A pot that needs many cooks!

The problem is that when people shoot their mouths off on something as public as television, there is little they can do to repair the damage done. There is no erase button! On a recent episode of Vikram Chandra's The Big Fight I was both horrified and amused in equal measure by Renuka Chowdary, who appeared as though she was auditioning for a role on one of Ekta Kapoor's soap operas for day time TV! The kathakali hand gestures, the rolling of the eyes, the false laughter and the total dramabaaz in relation to a serious issue concerning government mismanagement only drove yet another nail into the coffin of the Congress party. But I guess mild mannered Manmohan Singh believes in the aaall is well policy!

I thought that perhaps watching Karan Thapar's The Devils Advocate interview with Arvind Kejriwal and Prashant Bhushan would provide me a space to hear these two activists talk about their ideas and methodology, in relation to both the Jan Lokpal bill and the management of the protest being conducted by them. However Karan Tharpar derailed his own program by drowning out the voices of his guests with prejudiced opinions and  a judgemental stance, that made him look both boorish and a bully to boot. The CNN-IBN channel should inform him that viewers tune in to hear the views of those being interviewed and not hear the raucous voice of an over opinionated host who does not know the basic etiquette of his job.

I miss Vir Sanghvi's television talk show. I remember the brilliance with which he interviewed Bal Thackeray where as a host he remained courteous but an an interviewer brought to light for his audience issues of substance that allowed for a viewer to gain an informed opinion.

I caught only a snippet of Arundhati Roy talking about her concerns on the Jan Lokpal bill. She highlighted the need to include  the NGO and corporate sectors that today play a major role in development issues of India, and view these spaces as equally being erroded by corruption. I would really like to see a program that can put together Aruna Roy, Arundati Roy, Shabhana Azmi, Arvind Kerjiwal, Suhail Sheth, Mani Shanker Aiyar, and Medha Patkar, hosted by Pranoy Roy; to discuss an agenda that can place differing opinions to converge to meet a common target.