India has become too creative. Media veterans and respected politicians know better how to guide India. Just listen to their solemn decrees and go by their bespoke modus operandi – for – in a country like India – everything be it – legalizing x-rated films, sex education in a child’s syllabus, who to award and who to exonerate, which building to demolish and which one not; dropping Saurav Ganguly or replacing BCCI chief, launching a riot incase it does justice to their future political equations, wowing or punishing a work against the movers and shakers and finally manipulating public conscience- is customized at par with some vested interests. As a layman you can do nothing. If you’re told to leave your 100-year home, you have to. Objectivity is an obsolete term in Indian administration. Subjectivity reigns supreme in almost all domains especially in the govt-public interface. In a country where mass killing and govt’s desperate connivance to it get a pat on the back, things seem to be vague. Bookish knowledge no more holds true. Classroom and real life starts to diverge.

Indian politicians are heavenly bodies difficulty enough to demystify. You never know when you turn to be a scapegoat. Given the administrative scenario there is nothing like justice or injustice, right or wrong in true sense. A culture of dubious distinction, where a truth becomes false. If congress labels an act as illicit, BJP has enough reasons to make it valid. Politicians and potent servants know better how to handle situations, how to clear the thorns of the road to ensure an award winning future. What all matters is tightening loose ends. Recently, an IPS officer rightly murdered his extramarital partner, except for the fact that he could not tighten up all vulnerable ends. Thanks to his courage of committing a murder. It is the prevailing system that made him confident of the post murder scenario.

At this level, anything is possible in India. For instance, slaughter the people of whole Kashmir; remember to take the shelter of any political umbrella. Strategize plans to maneuver this. Everything would be okay. Don’t worry. We have many political experts to finds reasons for and justify the act. Manipulation or customization is the call of the hour. Your success is inevitable irrespective of the Article no or Section of Indian constitution. Thanks to India. We at least allow even reward good fiction and nonfiction works, films, books, documentaries, features and myriad other moral education.

What else? Media!

Manufacturing of a star overnight is very much possible given the trend of mainstream media. No one knows what is news. Not even a senior reporter. While lacks of people are rendered homeless by the slum demolition drive in Mumbai- ‘a snake in PM’s house’, ‘Shahid kisses Karina kapoor’, ‘Sania in love’, ‘vote for Indian idol, and so on top front page and prime time news. At the backdrop of such a culture, can anybody extract the news as such? A well-informed and participatory public is the backbone of a healthy democracy. A vigilant media is a sinew that connects the people and their representative rulers. All these leave us suffused with information and starved of knowledge. We know America lost the Vietnam War not the battlefields but on television screens at home. Much of the media is owned by business houses and is treated as another enterprise.

At the end of the day what we come up with is mere confusion. Is news a doctored product? Is it a part of propaganda or a mere view or conjecture? The ultimate produce is a by product of many considerations. The sacred cows, inclinations to ideologies, business, competitive intelligence and many more give birth to something called news which is then presented to the esteemed readers and viewers. Because ‘readers deserve to know’ as is advertised by media houses.

Politicians and personalities dominate our daily information intake. Free and fair media does not link it with anything like hugging scoop or going by extraneous considerations. It’s about depicting the realities with naivety and not experimenting with it in the studio lab. News is now a consumer commodity, focused on quenching public prurience. The business is no more of mere communication, but taking over the minds of readers, keeping them satisfied enough to make money from them. Finally it is provocative or yellow journalism. Filling pages with truck loads of half naked mothers and sisters to provide us with visual retreat. Have we evolved as a strong, proud republic?

High time to celebrate

Let’s celebrate for we have come a long way, for we have cheerleaders to cheer us and not the players, for we have thousands of media houses to keep vigil, for we can turn billion people into consumers, for we can replace truth with falsehood, for we have many cult figures in politics, for we have the courage of stealing crore, for we have learnt to play with public’s conscience.