When the good people of Tottenham,enraged by a shooting by local police,decided to vent their fury on the better-stocked shops in their neighbourhood,they must not have known that among the more terrifying and disproportionate responses to their behaviour would be discussions on Indian news TV.
NDTV was relatively restrained and informative; the discussion on Left,Right and Centre even arranged for the participation of an editor with Londons Independent. Over on Times Now,however,we got the real story. On the Newshour,most of the panellists were introduced as spending some of the year in London,which apparently means you turn into an expert on British politics and society. (Well,one of the panellists so introduced was Suhel Seth,and turning him into an expert doesnt even require that minimal qualification.) The actor Dalip Tahil was asked to break down how much of the riots causes was simple criminality,and how much was race-and economics-related. Seeing as my only previous image of Tahil was as the hopeful Papa of Papa Kehte Hain in Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak,I was prepared for a train-wreck but Tahil,thankfully,gave a sensible,nuanced reply linking the events in London to the fragile peace that rules most large cities.
Arnab Goswami was as disappointed as I was impressed: There must be some individual and unique trigger in a situation such as this, he insisted. If not for such useful interventions,the Newshour would have to debate the issues rather than the trigger,and we might actually learn something for a change. In order to ensure we learn nothing,Goswami turned,therefore,to Suhel Seth.
The riots,Seth explained are economically linked but it does have undertones of racism which always existed… now the ones who are really racist have a reason to say that,look we are only protecting our people first,who are losing jobs,unemployed and being overtaken by other hardworking communities. It was left unclear whether the rioters were jealous of the unnamed hardworking communities (hint: the communities in question rhymed with Windian) or whether white Britons,when times grew hard,chose to protect their people first,meaning that unnamed hardworking communities would go on a righteous rampage.
This stunningly original claim was too much even for Times Now. (An unprecedented situation.) But nobody is saying that! said Goswami,calling Seth to account.
Seth panicked. In breathless succession,he produced the following explanatory gems: Britain has never been under so much economic pressure. (True,if you exclude 2008,1991,1981,1978 and 1973.) London is now inhabited more by Arabs than the English there was nothing Londonish,or English,about London any more. Immigrant presence is sadly not restricted to the community areas any more. It has spread wide and far. And,to add to the Daily Mail-esque litany,this claim,the most gobsmackingly false: The only branded showroom attacked was Sony,during which racial slurs were hurled,presumably at inoffensive flat-screen TVs.
Britain,agreed Arnab,is is extremely uncomfortable facing the reality of racism. Siddharth Varadarajan of The Hindu tried at this point to disagree,saying what we had seen was opportunistic looting,a simple breakdown of law and order,but Goswami was not appeased. The Brits were sissies as compared to Times Now: Certain channels have even blacked (race discussions) out self-censorship imposed in the name of editorial standards! he said,shocked,presumably,at the thought of editorial standards.
Of course,even as Goswami was saying that,the BBC was under attack because a presenter told an elderly Afro-Caribbean man invited on to talk about race that he was no stranger to rioting. But where others would see an unwillingness to dwell on a possibly unrelated subject,Goswami saw squeamishness: Is there too much squeamishness,Suhel? You could probably guess the answer.
Meanwhile,the fourth guest,Parvez Alam,happily blamed it all on black people,and those of Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin,resenting Indians. People of Indian origin dont like this sort of thing, he said,of looting. As we know,people of Indian origin are also never racists.
Meanwhile,spare a thought for NDTVs cricket correspondent,stuck covering riots instead. The poor chap turned to the nearest expert on England and Englishness in Birmingham: Sunil Gavaskar. If England were in India,and the same situation were to have happened,what do you foresee they would have done? he asked. Gavaskar untangled the questions tenses sufficiently to answer: Oh,they would have been pressing the panic button. No question about it. They would have been talking in terms of,you know,the team returning home that is a given. (Kevin Pietersens England was playing in India two weeks after 26/11.)
And to further demonstrate his expert understanding of the English character,Gavaskar added,without pausing for breath: Even as far as wickets are concerned,they say,you know,this is a pitch prepared for spinners… Ah,if only the BCCI could force him onto all our panel discussions,too.
mihir.sharma@expressindia.com
