Opinion Lemonade in Single Malt

On that count,one must raise the tumbler to the anchor,Aiyar and the BJPJ — good show,chaps. But then,why the persistent feeling that something was wrong,as if someone had added lemonade to your single malt? It wasn’t because Aiyar and the BJPJ had a chuckle or two that great poetry is lost on Suresh Kalmadi. This is a free country and if some men in public life feel a warm glow that they can appositely quote TS Eliot in the context of sports administration,we must let them.

The lemonade in the single malt was this: NDTV never quite asked whether elegantly articulated non-arguments,from Aiyar and the BJPJ,are of any real value as a response to the undoubtedly sloppy execution of an ongoing public project. The anchor asked the right question of Aiyar: granted all the things that are wrong with CWG preparation,isn’t expressing happiness at the prospect of failure a bit over the top? Aiyar said that’s up to the anchor,who is the commentator,to decide.

Nope. That’s for Aiyar to explain. Ask him again,gently and nicely,quote a great poet if you have to,but ask him was he OTT or not? NDTV didn’t. The BJPJ said he wouldn’t be happy if the games were botched,but that his problem was that Delhi is dug up in so many places and that CWG is one of those events that has alienated the local population. Having set out that premise,the BJPJ concluded that he had nothing but fulsome praise for what Aiyar had said. NDTV seemed fairly content with that,too.

But one moment,gentlemen. As we understood the BJPJ,he doesn’t want the games botched but how lovely it would have been if all the construction had been executed better,and the locals were oh-so-excited. Fair enough. But if you say that,should you say Aiyar was fundamentally wrong or should you say Aiyar made a cracking good substantive point? Where’s the logic if you choose the second alternative,as the BJPJ did?

Let’s laugh at Kalmadi,but let’s not just laugh,even if,as Aiyar said,he (Aiyar) has wit and the BJPJ has a sense of humour. Wit and a sense of humour are in short supply on news TV. But so are solid arguments. The presence of the first can’t hide the absence of the second. Not even if you can quote Eliot,or appreciate Eliot being quoted.

The BJPJ also said his problem was the spending on CWG is a waste of scarce resources. Oh! So he then agrees with Aiyar,does he? Or was he saying that it is the fact that Delhi hasn’t been rendered prettier that marks out the spending as wasteful? What was he saying? What was Aiyar saying when he said as sports minister he had tried to create a different organizational structure for CWG construction — that it wasn’t the games per se that he had a problem with? Why did NDTV not find any of this odd?

Even if you don’t have wit,a sense of humour and you think Eliot is a name of housing project in Noida,you can figure out CWG prep work is in a shambles. That was more or less the only real point that emerged from the NDTV chat.

He’s a man of god,Aiyar said of the BJPJ,and added,so am I. If he’s anti-national,said the BJPJ of Aiyar,we are all anti-nationals now. Witty,witty. But I wasn’t looking for god or the true meaning of nationalism that evening when I watched the NDTV chat. I was looking for a little logic. And I was looking for NDTV to step in when that was in short supply.

Thankfully,as is always the case,there’s single malt to dilute your disappointment.

saubhik.chakrabarti@expressindia.com