Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Aw c'mon

Half an hour earlier I was sitting in mess-cum-restaurant for my dinner, watching trailers of new Hindi movies when some guy sitting behind me asked the teenage waiter to put on some news channel. The waiter followed and I was watching NDTV instead of my favorite 9XM (though today it was SET MAX before changing to NDTV).

Anyway, I thought I'd see it till the guy is there and didn't protest. Now as I was watching the news, the first interesting thing was Priya Dutt being disappointed with brother Sanjay for going to Samajwadi Party instead of Congress. Dear Priya, it suits the image. Munna Bhai fits well in a Bhai Log ki Party. Also, maybe he idolizes Amitabh Bachchan and so following him.

Now came the news that was selected as the news of the day by NDTV people. NDTV was hurt (or trying to show it was hurt) by some corporates showing their support for Narendra Modi as the Prime Minister of India, and they fired a burning question (that's what I'm taught, all questions burn, and I know they did during school): Is it correct for India Inc to project Narendra Modi as PM?

At the time I was watching the show, the public response was divided 60-40. In favor of the question. Or against the channel, as far as I could see. At that point of time I could only find comments that were against the sin the business community had committed. And my guess would be that comments have to be filtered by the channel, though I expect that the numbers aren't.

Now an hour or so later, when I casted the 786th vote (O, what a number!), I could see the numbers changing to 50.5/48.1, still more people being magnanimous enough to ignore the crime of the India Inc. which, my guess is, comes after opinions being affected by the channel.

Now this relates to the third news where Sonia Gandhi had said that the Freedom of Expression of the news channels will be maintained and they should not worry about the same.

My question is: Is the freedom of expression only for news channels? What is wrong if certain business people support and project a person for the Prime Minister's post? Because according to me, in a democracy like India, anybody can speak up and speak out (just like an old Airtel ad) so why shouldn't the business community who have done our country proud and continue to do so?

Anyway, as far as my personal opinion goes, there is nothing wrong with projecting Modi as the Prime Minister, not because I think he's a great person or something but simply because there is hardly a better choice with us. In fact Mr Advani, who is currently thinking of himself as the Prime Minister elect of India, is hardly better and can be as bad as Modi on a given day as is clear from history.

So I guess we can make Modi or even Lalu the Prime Minister. In fact, thinking of Lalu, I feel they all get better when they come to the centre (compare the situation of Bihar and Indian Railways).

Hmmm. It's fixed then. I support Lalu for the Prime Minister in the coming elections. Anybody hurt with that? ;)