The media as an instrument of shaping (sic) public thinking has never ceased to interest and amaze me…Have always believed in the immense power that the pen wields and the extent that it can shape a modern “thinking” man’s reasoning abilities….Courtesy the extended break that I’m currently having, had a good chance to observe the news channels on air today and try to notice any difference that they’ve gone thro’ since their inception…..and boy…..was i surprised….A news channel tries to provide solution to a Muslim women’s personal dilemma, on national TV….a problem that was only confounded by the acutely low awareness levels that public in general have of the shariyat….so regular jabs at the Shariyat were found in no small measure during the entire duration of the program….Another very popular debating program seeks to determine if the Indian civil services needs to be disbanded, if foreign consultants need to be shown the boot from planning commission, et al ….all in the space of, what was it, 40 odd minutes….. !!!Now, agreed a nation needs to be engaged in a constructive debate on matters of national importance…..But, frankly speaking, dont really see how by having extremely skewed audiences and extremely articulate speakers of extreme positions could do any good….The word, both spoken and written, have great influence…and the possessor of the skill of persuasion can work his way around very easily….

And truly speaking, one of the underlying assumptions that anyone makes while going to participate in a healthy debate is not to have any pretensions and/or biases before the start…That really doesn’t seem to be the case nowadays….inspite of all that ppl/journos feel of the left, a point to be made is that it is the left that has been the strongest votary of equitable social development, their methods for achieving the same, however, being far from satisfactory…..But what do we get to see on debates/discussions??? Left is branded as being in a time warp….true they are ,most of ‘em are…..but the onus also lies on the others to bring them into sync with the present situations, keeping in mind their reservations…. Everyone is in a mad hurry to give suggestions/recommendations/conclusions in real time….Instant polity, like instant coffee, is so in !!!

ps: A thoughtful article on Gudiya & Arif written by Sevanti Ninan can be found here . And this is one blog whose demise i really felt…..