Opinion Spot the News

Gandhi’s political capabilities are beyond question,but the anniversary homage was excessively promotional. She never has to look back,claimed India News,“kyonki woh josh mein nahin,soch mein karti hain.” Then it claimed a huge vote swing because of MNREGA,which it attributed wholly to her. Sahara Samay designated her the repository of the “Nehru-Gandhi virasat”,“jo aane wala vaqt salam karta rahega.” Another cringe-making claim: she is the adarsh Bharatiya nari,with her pallu over her head,“buland irade” in her heart and the best sari collection in India. Then the channel commended her for being a simple woman at home. About the same time,the BBC appreciated Pope Francis I for doing his own cooking but did not reveal if he does the dishes,too.

So,to each their own fascinations. Channel One and Total TV looped the loop all day with Aniruddh Bahal’s Cobrapost.com sting which,like his earlier op for Tehelka,only provides moving pictures to illustrate what was public knowledge already. Headlines Today and Times Now,the last bastions of permanently inflamed nationalism,could not stop toying with the story of Italian envoy Daniele Mancini,who refused to leave India until,ironically,he was prevented from doing so by the Supreme Court. And NDTV ran a great little story from Chhapra,revealing Class X kids cheating district-wide with the help of their families and the cops guarding the hall.

Many channels were happy not to go into these weighty issues. While Parliament was in adjournment,Lok Sabha TV trolled the sadhus of last week’s Sangam (who had all left town),making appreciative,supportive,clucking remarks about Hinduism. While the rest of the world appreciated Sonia Gandhi and got gooseflesh from black money,4 Real News HD was preoccupied with a long morning show peddling the virtues of Sanyasi Ayurveda,professedly a classical school of medicine. It was represented by a swamiji prinked up like the groom in a suburban nouveau riche wedding,in a sherwani and turban woven mainly out of precious metals. This man offered “medicine” in monthly packs which cost Rs 10,000 to make,he claimed,but he marks them down to Rs 500 out of the largeness of his heart. Constantly,he and the anchor – or perhaps his conspirator,it’s hard to tell on these hardsell programmes – drew the attention of India’s malingerers to a phone number on the screen,which was standing by to take orders. Isn’t there a law against selling snake oil? But then,if it were zealously applied,it would wipe a lot of the day’s news off the screen,too.

pratik.kanjilal@expressindia.com