The Great Indian Tamasha

The video of Barkha Dutt talking to a family member of one of the victims of the Mumbai terror attacks is supposed to make you cry or atleast suppress a sob. The lady in question goes on asking rather edgy questions to the family member and when they finally break down or are close to tears, she 'understandably' places a consoling hand on their back in a way that says 'I so understand what you are going through'..
Well Ms Dutt, let me give you an eye opener...You don't. You don't understand what they are going through. None of us, who watched the entire tragic episode glued to our television sets for those 3 days, will ever understand what the victims' families are going through. Simply because we can't.

And the Indian media has made a grand tamasha of this tragedy, giving our politicians suitable company. When will we ever understand that the media's role is not just to sensationalise. It is in fact, not to sensationalise at all. It is to inform, to educate. It is to share. And those ingredients are masterfully missing from what we are fed day after day after day. While hundreds died in Mumbai at the hands of those heartless men, the media showed restraint for the first few hours. But soon, it was back to business. The business of higher TRPs, more revenue etc. And sadly, the business of tragedy. Over the years, our politicians had mastered this art, visiting the homes and families of the martyred. The very same people, who had faced flak for being honest and doing their duty (as in the case of Hemant Karkare) or had lived in obscurity till that day; the same people whose families had lived in conditions not deserving the honest servants of the motherland. These politicians visited the families at their time of grief promising huge financial rewards to the dead in honour of their service to the country. But like all promises, these too were broken. Most of the times, the rewards did not reach the families simply because they were never meant to. They were meant to win the public votes and in most cases, they did.

The after days of any terror attack witness a surge in advertisements and hoardings that carry pictures of these martyrs, nee soldiers ( I will just call them soldiers from here on and not add to the sycophancy of the politicians and the media who choose to serve their vested interests. These men lived and died as soldiers and they will be just as happy if we call them that and spare the hypocrisy) with the logos of various political parties. What point are we exactly trying to make here? The soldiers who died did not die for a BJP or a Congress or a BSP or a Maharashtra or Punjab or Tamil Nadu. They died for India. They died for us. They died so that these people could shamelessly mock over their deaths by playing such dirty games of politics and business.

As an Indian, I am shamed when a Narendra Modi goes to Mr Karkare's funeral and offers Rs 1 Crore to his family. I am shamed and I am angry. He has no business to be there, he and his brothers from the BJP who criticized Mr. Karkare while he was alive. He was termed a traitor!! And all this for just doing his job!! He has no business to demean the sacrifice that the man and his family has made. He has no business to take away the grief from his family and turn it into a public spectacle. Mr. Modi had no business to go to Trident or the Taj with his commandos tagging along. If he was so concerned about the victims, why did he not stay at home and ever think of giving up his security cover so that these commandos can do a more worthwhile job of serving the country rather than serving the corrupt politico.

The tamasha had Mr. Advani playing his role to perfection. At first, the gentleman called the PM to 'discuss' the attack (sic) and then suggested that they should go to Mumbai together. But as I understand, haste got the better of Mr Advani and he 'rushed' to Mumbai, understandably to win more brownie points.

But what beats them all is what follows. Ms. Dutt chooses to host a talk show over the tragedy and invite several celebrity guests. During the show, one of the guests (a celebrated talk show host herself) goes on to say that 'If you go up a high rise in Mumbai and look down at the slums below, you will actually see Pakistani flags flying high!!!'. This absolutely irresponsible comment got an agitated member of the audience to yell into the camera that the enemy we need to fight is nowhere else but the lady in question and many others like her. The ever so dignified lady just let her veil of sophistication slip for a nano second before she regained composure after the verbal attack on her. And the channel actually aired it...evidently to build on TRPs!!! The same channel that caused a revolution in the way Indian news and Indian journalists were perceived by the others not too long ago. Sad as it is, the mighty have fallen and with them they have taken the dignity that this noble profession deserves. Alas, Mr. Roy you could not save yourself from the evil forces you once despised!

I am so sickened by what I have seen over the last few days that I know this will alter the course of my life in many ways. I have never been more thankful to be alive and to have those I love around me. I don't know in how many ways this would have affected those who lost their loved ones to this ghastly act. I have asked myself time and again over the last few days, are we really so helpless that we can't even try to get up when someone hits us hard in the gut? Have we really lost the motivation, the drive? Have we after all, become a part of the crowd? Have we surrendered ourselves to a fate of being mute spectators to the Great Indian Tamasha??

I am longing to hear that voice within that says no. I am longing to hear any voice that doesn't reek of lies and hypocrisy.

P.S: And also, Ms Dutt, we didn't understand when you gallantly went ahead during your coverage of the Kargil war and announced your location , which resulted in the killing of some soldiers. We didn't understand why you would do that...is the race for publicity and fame so blinding after all??