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FOR me, it was never Independence. It was always Partition." This was how Madhu Chopra described the day that India became two entities. The segment on a programme on Lok Sabha TV, marking Independence Day, brought to the fore a hidden subtext that underlies TV’s annual genuflection to August 15. It was different, and in contrast to the reams of programmes that are unspooled mandatorily in the week that precedes Independence Day. News and entertainment channels don the Tricolour with a vengeance. Suitable logos appear on your screens; female anchors on I-Day dress in green, orange or white saris; their male counterparts appear in bandgalas or kurtas. The programming fits the occasion, and over the years, has followed the same old, same old pattern. Inevitably, NDTV will do a Jai Jawan number with a celebrity joking and jousting with our boys on the frontlines. This year it was Salman Khan’s turn, and the anchor was Rupali Tiwari, quietly competent. She is, I feel, one of the channel’s most underutilised anchors. Many channels gave us patriotic flavours through Bollywood’s songs. NDTV, Times Now, CNN-IBN, IBN & News 24 are the ones I watched.
The movie channels will show us regularly Richard Attenborough’s Gandhi, which will be repeated on January 26. What would we have done if Attenborough hadn’t made this film? Films on Bhagat Singh and Subhas Chandra Bose also follow suit. But what ought to be the highlight of the whole annual ritual marking of India’s Independence turns out to be a lowlight. On August 14, in a live telecast, the President of India reads out a speech, first in Hindi (so shudh that only the literati can follow with ease), followed by its English translation. The next day after Prime Minster Manmohan Singh unfurls the National Flag at Red Fort, he, too, gives a speech to the nation. These speeches are crafted with a sharp pen, full of political insight and vision eloquence; insight marking the milestones India has made, and hopes to make. It is a golden opportunity to give us, the citizens of India, food for thought, and hope for the next generation to weigh in passionately about things that the President Patil and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh feel strongly about. But as I watched both the speeches, relayed by most channels, they did nothing to either excite me, nor instil any kind of faith in my country’s leadership. Some might argue that in the age of hyper television watching and competition, one cannot expect the Prime Minister and the President to give speeches that are riveting or entertaining, and edifying at the same time. I agree. But sans the effect of TV, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru made unforgettable speeches, and for that matter, even Indira Gandhi, and later Atal Bihari Vajpayee, still managed a turn of phrase and a thought that connected them to their audience forever. Even today, in the golden age of the idiot box, it is still possible to get goose bumps when their speeches are repeated. Who can ever forget the luminous prose of Nehru’s "Tryst with Destiny" speech? Today, viewers need to be equipped with coffee to hear these August 15 speeches. Early this Sunday morning, the Prime Minister seemed ill at ease, insecure and with a non-existent sense of humour. His lines were too heavy on the gravitas and too light on the vision. And it was not only the presentation; it was the content as well. There were no takeaways. Even the pundits and analysts who swarmed the TV channels and analysed the speech in various media outlet felt the same. From the Commonwealth Games scam, the searchlight has shifted to the presence of a drug resistant superbug, which, according to a report that appeared in British medical journals, has originated in India. On TV, Indian doctors have come out en masse, and opposed the very idea that this superbug has been named after New Delhi. |
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