Thursday, August 7, 2014

WHY I WORRY ABOUT MY COUNTRY?




As regards the things that I wish to change in India, there are legions of them. The ills like endemic corruption, shifting the blame syndrome, greed, insensitivity and the social evils like stray cattle, stray dogs, monkey menace and the shame of littered and rotten garbage have consumed tons of paper and umpteen numbers of hours to bring them upfront for solutions but sadly, the status quo stands. Why waste time to write about something, which has been written upon ad nauseum?

Rather I would discourse about a new aversion of mine,which is no less worrying. The grueling, randomly chosen political polemics, which have become the order of the day on TV channels during evening prime time. You guessed it right. The all too noisy TV debates on the so-called subjects of national importance have become the present day template.

After bidding permanent adieu to cheap  and puerile comedy shows and outrageous serials, which are dished out to viewers on TV,  my only time for scheduled sitting, is evening TV news. Firstly, you prepare yourself, wait for the participants to be announced, and finally decide to suffer because of the presence of a couple of moderate voices. However, as the debate progresses the atmosphere is vitiated with arguments and counter arguments, peppered with remote and ambiguous references, sidelining the real issues. Clearly, the race for gaining some unknown points ensues with voice decibel rising to an uncomfortable pitch. In the meantime  warfare of words  and display of oratory minus substance hijacks the discussion. The daggers are drawn perpetually and more often than not, the projected sound bites acquire black and white shroud. Politeness goes for a toss. Jibes rule the roost. Some sane voices intervene, but they soon die down in the cacophony of discordant notes.

One needs to develop a detached approach and a half-asleep mode to sit through the political dramas played on the TV screen in your living room day after day. That the viewing public is aware and can sift the truth from half-truths and baked truths leashed via their double speak, bothers them not. The body language of the panelists and the tone of their voices convey a lot. The viewers can fairly well, read between the lines of their word  play, which is unstoppable and therefore sucks.

The clear divide between black and white without any middle ground frustrates the average viewer who really desires to be enlightened about  national issues. Here the aim is to earn some dubious points. Negative vibes floating around exasperate. The goings on become unpalatable soon and one starts switching channels.

In fact, the matters of national interest are too complex to be solved or understood in the course of half an hour of TV discussions. Let’s leave them to the collective wisdom of our elected representatives in the parliament. Moreover, just wait for the positive changes incorporated and delivered on the ground, for the good of the general public which will evidence the efficacy of the administrative measures and government policies.
……
 Instead, the TV channel CEOs should focus on educating the public about the burning social issues, and work for people participation in solving them.

They should introduce programs to help people become well informed  with the use of technology. For this enabling them to be computer savvy is a must.

They need to evolve packages about health consciousness especially Ayurveda and other alternatives to allopathic medicines, which the poor can’t afford.

People Should be advised to introspect  and warned about the involvement in  
anti-social activities like destruction of public and private property over trivial issues, and violent protests.

Young people need to be persuaded to participate in value based activities concerning their areas.

Surely experts in human resource development know what is  required for nation building and how to execute it.

Friends, leave your thoughts on the subject.

8 comments:

  1. nice one.. awesome article approach indeed. thanks for sharing ..

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  2. TV channels have the most powerful tool in their hands, but they are wasting it by telecasting tedious series, stupidity in name of entertainment and fake ads. With the advanced technologies, media can make certain impressions sharing significant progress across overseas. I mostly prefer newspapers for reading, that watching television for getting news.

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  3. Hari OM
    This is sadly not confined to India - what you have covered here is the state of world politics Uppal-ji! Television has fallen into the trap of thinking it needs to present sensation rather than inspiration when it comes to things that ACTUALLY matter. Worse still, the pollies prefer to present themselves as celebrities behaving badly.

    Having recently settled in Scotland, I find myself in the middle of an enormous 'stink' about Independence. Something Indians will identify with! It is something that has been brewing for centuries, but of course the pollies of the moment are making a meal of it and the media are ensuring that the most is made of scare-mongering and 'confustication'... and it is on every night. I choose blogging as a much more productive and civilized pastime! YAM xx

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  4. Very true, Uppalji. Wonderfully expressed :)
    Watching the news is such a pain...
    Wish your suggestions are implemented ASAP.

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  5. Very interesting thoughts. A very different take from what is expected from the media. Definitely worth pondering on...

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  6. Wonderful point of view. I agree BUT, sorry there is just one but :), I disagree that we should leave matters of national interest to the collective wisdom of our elected representatives in parliament. The tone of those debates needs changing so that the public understands a bit. 'Democracy by the people' means activism. It means challenging something you don't like, for example, the lack of justice to rape victims when the promise was 'zero tolerance' for rapists. I feel, activism is being given a bad name. I am impressed with two TED videos on the virtues of activism and have put up the links on my G+ if you'd care to have a look.

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