BREAKING NEWS - Modiji Eats Mangoes!
Now I don’t force myself to write blog posts - I write what comes to me as it comes. This one came way too soon after hearing about the most valuable interview of the decade. Don’t believe me? Check this out, it’s no joke:
Some time ago in history, Karan Thapar interviewed Modi once and had a line of questions for him about correcting his image from the Gujarat riots, and Modiji was visibly uncomfortable. The “Devil’s Advocate” has astonished quite many people during his interviews with them, but nothing of that sort is seen in news channels today. The ones getting interviewed have the script ready and somehow have the power to modify it before the actual interview, or call for a retake if the journalist dares to take it in a direction that is off the script, or sometimes, if I may dare to say so, even ‘do their job’ properly.
First WWE, and now Indian journalism. Earlier it was intense and had everything out there, and now a lot of it is censored, the true, sensible and unbiased fans/viewers are unhappy, and wish for off-script moments, but the actors involved can’t take the risk in fear of losing their jobs. We know it - our current various news channels now clearly portray different biases, and we don’t know what information to intake right away.
Now I might be biased, but I think a certain man among some journalists is still trying to keep it up. When I say I might be biased, I know this entire post could have many possible interpretations, and I’m ready to accept if shown, that my personal opinion might be entirely wrong. But I wish to share something with you today, and it’s not the thoughts out of my head, but someone out there has already put it in words that I can’t, and I can only say that I can relate to them and what they have to say.
Ravish Kumar is an Indian TV anchor, writer, journalist, and media personality who covers topics about Indian politics and society. I happened to see a video of his today, and that’s why this post came out in a short time from my last one. The very ‘aam’ interview (pun intended, understanding of Hindi language required) given by our not so ‘aam’ Prime Minister was covered in a ‘Non-Political Prime Time’ segment led by Ravish, and my main reason for writing this post is because I wanted to put out a translation of what he says at the end of that segment. He speaks mostly in Hindi in this segment, and for some reason, I felt this urge inside of me to get this message out to you so that you don’t miss out just because you may not know Hindi, or may not watch NDTV or know this journalist (be aware that I’m not obsessed).
The ‘Non-Political Prime Time’ is a sarcastic take on the non-political interviews that are taking place at the time when the most political thing possible that happens every five years is happening now in India. In the end, Ravish becomes a little serious and points out some major flaws that need addressing, but I could only wonder by whom. The following is the translation of what he says from 19:29 to the end in the video (video starts from mentioned time):
The truth is, that in this elections, the issues have sent us their salutations, but in some way, we’ve sent them the salutations (‘Namaskar’ originally, here salutation is meant as one of departure). The issues have gone to Shimla [for a holiday]. That is why we tried to do something outside politics. There was something about those elections where people talked about issues - poverty, starvation, unemployment, education, fees. Walls had slogans on them - “Sabko Kaam Sabko Naam” (Everyone has Work, Everyone has Name). Now suddenly everyone feels free of issues. There is no issue, man! A storm may come, a lion may come but not an issue. There is so much politics that has happened that I don’t have the interest to do something other than politics. No one wants politics. We’re not getting the money from insurance, don’t need it, man, forget it! We’re not getting the value for your food produce, don’t need it. Fees are too high, no problem we’ll give it! School management may ask for more, and we’ll still give it. What’s the problem with that? But we don’t want politics. We don’t want jobs. We’ll stay unemployed. But don’t give us issues. For a voter, the country is bigger than the issues. The issues are smaller than the country. We won’t talk about small things. We won’t talk about petty issues to embarrass the elections. We’ll talk about big things. That’s why there are some things other than politics. This isn’t a crisis just for the voters; it’s also for our representative workers. Work 5 years, then suddenly Vijender [Singh] is here, we have to welcome him. Then Gautam Gambhir comes from the other side with four tweets; we have to welcome him. Then the last candidate we lost to, this time we have to welcome them. The representative worker is also now fed up of this politics. When they have to welcome them, when to oppose them, they are stuck with these difficult questions. So let’s move on from politics and do something. Let’s watch the Non-Political Prime Time.
If you somehow have 20 or so minutes, do attempt to check out the entire video which begins with him mentioning about Modi’s ‘Mango Interview’ with Akshay Kumar. If you don’t know Hindi so well, please feel free to bother me with explaining to you what he says, or ask a friend to sit with you through it, but I think it was important that that message at the end is out to everyone.
Vijender Singh and Gautam Gambhir are now contesting elections - read the article.
I am not doing this because someone told me to, but I felt something after watching this, and I hope you do as well. I would be very happy if you want to reach out to me and have a discussion on this, or start one with the comment section below!