Delhi Belly

So we are at it again, if it was not for the Virs and Kanganas life would be so dull. We must actually be grateful to them rather than pouring scorn. The electronic media will then have to do some real reporting and research, which is oh so boring! After all, there are more such entertainers ready to pounce at any and every controversy to keep them relevant. With the advent of social media, there are adequate number of platforms which are available to every Swara, Vir and Kangana. Vir Das is just one among many such smart alecks who are aware that such an act is bound to pitchfork  him/her to the centre-stage. 

While Kangana is entitled to her views about when and how did India break the shackles of colonialism, she obviously has taken on the mantle of Rani Jhansi rather seriously and started to charge at windmills in a rather Quixotic manner. She is gutsy and has made a mark as an actor with some outstanding performances, but that does not make her a historian. Although, politicians are also great actors, not all actors are good politicians. Then  why do we take our entertainers so seriously, when they are only meant to entertain us? Though we are not alone who are so gullible. The oldest democracy in the world and the largest one have this common trait of electing film industry personnel to high offices. They have had their Reagan, Schwarzenegger, we have had MGR, Jayalalitha, Rajesh Khanna, Shatrughan Govinda, Hema, Jayaprada and so on....In fact most of them were not serious about their duties as elected representatives with some of them even bowing out like Amitabh; barring MGR, Jayalalitha, Karunanidhi and NTR who were a force to reckon with not just in their states but also at the national level, all the other were there only for fun and to win favours with the ruling party in power. 

Vir in Hindi means brave, but actually he is “Bheeru” which is the opposite of brave i.e. a coward. Why do I say so, well he chose a foreign soil and a foreign audience to vent out his ire on his perceptions of the existing state in the country.  May be he was suffering from Delhi Belly, no wonder his monologue was a byproduct; 'constipation of ideas and diarrhoea of words'(!) Freedom of expression is a funny fundamental right, that provides me with immunity to express my impressions and stick to them even if I am factually far from the truth. So he has exercised his right, chosen his own arena well aware of the consequences. A minority may agree with his version, personally I don’t agree with his views, probably so do majority of Indians, again a personal choice.

The Rajputana Rifles Regiment of Indian Army has its motto as "Veer Bhogya Vasundhara",  excerpted from a Puranic shloka, meaning "Only the Braves enjoy the Earth", this Vir is enjoying his infamy. Unfortunately for him, his 15 minutes of infamy was too short lived with PM Modi's repeal of Farm laws taking centre stage the very next day; the hungry pack of news channels just moved on and suddenly  no one gave a damn about what some Vir spoke somewhere. How I wish, our media barons had the wisdom to separate the wheat from the chaff  and refrained from raising such storms in tea cups.