A day after The Big Polls in Mumbai, it was a shock this morning to see newspapers toe the news channels, their imbecile yet upmarket country cousins, in blaming poor Mumbaikars for not turning out in droves and jam all roads leading to polling booths.
Barkha Dutt to Kiron (writer unsure about the number of Rs or Ks in her same, so seeks pardon) Kher in The Buck Stops Here on NDTV: Why do you think Bollywood’s appeal to Mumbai to come out and vote failed?
Poor Dutt! As if we Indians listen to even our own conscience, let alone our parents, forget about some filmstars showing us the finger! Get some brains, Ms Dutt.
Hindustan Times (Delhi edition) headline, with some seriously high-blown 72-points (that’s an inch in size): “All talk, no vote”
The shoulder strap, in mercifully smaller size, says: “Despite 26/11, candle-light vigils and voter campaigns, Mumbai stays home”
I believe the guys at HT thought the poor readers in the Capital would have gone insane and would miss the issue after all this emotional atyachar, so they put the ‘Mumbai stays home’ bit in red for effect.
Now, now, why did those Mumbaikars take out candle-light vigils and talk loudly against everyone and his/her uncle? Because they felt the rage literally come out in smoke from their noses, and they felt threatened after being targetted like only poor (not economically but generally, meaning everyone and her uncle) Indians have ever been. So what is the connection between talking about your right to safety after you have paid all dues, taxes etc and been good citizens, and going to the pooling booth and vote?
Simple answer: Nothing. Not for the media, though.
Give me a break, even I would have floundered for a choice given the options. A filmstar’s daughter who perhaps never brought up an issue of importance in five years in Parliament (Priya Dutt); a goonda from a goondas’ party (Ram Naik), a chor and a turncoat, among other things (Sanjay Nirupam); a rich man sporting good clothes and shades with no clue about the basic issues of a Mumbaikar (Milind Deora).
And these are just four candidates from across the spectrum. I would have given the polling a skip had I been living in any part of Mumbai, as I would do even on May 7 when Ghaziabad goes to polls.
Let us please not confuse the Good Citizen bit with voting, which, as the Constitution puts it, is a right that I may or MAY NOT opt to use. I, and I believe most of the “57% voters (who) skip the ballots” in Mumbai (headline in DNA newspaper), are good citizens and ‘nationalists’ to the core: we pay taxes on time, we pay all our dues, we pay power water and all other bills (sometimes a little late, but with a penalty!), we do not bribe or accept bribe, we genuinely try to be nice folks and not harass, abuse or slaughter people in riots…
That last one was a 69-worder of a sentence, and Microsoft Word is showing a green line -- for a “long sentence”. It’s time to pause. Take a deep breath. And go on living with pride, as it always has been.
Let the imbecile mediamen/women do their imbecile things in spare moments. We Indians are a forgiving, and forgetting, lot.
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