Opinion Tom-tommed

“Don’t tinker around with racism” — one of those rare passionate anti-racism statements that can leave the sinner,the sinned against,the prejudiced and the unprejudiced observer,equally puzzled. CNN-IBN said,upon the conclusion of Vadakkan’s statement,“point taken”. So,it’s reasonable to assume,isn’t it,that CNN-IBN understood Vadakkan? Maybe there’s a TV guest-TV host code,a secret one,that we don’t know about? But just this one time,guys,let us on to it,please? I am quite taken by Tom’s phrase; we hacks are always looking for fancy new expressions. But were I to write,say,a passionate anti-communalism commentary by declaiming,“Don’t tinker around with communalism”,I don’t want a religious fanatic to send me a copy of Wren & Martin (a marvelous grammar text book popular in the days TV wasn’t so popular).

Our foreign office was terribly silly to get involved in this TV row,of course. But this much I am sure of: when our foreign office spoke to the NZ high commissioner,the message wasn’t “don’t tinker around with racism”. Because if it was,believe me,we would have had a first-class diplomatic crisis.

Breaking News: NZ foreign office calls in linguistic experts to decode MEA’s statement. Or,Breaking News: MEA retracts statement and tells English language no harm was wilfully intended. But,of course,nothing like that happened.

What did happen was that CNN-IBN put quote marks around racist and asked whether a “racist” anchor should be sacked. When we qualify unflattering adjectives,it usually means we are leaving the issue sort of open,doesn’t it? Then we shouldn’t in the same sentence ask for the maximum penalty,should we? My message to CNN-IBN: don’t tinker around with quote marks. And also: it’s fascinating guys that you should be asking for the sack of another country’s,another broadcaster’s employee. One Indian panelist on the show did make the point that the people on the panel were not the TV anchor’s employers. Another panelist,British,said it’s not for TV anchors,former TV anchors,TV journalists sitting in India to tell other TV stations what to do.

Perfectly valid arguments,both,and I thought CNN-IBN would say,“point taken”,or at least,“let’s not tinker around with calls for sacking”. But no! CNN-IBN complained,“but they are not doing it”. Oh dear. How dare “they” not do it! Don’t “they” know what might happen next? Candle-lit processions organised by major Indian news broadcasters,for one. Then,TV reporters standing outside the New Zealand high commission and telling us,after talking to Mr X and Mrs Y,that the country demands justice,and TV anchors in their studios saying yes,thank you,now you have heard,exclusively on this channel,the country demands justice. Then Mani Shankar Aiyar saying,on all major channels,that all this is happening because we made the mistake of hosting the Commonwealth Games.

I should talk about other broadcasters,but CNN-IBN had me hooked. Another panelist said what is worrying is the feedback the NZ anchor got from millions of viewers,who apparently said the anchor voiced things that were on their mind but they were afraid to ask.

Now,this is a big claim,which needs evidence (“millions of viewers…” and all that). My research,which is to say,my Googling,showed that a PR official of the NZ broadcaster made the “it’s on our minds but we are afraid to ask” comment. That official hasn’t had a happy time since. This is a bit different from millions of New Zealand TV viewers supposedly cheering the anchor,isn’t it? Something can’t be true just because it sounds exciting on TV,surely?

Also,another time…but I need to stop now. As Vadakkan might tell me,enough of tinkering around with CNN-IBN.

saubhik.chakrabarti@expressindia.com