Sight & Sound
High political melodrama
Amita Malik

For the viewer it has been a visually fascinating week. First, Venkaiah Naidu, after his visit to Tirupati, was almost unrecognisable with his tonsured and clean-shaven look. Politicians do not always remember that they have to keep their TV visual image intact. Naidu has almost lost his political identity in the process. And now Sushma Swaraj, well-known for her sindoor and flashy sarees had threatened at the time I am writing this to shave her head, wear white mourning sarees and sleep on the floor. If you do not recognise this as political drama, or more correctly, melodrama, well, one has nothing to say.

The drop in the market - some more drama - was more than highlighted by every channel. Manmohan Singh and Jaswant Singh were shown trying to calm down the stock exchange. Even those ignorant of working of the stock exchange did not want to miss that momentous moment. Then there was speculation when Vishnu Som and Rajdeep Sardesai reflected that the meeting of Sonia Gandhi with her closest political confidantes and her children might mean she would stand down as PM. The world came to a stop and I forgot to monitor the other channels to find out what they were saying. And after a few moments everyone started breathing again. It could not have been quite the same without television.

Also interesting were the reactions of winners and losers. Kapil Sibal gallantly shook hands with Smriti Irani. Govinda almost did a victory dance. And Bhupen Hazarika vanished into the Brahmaputra, to rise again, one hopes, as an artiste and not a na`EFve politician. The dignity of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee will not easily be forgotten. And Pramod Mahajan was his usual smiling self in defeat. Laoo Yadav shouting "Chup" (shut up) to the Press after the others had been shouted down. I repeat, they were unforgettable images, which only TV can capture instantly.

Of the international channels, I liked Nisha Pillay on the BBC interviewing M.J.Akbar and Jayanthi Natarajan with her usual ruthless panache. One recalled her famous interview with Bal Thackeray, which infuriated him so much that he threatened to ban her from entering Mumbai. Brave girl. In fact, all the political parties had better and more restrained spokespersons this time, both in victory and defeat. Only the poll forecasters were generally red in the face. Serves them right. I am still eagerly looking forward to know who will be the new Information and Broadcasting Minister this time. In my last column I had rooted for Jaipal Reddy and I stand by that. To tell you the truth, it is difficult to say more about the TV scene when the swearing in and all the rituals are still to come at the time of writing this column. So I hope viewers and readers will forgive me if I give up here and let pictures tell the rest of the story. There will be a surfeit of them this week and I must admit the Press has competed well with the electronic media in one of the most exciting events in the contemporary Indian political history.

P.S. I held back the column to add the finale to high drama which not even Lorca or Shakespeare could have bettered. The Queen turns down crown. The children say we have lost our father, we do not want to lose our mother. Every member of party begs her to stay. But the Queen refuses. Long live the queen.