Opinion What happens in Jaipur

Sadness,outrage,glee,dismissal: news TV played out every emotion over the Salman Rushdie episode

January 26, 2012 03:17 AM IST First published on: Jan 26, 2012 at 03:17 AM IST

The assembly elections were pushed aside,the shoe thrown at Rahul Gandhi that would usually have kicked off a 9 pm debate,fell harmlessly by the wayside as the Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF) swamped the headlines. By Tuesday evening,the litfest had been trampled upon more than the lawns of the Diggi Palace that hosted it. Satanic Salman and the latest controversies over his Verses shoved all other news out of the news. On Tuesday afternoon,an idiotic situation (as JLF organiser Sanjoy Roy described it) had been created: the media and perhaps Rushdie himself seesawed between will he or wont he address the litfest on video link from London; wont he prevailed. Yet despite the worst efforts of those who opposed and prevented the writers appearance in person or online the Booker Prize winner was present throughout the festival in spirit.

In his absence,the media could not get enough of him. Despite a distinguished line-up of writers,he was the one they ran after and he wasnt even there! Authors who had flown in from many parts of the world barely got a TV shoo-in; some had to speak about him to let their presence be felt by the media; others like Jeet Thayil,Amitava Kumar,Ruchir Joshi have become household names after reading from Rushdies banned book while Chetan Bhagat is an instant hit without writing a new one because of his R comments. Anyone who has ever published a book was asked about Rushdies ghost appearance. And so what ought to have been a leisurely intellectual stroll became a 100-metre frenzied dash for the next Rushdie exclusive.

That honour went to NDTVs Barkha Dutt who did what JLF could not do she spoke EXCLUSIVELY to him on video link,Tuesday. Thank God: we had begun to suspect he didnt exist but as a figment of his own imagination.

Rushdie was eloquent and sad,disappointed for India. So were others during the TV discussions: Prasoon Joshi (NDTV),Shobhaa De (CNN-IBN) and Ashish Nandy (Times Now) felt sad at the sorry state of the Indian state that could not stand up to fringe elements and succumbed to election politics. Others like Swapan Dasgupta (CNN-IBN) and Seshadri Chari (Times Now) felt sorry for the Congress party that had seen a complete capitulation to extreme elements and destroyed our credentials as an open country. Pavan Verma,Najeeb Jung (CNN-IBN) and Vinod Mehta (Times Now) said so sorry,excuse me,but Rushdie himself was to blame for the mess too,first by writing such a scurrilous book and then for tweeting during the JLF and inciting people to support him! Shekhar Kapur (Times Now) was sorry for those Indians who were so manipulable to have been manipulated by his tweets or opposition to him and we missed what Rahul Bose (NDTV) had to say for himself because by then we were feeling extremely sorry for everyone from Rushdie to the Indian state (which receives a battering every day on TV),and most of all,for ourselves: we had spent so much time listening to all of them instead of reading Satanic Verses.

While TV journalists Barkha Dutt and Rajdeep Sardesai defended freedom of speech like JLF was its last bastion,Arnab Goswami was outraged by the meekness of the liberals who could not deliver a video link with Salman bhai. He then made an unforgivable comment: he said he held no high opinion of Rushdie as a writer more known for his personal life than the quality of his literature. Any protests?

Nobody criticised our next guest,the most loved and influential person on television anywhere in the world (Barkha Dutt). Oprah Winfrey,the connecter,as she calls herself, arrived in India a little after the Rushdie controversy but she did not allow it to ruffle her well-set hair,crease her forehead or tighten her mouth into a grimace. She glowed throughout with goodwill to all men and particularly,all women in a thoroughly enjoyable interview by Dutt at the JLF. And unlike TV personalities Jay Leno or Jeremy Clarkson who have supposedly disgraced themselves by insulting India (or so the government believes) with their remarks,Winfrey said nothing more offensive than she would not drive a car in India.

shailaja.bajpai@expressindia.com