TELEVISTA
Justice at last
Amita Malik

WE have had our share of victims pouring out their hearts on TV but few could have touched the poignancy of the quiet but firm comments of Bilkis Bano, gangraped and watching eight members of her family slaughtered as she lay pretending to be dead. She was also heavily pregnant but human endurance is what pulled her through, as also the transfer of her case out of Gujarat to Mumbai. It was a long interview, and considering how articulate this frail woman in black proved to be on her own, it seemed unnecessary for Barkha Dutt to put so many leading questions to her.

It is becoming increasingly common for the star interviewers to dominate the conversation. But Bilkis survived even that and her account of her eight-year old sufferings before getting justice was a tale of untold heroism. Even now, she insists that the corrupt policemen who had tried to make her case fall apart should also be sentenced. She said she would carry on the fight. In her case, the well-known laxity of investigation and the proverbial law’s delays were shown up in all their ugliness. But as one eminent jurist commented, justice does eventually prevail. Bilkis thanked everyone from the CBI to her eminent lawyers for getting her justice at last.

The case, apart from interviews such as these, was covered in detail by the media, and since it righted a wrong done to humble people, it seems to have given hope to other common people as well. Here again, one must praise television for reaching those people who cannot read and write but who depend on visuals and voiced comments to get the news in detail.

The hullabaloo over cricket continues. Not only the enduring euphoria of Perth but also the selection for the ODIs and Twenty20s have left many, including citizens of Kolkata, demonstrating against the admittedly surprising omission of their Dada. Compared with that, the speculation by the visiting British Prime Minister that the little master might soon follow in the steps of Bradman and become Sir Sachin was an item that brought a smile to many faces.

But it also led to a debate about whether Indians still suffer from a colonial hangover. It was a fascinating debate on TV with three argumentative Indians and Sam Miller, the solitary Englishman and formerly of the BBC, giving us the British angle. It seems to be developing into an almost as debatable a controversy as the Bharat Ratna.

I shall have to watch a little more before I comment on the new NDTV channel called Imagine. They really seem to be running out of names. Perhaps Kalpana might have sounded at least more Indian.

There has been a spate of cricket captains talking last week. Many of them, beginning with Sourav Ganguly, are amazingly articulate and often sort out the tangled controversies of sundry situations with ease. I must confess I find Australian English difficult to follow and half the time I cannot understand what Ricky Ponting is saying. So it is a welcome change to find that Anil Kumble speaks clearly, and with immense dignity, at press conferences and interviews, and has added to the list of articulate captains, not to forget M.A.K. Pataudi, who might have retired but is still very much in demand for his expert opinions on TV.

But there is also something about being articulate without words. It was moving to see Harbhajan Singh, whom the ever-touchy Symonds has pushed into a corner for racism, of all things, being the first to rush into the field with a huge Tricolour to congratulate his proud colleagues who had given us that famous victory at Perth. It is difficult to kill the Indian spirit, let alone its national pride, and Bhajji’s touching gesture was ample proof of that.