Friday, October 15, 2010

Common Wealth Games - Power of Media
The CWG juggernaut has come to a halt. The ‘Global Media’ can’t stop singing praises of how India pulled a rabbit out of its hat.


Before the games, all media, Indian and Global, were tearing the games organization to bits. Suresh Kalmadi was a traitor, Sheila Deikshit a witch, Manmohan Singh an impotent Sikh and India a third world nation. Most people in the nation went by what the media said in the papers and showed in the TV. BLINDLY. Am sure none of us took the trouble of catching a train to Delhi to check if all that the media said was true. Fears of security, ceiling collapses, shoddy infrastructure, dengue fever, snake bites, monkey attacks and God knows what else were floating around.

Cut to post games. The opening and closing ceremonies were grand hits and the Indian Athletes’ performance on the field added to the button-bursting pride swelling in every Indian’s chest.

But somehow I can’t help but wonder if there is a deeper conspiracy to the whole set-up. Were the media paid off to look the other side and/or generate positive press about the events? Were the CWG’s central council/committee paid off to keep quiet and not raise an issue. Were the Athletes of other countries brought off to perform below par? I mean there was a few billion dollars as budget to play with. You can buy a whole lot with that kind of money. No?

How come suddenly the Athlete’s village was spick and span? There was not one article post October 3rd of anyone complaining. I mean, beds were breaking, ceilings collapsing. There was no proper infrastructure. It was a shambles. How come suddenly snakes stopped slithering, monkey’s stopped attacking? It’s as if these creatures knew the country’s reputation was at stake.

The media did a complete turnaround. The likes of which I haven’t witnessed! Suddenly everyone is talking of the world-class facilities in the stadium, the fireworks display, the 8000 odd performers who did a perfect synchrony during the opening ceremony. Suddenly A.R.Rahman’s song which sounded like a wail of a widow, sounds like a heavenly hymn.

Now if it was only the world press which was creating negative publicity for CWG, I can put that down to envy and borderline racism. But our Indian media was also like a pack of starved wolves; waiting for a glimpse of the next red-riding hood. They tore into the CWG. And how!

Everyone was goading the media to go for the kill. Me included. Everyone was baying for blood. Suresh Kalmadi’s blood, Sheila Dikshit’s blood. And the blood of the entire organizing committee who had purportedly ‘eaten’ a vulgar amount of money in the name of organizing the CWG.

Like the mutiny of 1857 that sparked a nation-wide movement to secure India’s independence, modern India is a nation of people awaiting an awakening. We thought the awakening had come from our ‘responsible’ media.

What we got in return, was a cock-tease of epic proportions.

And just when we thought we will finally see some justice, there is another ‘investigation committee’ set-up to ‘investigate’ the anomalies. We are all well aware what happens next. Don’t we?

And while the whole world celebrates India’s ‘arrival’ on the world stage and dreams of holding the Olympics are formed, I wonder whom the Indian and World media are targeting next...