Vasu
Reddy From Chicago
The
constant media attention to grab headlines from every politician has
become a laughing circus rather than newsworthy reporting. A lot of
TV channels all vying for eye balls are doing whatever they can to
attract more people to tune in, and the extent to which they are
going to get a few minutes of attention has been driving the
politicians to grab any mike they can and blurt out seemingly
intelligent verbiage which almost all times becomes statements made
without any intelligence or information. The words are dramatic in
impact as they often make people respond with gasps, and often wonder
what are these people saying and why are these people representing
general public.
How
did they get there to represent a democracy, and what is that they
have in their gray matter that makes them constantly say outrageous
and often misstating the facts, all the time pretending to be
authority on the matters that are of great importance to the nation.
Some of these folks are so far off they will out right make
statements that they believe that are factual, without any background
information to even verify the matter of fact. The public themselves
are also very gullible and tuning into these elected representatives,
start to believe the atrocious details being fed to them as facts, as
often times the voters themselves are quite removed from the reality
of what is fact verses fiction.
India
does have a very media and communications savvy prime minister
leading the nation. Modi is a master of managing his communications
and his public and personal profile, he personally updates and
communicates just about every aspect of not just his administrative
decisions and undertakings, but also personal meetings and events on
a regular basis and almost everyone following can share the moment of
decision making or a personal story with the head of the Indian
government, and even before assuming the PM office in India, he was
an excellent media manager and excellent communicator with the
general public. Weather you like it or not, the skill to communicate
with a billion people is not simple, and the audience is so large and
so complex, it is almost impossible to say something stupid and get
away with it. Once you have said it, whatever it is is out there and
recorded for posterity. The problem with posterity is that typically
we want to be remembered for something good or something that helps
future generations or words of wisdom, not some dumb comments that
are absolutely nonsensical.
Many
of our elected officials are educated, some with degrees that have
value. For some reason they seem to be in a cocoon and not aware of
the facts of life and also the history of the nation and its people.
Although a seemingly intelligent statement might have great sound
bites, it can be totally inaccurate and come back to bite you in the
back. Since the division of AP and also the new party in Delhi, our
politicians have constantly getting the open mike syndrome, and
getting caught for blabbering nonsense. The latest is one to make
outrageous comments on Hyderabad and Kashmir. While it provides no
practical purpose to make outrageous utterances, it might have felt
the few minutes of open mike was providing a platform for national
audience, but it has become a national disgrace. What can be
achieved by making statements that are against the interest of the
nation? Nothing really, except people starting to look at the person
with disdain. It also deeply divides the people and their sentiments
towards each other. No one gains by divisive and ignorant
statements, except that they build mistrust and misunderstanding in
people, and further divide already conflicting minds of folks who
look up to their leaders.
India
is a country of great contradictions and also great diversity. The
greater Hindustan is a case study that will take many life times to
research and study, and it still will continue to yield treasures of
history that has no parallel. Though many centuries of occupation
and abuse and eventual independence in 1947, along with breaking the
country prior to the newly independent India, which was no longer
Hindustan, the country has survived with the constant internal
conflicts and external pressures. With more than a billion people in
2014, it needs a vision for caring or its people and a future for the
young ones. The country doesn't need politicians who have no
appreciation for the integrity of the country and the importance of
the republic. With open mike's all over it is difficult to stop
anyone from making any statement they choose to, but we can better
choose who should represent us. The only way the country can weed
such people out of the electoral system is by education for everyone
and appreciation for its history and integrity.
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