Mood:
happyNow Playing: Never say never again!
Topic: Who wins who loses
To quote an example of uncontrolled and intemperate speech, Bollywood screenplay writer Vijay Tendulkar twice said during press conferences in December 2004 that if he had a gun he would shoot Narendra Modi. It was reported by almost all television channels on prime time news, just as newspapers had given it front-page coverage. But no one had ever suggested that Mr Tendulkar should be arrested or charged under NSA.
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Just as sub-brokers in Mumbai are known to have their ear to the ground for insider trading, the bookies almost got it right this time round in general election, as far as government formation is concerned. The election results predicted by most news channels incidentally were so off the mark that it gives legitimacy and vindication to the Election Commission’s hardball tactics of banning such surveys during elections. Many have even suggested a total ban on exit polls even after the election results are declared as the television channels have exceedingly shown the propensity to get it wrong, which subsequently has led to imputing charges of advertisement-led opinion polls. After all on many television channels, in these days of economic downturn, advertisement department calls the shots on editorial coverage.
Also, the media has the naïve and unseemly immature way of deriving conclusions on the success and failure of political parties in elections. The BJP candidate from north-west Mumbai constituency Mahesh Jethmalani explained to many people in the television studio post-election debates that it is childish to come to the conclusion that every decision of Congress party had contributed to its success or conversely, every decision taken by BJP had led to its failure to garner majority support for its candidates. It could even have been that some decisions of Congress went against it and hence it could not get a majority and yet some others of BJP could have helped BJP candidates get more votes.
The most striking example is that of Varun Gandhi’s speech in Pilibhit where he made quite some indiscreet statements. The reality is that in the real world people are used to saying much worse things in public discourse that no one gets too shaken by these utterances. The media unnecessarily sanitise a straight talk if it comes from any Hindu camp. And most often it is quite selective in such censorship. To quote an example of uncontrolled and intemperate speech, Bollywood screenplay writer Vijay Tendulkar twice said during press conferences in December 2004 that if he had a gun he would shoot Narendra Modi. It was reported by almost all television channels on prime time news, just as newspapers had given it front-page coverage. But no one had ever suggested that Mr Tendulkar should be arrested or charged under NSA. It didn’t become a major point of debate in favour of Narendra Modi on television news channels as seen in Varun Gandhi’s case where he is being vilified.
On the other hand, Mumbai’s indifference to the elections with voter turnout of less than 41 per cent was widely reported as a shocking display of ennui and apathy. But as this blogsite reported earlier following terrorists attacks on 26/11, people are not stirred by the corporate advertisements on how they should play a proactive role in choosing leaders to change the situation. The fact remains that when Mumbai was attacked six times in the last 15 years corporates never showed any sympathy. Then, offices worked regularly even on election days. That a few CEO-types died at Hotel Taj and Trident should not be taken as a wake-up call. The wake-up call first came to Mumbaikars in 1993 when the present Samajwadi party general secretary Sanjay Dutt and his cohorts in the D-gang were involved in the serial blasts in Mumbai which killed over 480 people in a couple of hours. What the man on the street feels so outraged about is that when bombs go off in crowded trains killing scores of poor people corporates don’t show the same alacrity and sense of purpose in spending money on ads to awaken the society against the menace of terrorism. The corporates raved and ranted only when some among themselves got a hole in the head.
In Mumbai in particular, the Congress has gained this dubious credit for having successfully tamed the threat from Shiv Sena by indirectly giving Raj Thackeray a free rein in his racist propaganda against Biharis. The state government courted overtly and covertly the breakaway faction of Shiv Sena, never intending to take action for all the violence that Raj Thackeray unleashed on the streets and drove a wedge between Shiv Sena party workers and supporters to split the votes between the two. Congress may have romped home in the latest elections in Mumbai, but there is a good lesson in it for the BJP and Shiv Sena. The BJP can go it alone if the votes are getting divided so effectively between the two Senas. Alternatively, Shiv Sena could be persuaded to reach out to the cosmopolitan population of the city for it to embrace wider communities and voter base. If the BJP chooses to do the latter, the combined efforts of both the BJP and the Shiv Sena in wooing the city population which is bred on economic development dream that Mumbai is known for, would be a walkover against the Congress. Raj Thackeray, just as Shiv Sena did, will realise in good time that Marathi manoos philosophy has a short shelf-life. Sooner than later Raj Thackeray will be back to getting a wider support base than just from a parochial population of the city. Growth is the only way for political parties to survive in a democracy, and if Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) wishes to rule the state it will have to concede to larger demands and population demography. It has happened earlier with Mayawati and Jayalalithaa, and it would happen to MNS too.
But many Tamil Brahmin residents this reporter talked to in Matunga have raised suspicion over the death of LTTE leader V Prabhakaran in Sri Lanka just after the elections came to an end in India. The way LTTE started to pack up and leave without even giving the Sri Lankan army a befitting response it was known for and the way the propaganda machinery of the terrorist organisation was fledgling through the days of intense fighting when it was most required—all point to the possibility of how the death of the terror leader in Sri Lanka could have been manipulated by Congress to win the elections. “By all means, Prabhakaran might have been killed weeks ago but the news was never released to the media for that would have created a huge problem for the Congress to win seats in the south”, said a resident from Hindu colony in Dadar. But the death of the LTTE leader is certainly a good news, and India should be indebted to Sri Lanka to have brought Prabhakaran to justice for his role in killing Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.
