On
Bias
The
occasion was a function organized to formally release a book written by a
pioneer entrepreneur who dared to venture into uncharted territory of low cost
flying. The well attended programme boasted of the presence of commercially the
most successful Kannada author who did the honours, the well known editor of
the local rag and a sizeable number of glitterati in their finest. An item in
the agenda was a Conversation with the Author by an ex-editor of a National
magazine famous for its tilt towards the Congress party and the Gandhis (not of
the Mahatma clan)
From
the word Go, it was obvious that the ex-editor was totally biased against the
current political dispensation headed by Narendra Modi. As seems to be the
vogue currently, Modi can do no Right and he is responsible for all that is
wrong. As another maverick, Kejriwal with his obsession with Modi, is said to, jocularly
of course, blame Modi even when his wife doesn’t cooperate with him at night!
Quoting statistics from GDP to manufacturing data to employment generation to
ownership of some Airlines, he sneered at the author for having some respect
for Modi. When the author very rationally explained the misdoings of
politicians and bureaucrats and the absence to accountability because of lack
of autonomy in institutions, he would have none of it as if there couldn’t be
people holier than bureaucrats!
This
well orchestrated slamming of Modi and his ilk makes one begin to wonder why this
so called English speaking elite have such a bias. It is certainly a Class
thing as Modi doesn’t belong to the Doon school Englishwallah society and is
Desi to the core. Remember, Mani Shankar Aiyer deprecating Modi as a Chaiwalla
saying a Chaiwallah wouldl never be a PM. That he did is another question. I remember
Shekar Gupta contemptuously putting down ‘These Mantra spouting pandits’ in a
TV panel discussion, brushing away centuries of tradition. It is surprising to see
such strong biases in some of the TV channels when what you expect is neutral
and unbiased reporting of news. When something wrong happens somewhere in the
country such as a Rail accident or horrible deaths of children in hospitals,
the reporting comes with a smirk of ‘We told you so” implied, never mind the
causes of such ghastly events.
This
small percentage of biased, anti-desi, anti-tradition section does not seem to
understand the psyche of the vast majority of Bharatvasis with its own native
wisdom. This is exemplified by the recent incidence of Mrs.Sudha Murthy being
questioned by two so called high society ladies why she was standing in the
line for business class because she was wearing Salwar Kameez and couldn’t
possibly belong to their class!
It is
time that these biased folk turned inwards towards Bharath and see what can be
done rather than keep pointing out what is wrong. It is a pity that in a land where
Mahatma Gandhi moved millions of Indians with his ‘Naked Fakir’ dress as Churchill
once sniffed, we still have these nose-up-in-the-air snooty folk who claim to
be a Class Apart.
