Opinion Invoking an Incantation
Sachin Tendulkar's long-awaited retirement has thrown the media into a state of heightened emotion.
Sachin Tendulkars long-awaited last Test has thrown the media into a state of heightened emotion. ABP News did its bit for TV with a quote from his wife Anjali,which sounded like it was demanded by the reporter,and which was replayed three times over. An innocuous quote,actually: Good luck,Sachin,good luck. But replayed three times,it acquired the ring of an incantation.
Was that a nice touch for the small town audience,where they still have the three for one deal? The last time I recall seeing it in the metros was in Akshay Kumars debut movie,Mr Bond. I had watched it ages ago in the night show at Delhis Radhu Palace theatre,which was then enthusiastically patronised by rickshaw-pullers and daily-wagers,who wanted it like mother made.
Meanwhile,advertising has become newsy. Gauri Shindes Tanishq ad,which can suggest both a woman remarrying while a child from the first marriage watches,or a marriage witnessed by a child born out of wedlock,became a TV story long after it had exploded on social media. NDTV India ran a story wondering if advertising had pulled ahead of India. Of course,there are several Indias,some of which have always stayed ahead of advertising.
In Madhya Pradesh,the advertising war,which began in print,appears to have spilled over to television. The Congress had sparked it off with newspaper ads alluding to cash counting machines allegedly installed by Shivraj Singh Chouhan. The BJP had responded with an ad showing leading Congressmen blindfolded. Now,I caught a bit of a TV ad trying to generate anti-incumbency,in a style that was part Hum Log and part Left revolutionary theatre. Intriguing mix. Wonder if the Congress knows where its propagandists are coming from.
To general surprise,Sonia Gandhi has managed to take the moral high ground in the dirty war,which has broken out on multiple fronts,and which promises to be the defining feature of this election. In Khargone,Madhya Pradesh,she has spoken of the idea of India which is being lost in the endless ad hominem attacks,which seem utterly divorced from the values of the Ganga-Jamuni civilisation. Stressing her understanding of the Indian identity with dignity is probably the only way she can fight off the attack from the BJP.
The atmosphere is so polarised that a rumour was successfully floated in Bihar and north Bengal of a crisis that has not been seen in independent India a salt shortage. Times Now showed images that must have seemed uncomfortably familiar to older readers. Back in the Indira era,ration shops used to be besieged by flash mobs when there was news that fresh stocks had arrived. The roiling masses of desperate people on the screen looked exactly like those mobs,except that they were only interested in packs of salt. Times Now spoke to a man in Siliguri,who cheerfully admitted that no one had any idea if the scare had any basis in reality. And the rapidity with which it was turned into a political tu-tu-main-main was alarming,with the BJP haranguing the JD(U) for misgovernance and the latter insinuating that the BJP had started the rumours of a shortage.
While channels with a city focus like Aaj Tak did lovingly detailed stories about the launch of a private Metro connecting Gurgaon with Delhi,there seemed to be no interest in the ease with which a day-long gridlock can be imposed on the capital. Ignition-off jams had started at 7:30 in the morning on Thursday,triggered by the confluence of the launch of the international trade fair,Children’s Day,when ritual homage is paid to Chacha Nehru and the visit of David Cameron,whom India TV called Mr Cameroon. Thats all it took to shut down the capital.
pratik.kanjilal@expressindia.com
Share
