When ‘Gangsta Rap’ Drowned Out Everything Else on Prime Time TV

Saakhi is a Sunday column from Mrinal Pande, in which she writes of what she sees and also participates in. That has been her burden to bear ever since she embarked on a life as a journalist, writer, editor, author and as chairperson of Prasar Bharti. Her journey of being a witness-participant continues. 

The anchor in the studio reads out the headlines for the day. The lead story is about Atiq Ahmed, a five-time MLA with over a hundred cases pending against him arrested for the first time and sent to jail in Surat. She tells us in a calm, soft, even voice that currently he is being taken by road from Surat in Gujarat to Allahabad in eastern Uttar Pradesh to face a trial in a 17-year-old case of kidnapping.

For the live coverage that follows, she hands the studio to reporters following don’s police van on the long road into UP. The reporter looks exhausted with a voice shrill and edgy from the fatigue of the long dusty journey and the pressure to be the first with the news. She details Atiq’s persona and the many stories about the elections he fought, and the sudden disappearance of witnesses when murder cases against him were to be registered. This once, she says, the don has been saying he feels unsafe in custody in UP. His political enemies may well get him killed in a fake encounter.

The report by now begins to sound like a typical Gangsta Rap.

‘Its about my persona
Aint nothing like a man that can do what he wanna,..’

(Gangsta Rap Made Me Do it – by Ice Cube)

There is an arsenal of small tricks all ruling parties use when faced with tricky situations. It has not changed for years. The massive media coverage given to Atiq is one such red herring. In the age of 24×7 digital news, while the Budget Session is on, the Opposition has been demanding a full-fledged debate, followed by the formation of a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) to look into the allegations against the big businessman, Gautam Adani.

Several of his stocks hit the lower circuit after the much-discussed Hindenberg Research Report and not only the major political rivals but stock exchange NSE and BSE also sought clarifications on the matter.

At this point, the dreaded Don of UP in manacles, his bulletproof truck followed by a heavily armed cavalcade of police cars surfaced on our screens.

Atiq’s journey was the lead for news channels: how he was demanding a mattress for resting his back during the long ride, being served food through a slit window, being taken out for stretching his legs, and then urinating by the roadside in a perfect arc. After a court in Allahabad charged Atiq with dozens of murder cases against him as guilty in one case of kidnapping and served him a life sentence, public and media interest petered out. Atiq was quietly sent back to Surat jail without any fanfare.

Also read: While Opposition Rallies Around Rahul Gandhi, the Media Is Busy Following Atiq Ahmed

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The governmental reflex to the stirrings and disquiet in the ranks of Opposition parties beginning to incite voter anger, was typical of all-powerful ruling parties: strike first and then suppress, then think it over: What next? Display muscle in parliament, in the media, in public meetings, dig out any old skeletons and start a round of whataboutery. Such cleverness has a limited appeal to the lowest instincts of the voters by now. Carrots follow Bhandaras, cash donations, free trips to spots of pilgrimage, subsidies, and empowerment schemes of all kinds. But by now centre stage is firmly grabbed by an Opposition MP from Waynad, asked to get out of his MP’s bungalow.

As people begin pasting notices outside their homes, sending messages to him, saying my home is your home Rahul and international media front pages the story, awkward appeals come in now for him to quietly apologise and/or move the apex court to regain his seat in the parliament. Efforts were even made to plant a few stories about cracks in his coalition with Sena and Uddhav Thackrey losing his cool over some reported digs at Savarkar, but soon the crusty old war horse Sharad Pawar restored peace.

What now?

The spinners of yarns got busy again. Planting colourful mini stories about a young and handsome MLA dating a film star from Bollywood, about a new serial on OTT hitting the jackpot, so evening panel discussions could help obfuscate the issue. But at the time of writing the stubborn MP from Waynad has not yet rushed to the courts asking for revocation of the Speaker’s order expelling him from parliament after being slapped with a two-year jail sentence for a criminal defamation case.

Was Hamlet right that it’s all in the stars?

The new Panchang for Pingala, the Hindu Vikrami Samvat year so named by Kashi astrologers, is out. It says there are ominous starry formations in the skies in this first month of Chaitra. The stars are meeting in the stubborn house of fiery ram Mesha (Aries). On March 21, when a big earthquake hit close to home we survived due to a  benign Jupiter. But come April and an inauspicious star duo of Rahu and Ketu shall enter the house of Aries and disturb the sagacity of wise Guru Jupiter. Together the new coalition of stars may create a rare “Guru Chandal Yoga” when Guru to the gods will become moody and abrasive.

Meanwhile, trivia drops upon our heads like unseasonal rain: diverting the chutzpah of a Mumbai policeman asking a biker for a bribe on G Pay, an FIR being lodged against a dozen cops for colluding with robbers and auctioning a stolen truck. A few cute pics of a female Cheetah from Namibia with her newly born litter of four didn’t work either despite the usual suspects showering praises for this increase in the lost tribe of Cheetahs upon the Prime Minister whose vision had brought about this miracle.

Ram Navami on March 30 became a flash point again. Despite warnings Delhi, Maharashtra, Gujarat, and Madhya Pradesh reported conflagrations and rioting in several cities when Ram Shobha Yatras changed routes and played loud music and raised slogans near mosques holding Ramzan prayers. It seems Rahu Ketu will simply not go away.

Also read: Violence, Arson Mark Ram Navami Processions Across States; Rally Held in Delhi Without Permission

After a plethora of stern warnings from the courts a disqualified NCP member of parliament was reinstated in Lok Sabha hours before the Supreme Court heard his pledge about his conviction which had led to his summary expulsion. But the Waynad MP remains stubborn and unmoved.

At a point in history when India at long last is emerging as a crucial player in the geopolitics of the 21st century, why are we generating trivia by way of news? Why are the members of the power pack that rules the nation by an iron hand transgressing the fundamental democratic principles of equality, fraternity, and liberty and refusing to debate the matter in the parliament? The magnificent Buddhist law of moderation is cast to winds with many of them lambasting an increasingly critical international media and ‘anti-national’ askers of questions. Where are the fabled Marg Darshaks one may ask?

Just before the great battle of Plataea (479 B.C.) that decimated Persia as the Asian superpower and established Europe’s long hegemony over Asia, writes Herodotus, a drunk and weeping unnamed Persian soldier confides to a Greek Thersander:..”There is no more terrible pain a man can endure than to see clearly but be able to do nothing.”

Mrinal Pande is a writer and veteran journalist.