Anupam Kher v/s Barkha Dutt — The hypocrisy of debate
I stopped watching NDTV after hearing Barkha Dutt’s conversation with corrupt Kanomozhi on Radia tapes. Admittedly, she is angry with millions of Indians like me who have deserted her show and to whom she cannot anymore appeal despite the brilliance of her word and the merit of her argument. Her last and only book which she wrote to resurrect her dead career and a destroyed reputation- bombed at the shelves. Once you have been found to be lying — no amount of truth telling will relieve you from its consequence. What makes her more angry is the fact that Arnab Goswami has taken away her stupid impatient audience and she is unable to get them back. She is also angry that Narendra Modi has become Prime Minister despite her best attempts at keeping him away from New Delhi and an uneducated TV artist has become India’s HRD Minister.
Anupam Kher is angry since the first time he played the father of a deceased young man in ‘Saransh’ whose ashes he cannot bring back from overseas due to rampant corruption and bureaucratic obstacles. He is also personally angry with Congress that allowed his family to be thrown out of Kashmir and where he cannot go back for last three decades due to terrorism. It is another matter that even BJP has been unable to do anything for the Kashmiri Hindus to return back. In fact it looks worse on BJPs CV than on Congress — given their obvious support to the Hindu cause. Sometime I even wonder that he might be angry at the fact that his ferocious wife who hides a fat body in a thick long sari and an oversized dot on her forehead is forcing him to go out and defend BJP against his own will — in return for the futility of keeping his marriage alive.
All this anger is being reflected on a population that is already angry with both BJP and Congress. They are angry at the taps without the water, at the pot holes without the roads, at the schools without teachers, at the factories without jobs and at the future without hope. In this large sea of anger; imagine — two absolutely brilliant individuals fishing their own bias — dividing an already divided people.
It all reminds me of the story of a little boy who had not eaten for a few days. Pointing to the full moon when he was asked what it was — he said it was a Roti — a beautiful Roti.
Where is the Roti in this debate? In this whole ‘Idea’ of India — where is the idea of people with homes, people with food, people with water, people with education and people with fulfilling jobs?
