Bengaluru: A few weeks back, there was a dastardly terrorist attack in Paris. Many people changed their DPs, many expressed shock, many tracked their friends, but what did we in India, as audiences, learn?
Did we not learn that:
a) The premier addressed the nation as soon as possible.
b) The security moves were kept from public TV.
c) They did not indulge in visual mourning, show of bodies, show of sites of gruesome violence. Everything that was reported was in text, in written reports.
What did it imply?
The French premier immediately signaled how the nation was rallied in the cause. There was no Science Conference to attend, no helicopters factories to inaugurate, no Yoga talks to be made, no RSS meetings to attend. As a nation, France is also fractured, as we are, but in its crises it stood together. Forget taking personal responsibility and resigning.
For decades now, it has been a trend in India that the politicians cling to their seats. But can the nation expect an address by the Prime Minister? Can the nation expect that its leader will assess the failure of his leadership where it takes 60 hours to neutralize 6 terrorists? Would we evolve a policy that we will not give in to the public's lust for visual drama and TV channel craze for TRPs and not beam live operations by security forces? Kargil, 26/11, Pathankot.
America watches the Iraq War coverage in its prime time from half way across the globe, we do not have to do it. Would we put in a policy to have a media centre and put out consistent information and not the Home Minister, Food Minister, Punjab government, sending out conflicting messages?
There is an effort involved in reading. The effort leads to sentiments but in a measured manner unlike TV. What is this pornography of pain that we now indulge in?
The whole episode has not only been very sad but also very humiliating. No wonder we as a nation stay stuck in hyperbole, drama, and mudslinging. The only thing we do not value is human life.
(Amandeep Sandhu is the author of two books - Roll of Honour, a fiction based on the events of 1984 and another fiction Sepia Leaves. He lives in Bengaluru)
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