In a rush to...

Barkha Dutt, the much awarded Managing editor for NDTV, a leading Indian news channel was interviewing Bollywood icon Amitabh Bachchan the other day. It all began in the light of Raan the actor's recent movie which makes certain statements on the way the media works. For some reason, the momentum created by the reputedly level-headed interviewer led to a volley of words from both sides, some misinterpretations(which seems to be media's pandemic cliché) and mild attempts to even generate a bit of discord.

One instance in particular surprised me a little bit. Amitabh Bachchan was recently over at Gujarat to thank the Chief Minister who allowed some tax exemption on one of his recent movies which was shot in his state. There was a special screening for the movie, inviting the state's leaders, IAS officers, etc as a mark of gratitude which was followed by a request from the CM to the actor to shot more movies in lesser known locations in the state which would subsequently promote tourism. And the actor had willingly agreed. As they would say, this is a "win-win" situation.

It is important to note that the CM, Mr. Modi has often been reported for his apparent religious intolerance and words of animosity. The media now, selecting facts a bit injudiciously here, repeatedly telecast a hug between the two aforementioned concluding (as opposed to speculating) that Mr. Bachchan's acceptance of the minister's offer implied that he was sympathetic to the latter's religious views. Very similar efforts were made by Ms. Dutt to push Mr. Bachchan into accepting an alliance with a local leader who has shown clear religious hatred towards certain communities.

In his defence, the actor asked how showing gratitude and supporting a reasonable initiative can translate into acceptance of all aspects of a person's ideology. Why should his agreement to shoot more films in Gujarat translate into religious hatred just because the minister apparently displays it? The ability to separate the two hardly seemed intuitive to the interviewer.

I can understand new regional channels attempting to create sensationalism out of nothing, preying upon the popular ones for a bit of publicity, but for a leading television anchor, awarded Global Leader of Tomorrow twice by the World Economic Forum(source: Wikipedia) to attempt to irrationally generalize like this does set a very poor precedent.

Labelling does make it easy for the human mind to create the illusion of order, as does the constant strife to conclude quickly. And yet, it's these very labels that become big walls in man's quest to know.

P.S. What was I thinking attempting a panning shot at 1/5 seconds?! :) But it's the only shot I took and its shortcomings quite aptly demonstrate what I wanted to say. Had no time to blip yesterday, hence a backblip.