That blackened face on Monday. Black Monday, all-day TV. The Shiv Sena’s defining image of what we “make in India”. Close your eyes and recall Narendra Modi in his spotless kurti-churidar- waistcoat, well-trimmed beard, neatly combed hair, at the SAP stadium in San Jose, proclaiming the 21st century as “India’s century”.
Then see the black ink glisten on the face of writer and former Atal Bihari Vajpayee aide Sudheendra Kulkarni and listen to the Shiv Sena’s Manisha Kayande, whose aesthetics embrace the artistic talents of her party workers: “You want to sway to the singers of Pakistan… (they) decapitated the heads of the (our) jawans and paraded them… the country is with us, Mumbai is with us…”, and you wonder which century India Modi referred to (NDTV24x7, India Today).
Thank you, TV news, for the reminder that we live in a timewarp by showing us Kulkarni’s face all of Monday and Tuesday.
The pen is trying to prove it is mightier than the sword with writers returning their Sahitya Akademi awards — and getting their due on TV debates — but we didn’t realise that ink is equally potent, until now.
The Shiv Sena ought to have been red-faced by such antics, but Kayande and her like — Sanjay Raut, for example — say what they like, with impunity. That is today’s India too, seen and heard each day on TV news.
BJP’s Swapan Dasgupta said the murder of rationalists like M.M. Kalburgi, the Dadri lynching and Kulkarni’s inked-in visage were “disagreeable incidents” (NDTV24x7) — like a meal that disagreed with you? Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said BJP leaders only reacted to comments by the opposition parties on Dadri — Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma called it an “accident”. “Accidents” like the Dadri lynching, Singh added, were “unfortunate” — the loss of life is just “unfortunate” (CNN-IBN)? The prime minister has said to the Anandabazar Patrika that such incidents were “sad and not desirable” — the same could be said for his partymen’s remarks.
Amit Shah didn’t look saddened as much as angered (India Today). Each time he began a sentence with “Rahulji” (Kanwal), you knew he was angry: Rahulji, Dadri was a “law and order” matter and the SP government is responsible. It was “wrong” and the guilty must be punished. “Rahulji”, when “Hindus” are killed, how often have you reported it? You [the media] say nothing about that. “Rahulji”, media tries to communalise politics — in this 12-minute interview, you haven’t asked me even one question on development, etc in Bihar: Only Dadri, cow, etc. Who is “diverting” attention? The media of course.
Time for some navel-gazing by politicians as much as ‘Rahulji’ [read media]?
The election in Bihar: Polling began on Monday and news channels had promised in-depth “360-degrees coverage”, said CNN-IBN (huh?) — on Sunday — that was before the SS act of desecration. DD News, typically, ignored Kulkarni at primetime and discussed the voter turnout. It was deeply informative: Journalists Soumitra Bose and Ram Kirpal Singh informed us that “all of Bihar” had understood the PM’s message of “development as a tool for social justice” and, therefore, caste had been cast aside. Young Bihar had understood this too, and explained it to their elders: What had decades of caste politics got Bihar? Without actually saying so, they said — Modi, Modi, Modi.
This season of Bigg Boss, couple contestants are tied to each other — not in the knot of holy matrimony but in Double-Trouble (Colors). Salman Khan is bossing everyone around as usual — looking bigger and broader than ever: His chest must boast of more than 56 inches.
Recommendation: The Stage (Colors Infinity), the first talent show for Indian singers in English. Good singing, great judges — such a pleasure.
shailaja.bajpai@expressindia.com
