Nothing is impossible. This is pretty true when it pertains to the affairs of Indian politics. The happenings around persuade one to be more obsessed with the affairs of Indian politics.
Not long ago, I shared a joke in Sulekha-jokes column when two friends talk among themselves; one says that he would like to be the Prime Minister of India. The other guy shockingly asks, “Are you crazy?” for which the first one replies, “Why? Is that necessary?”
I never thought that this joke mentioned in a lighter vein would become a reality. Last evening, as I surf the TV channels, I found out an interesting SMS survey by a news channel asking Whether Mayawati will be the first Dalit Prime Minister of India?
At the outset, I am confused on the question itself. Since when onwards, we have started classifying the premier posts on the basis of castes? As far as I knew, I never came across a Prime Minister who was given a tag like Brahmin Prime Minister or so. Why the prefix of Dalit is to be added? Is being a Dalit is the prime qualification to be the Prime Minister irrespective of the fact whether they deserve this post or not? I thought PM post is a responsibility to lead a country and not a caste.
I am not questioning the capability of Mayawati per se for this post but I am against the tag of “Dalit” being added to the Prime Minister post. Even if she becomes one, will she be the PM for Dalits only and not for India?
The best lesson we learnt from the history is none has learnt a lesson from the history. Mr. K R Narayanan was insulted (or I would say so) when his nomination for the post of Premier was justified on the basis of his caste and not by his qualifications.
We were taught in our schools that British adapted “Divide and Rule” to spoil our country. I beg to differ. To be precise, the opposite of this is true. India was politically united only when British ruled us. How could have British or Moguls ruled us if we were united? Even when the British left us, we needed a Sardar Patel to unite 300-odd princely states to name a country called India.
We boasted “Unity in Diversity” but the emphasis was much on the diversity and not on the unity. Politicians took enough care that we, the Indians remained divided in the name of caste, region, religion, language etc., The media, which is supposed to correct the errors of the ruling parties are behaving hand-in-glove to all of their activities.
All I could say is, “Irresponsibility – thy name is Media”. Please try to shed this tag before you give superfluous tags to all others.
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thank you
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thank you. i understand your anger
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“Unity in Diversity.” I agree with you. Emphasis is more on diversity than on unity. Thanks.
Mastufa
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Tightly holding on to the *caste* so closely to us - we scream at everyone, punish.. purge who utter *caste* even under their breath...
it's all b/s
Superficiality - they are so larger than life! I mean the b/s they dump - stinks! and they thrive on the worm-filled hell hole...
sorry... couldn't pass without sayng that...
excellent blog!
Meera
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thank typical for your comments.
Indeed it is the irony of our country that such media are being awarded for their journalism! Celebrities are chased wherever they go (excluding toilets and bathrooms) and such voyeurism is termed as journalism!
Many a times, these media-men literally black-mail the politicians if they bump across a trump-card. The recent highlight is "koofia-camera". With this koofia panti, they turn into a decent mafia!
I always used to mention, "why go behind films and serials for masala, watch indian news channels, they provide you more masala than these two!"
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how aptly put - from the title to the very conclusion of your blog.
media today is perhaps one of the most irresponsible and arrogant class of professionals. first of all low on research and then, worse as far as its politically-correctness goes so that at least they remain perceived as neutral!!!
its degrading to imagine that these are the same class of people who had once been looked so highly upon.
The Mayawati instance was just one of those - a hundred people might give you double those intances of all that the media represents to them of late! how conveniently they have transformed their advantageous and accountable position of being close to facts into a garb of being some sorta 'untouchable elite'!
its such a shame!
but as i leave, let me mention an instance i watched last night (i think) on the Aaj Tak channel regarding MS Dhoni. Oh far from it ever being about the professions that various stars and superstars are involved in, the media HAS to talk of something completely unconneted. Right! All of us know that!
But this one took the cake, i thought (perhaps at least during this one week!). For, they were asking viewers to get back to them with their SMSs' on whether they thought - hang on, it's fun from here on - MS Dhoni looked better with his lately acquired mustache that was seen in one of his Super Chennai Ad campaigns!!!!!
!!!!
how does one get on from here! where does one go???
but my ranting aside, i think your article is quite in the right spirit - even if it is one of despair! hope things change and the channel producers understand that there is something more than just made up TRPs!
thanks for the write, Gopalakrishnan. it made a rather good read!
-t!
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With media becoming a business institution, earning money has become their prime motive. The core and supplementary issues are no longer valid. In the process of earning, every one would like to be the first one to break a news. Under such circumstances, sensation takes priority than responsibility.
Still, we have journalists like Arun Shourie to serve the purpose. After Goenka, it is only Cho Ramaswamy to takes the bull by horns. It is unfortunate that his magazine is circulated in Tamil only. He calls a rat a rat and never hesitiates to point out the problems.
TV media is more worse. If a dress slips, they would telecast repeatedly and at the end they will raise a suspicion whether it was stage-managed.
Since media has more reach, political parties have their own mouth-piece in media. Then how can we expect genuniness in media? Its all fair in war, game and business (even if it results in irresponsibility)
thanks for visiting and posting your valid comment.
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The politicians have for long been measuring everything up in caste terms. And as for dalit, the situation is that even if a dalit is murdered on the basis of an old enmity, it becomes a part of caste killing and played out that way by the media. The media is worse than the politicians actually.
I have stopped seeing media as a responsible fifth column for more than a few years now. The Ram Nath Goenka and such other stalwarts are gone now.
Rgds.
Avinash
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