt do till late at night. Arrgh!
Youd have thought the plight of over 40,000 passengers waiting to take off from India throughout the week would have been in focus,but with Lalit Modi and Shashi Tharoor playing Twenty20? Nah. Youd have thought a sudden shoulder injury to Virender Sehwag could have been the top story of Tuesday and the IPL semi-finals would have been the top story of the week (what an irony!),not to mention bombs at the Bangalore cricket stadium.
Well,what can we say but that you would have thought wrong.
shailaja.bajpai@expressindia.com
