Opinion Party Noise
The sound and fury of spokespersons often signify nothing
Ive a lot of sympathy for party spokespeople. Talking for a political party on news TV could hardly be a fun job. You have to deal with aggressive anchors and irritating fellow panelists. You have to sound smooth and persuasive while being ill-briefed. And you have to justify policies that you may,when the cameras are turned off,think of as hare-brained and dangerous. If you come off as less than credible sometimes,that is hardly surprising.
But every now and then,it really gets ridiculous. On NDTV recently,in a debate on the Greater Noida land acquisition troubles,the Congresss Jayanthi Natarajan usually a remarkably calming presence,given the kind of things shes called on to say,sometimes had to go up against the Bahujan Samaj Party. Now the BSP is something of a taciturn party,but it does have someone it sends to the occasional TV debate: Kazim Ali Khan. And,on this occasion,the Natarajan vs Khan standoff became an object lesson in what party spokespersons should not,under any circumstances,wind up doing.
Called on to defend Rahul Gandhis various allegations about violence in Bhatta and Parsaul,Natarajan said,firmly,that grave allegations are being made by very responsible people (by which she meant Rahul Gandhi) and that the state government should investigate them.
This irritated Khan,which,it turns out,is not the hardest of things to do. They are not charges,they are allegations! he began. And it went downhill from there.
Within a minute or so,we were treated to the odd sight of two people yelling at each other while being in absolute agreement on the specifics.
Lets go into it, fumed Natarajan. Absolutely,lets go into it! yelled Khan. Photographs are not evidence, they agreed at the top of their voices. It reached the point where they were both shouting,simultaneously,the same thing.
At one point,sanity threatened to prevail: Why are you shouting? demanded Natarajan. Why are you shouting? bellowed Khan in response,and hostilities resumed.
It was almost as if each spokesperson was searching for a high horse,and for the slightest hint of a glimmer of a microscopic possibility that they could get on one. Khan complained that Rahul Gandhi …took the charges to your PM. That gave Natarajan the opportunity to point out that,technically,Manmohan Singh was Khans PM too.
Indeed,empowered by the sudden discovery of a high horse,she raised the ante considerably. She was taking serious objection,she told us. Was Khan saying Singh is not the prime minister of India? Is Mayawati the prime minister of India?
Throughout,NDTV allowed the rhetoric to get way out of control: At one point,Natarajan,in complete seriousness,compared the BSP government to a murderer sitting on his own jury. The conversation naturally veered at that point as to whether the government could be a judge if it stood accused. Instead of pointing out that the UP government did not intend to be a judge of any sort,Khan responded but you cannot be a judge either which completely missed the point,but did at least keep the tu-tu-main-main going.
I suppose NDTV did its best,in their own way: they had the sound guys turn one spokesmans microphone up and the other ones down alternately so as to simulate a conversation. The moderator,Vikram Chandra,managed to look bemused throughout. Nobodys being able to do anything any more, he said at one point,telling Khan we heard you. He then turned to Natarajan and explained the point that Nawab sahib is making. In response,Natarajan icily called him Mr Khan,as a firm reminder that the Congress certainly does not have any time for all that royalty stuff.
She then returned to defending Rahul Gandhi.
Share
