Arab backlash for studio cockfight
By Maagadh
Cockfight has for long been a favourite pastime in rural areas. It later became a regular feature in village fairs and festivals. The winning rooster is auctioned at a high price by cheerleaders of cockfight.
India had two decades — 1990-2010 – of political churning. They were eventful and dramatic. No-holds-barred scams rocked the country. Political leaders looked just other thugs around the street corners. Indian politics became full of rags to riches story. Those who were unemployed began spending time in national and state capitals to rub shoulders with established politicians to carve out territories for them. They in those two decades became widely known leaders — owning farm houses, charter planes, taking families for shopping to Dubai.
During freedom struggle, the best talent of the country joined politics. They had educational qualifications and career records to keep them in the top echelons of the society. From 1990s, the political talent pool suffered from lack of educational and career achievements. Politics was a means of livelihood for them. They joined hands with the businessmen harassed by the inspector raj to ride the wealth journey.
People at large saw politics becoming an instrument of loot of the national resources. Not being part became popularly as lack of opportunities. Political decay set in popular indignation against politics. Fifty per cent or more polling in elections was seen as satisfactory.
The people distanced from politics and watched the spectacles from the sidelines. It was fun watching the politicians from the sidelines.
Politicians sized up the people quickly. They knew that the people at large were looking for entertainment. The politicians from 1990s onwards worked on their entertainment quotients. Those who excelled in entertaining people were electorally most successful.
Private television news channels also came along and saw quick path to success from the success stories from the political space.
Entertainment sells. More the better, step up the gas became the success mantra.
The people were already addicted to greater doses of entertainment. They went downhill with the television channels to the abyss.
Political parties knew the game the TV studio debates played. They called it cockfights. They sent sturdy roosters to the television studios. The weaklings died of stress and heart attack. Anchors became celebrities by the strength of the vocal chords.
Nupur Sharma and Navin Jindal were such roosters fielded by the Bharatiya Janata Party for studio cockfights. They had hit stardom also.
But roosters fight with blades hidden in their wings. The BJP’s roosters slipped on tongues. Indian ambassadors in the Arab world saw the ferocity of the hate fire set by them.
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