May 1 to 14, 2004

By Sathya Saran

Let's praise rather than censure - it's more creative

HOW many column centimetres do you think were spent on debating the life of Lakshmi Pandit? And how many television minutes? On prime time, over news channels...

IF ever anyone wishes celeb status, all one has to do is get on the wrong side of some rule.

SO it was that Lakshmi Pandit, crowned ever so recently as Femina Miss India-World 2004, joined the ranks of Harshad Mehta, Salman Khan, Sushil Sharma, the 'tandoor' case accused, and the Apeman of Delhi as a seven-day wonder.

LITERALLY hours after one channel discovered that she had stated that she was a married woman in a document to her landlord, Lakshmi Pandit's name was a household word. And brandishing an invisible tar brush, channel after channel, and tabloids too, painted her black and called her a liar.

CARRIED onward by their own momentum, channels went on to ask the 'aam junta', people who gloried in their two seconds of sound-byte fame, to opine about whether a married woman had a right to contest a contest that by its very name, assumed the contestants were single.

RIGHTEOUS indignation, I-don't-really-care, live-and-let-live opinions were floated over the airwaves.

AND with no proof, the media decided that Lakshmi was guilty, and deserved national contempt.

I AM not condoning the fact that she did not play fair with the organisers of a contest that today has an entire nation's eyes turned on it. In fact, despite some columnists stating that the Femina Miss India Contest has become a jaded affair, the fact remains that it does fuel the dreams and aspirations of an entire generation of girls that dreams of wearing the crown and stepping on to an international stage.

I AM also not condoning the fact that Lakshmi proved wanting on other counts. For whatever mistakes she made, she has paid heavily.

I AM only writing this because I am aghast at the way we journalists seem to live only on blood and gore these days.

LOOK at the way the Sachin-Dravid divide was created. At least the media tried its best. Why did Sachin go public with his ire? Was he right in doing so? Why did Dravid end the match robbing Sachin of his chance of a double century... such questions almost overshadowed the joy of a sweet victory. If Sachin and Dravid had their differences on the latter's decision, it would have been so much nicer to let them sort it out in the privacy of their locker rooms, instead of making it a national issue, and fanning a smouldering ember into a full fledged fire.

IT is as if the media has no joys left in positive news. Everything has to be wrong for it to make it to the headlines.

AND news is that which is fresh, bloody and full of meat.

THUS the media ignores follow-up stories about alleged murderers who walk free, scams that have yet to get their perpetuators booked, rapists who have ruined the lives of innocents... and chases a story that will really not make a difference to anyone's life.

TODAY, it is a Lakshmi or a Dravid; tomorrow... does it matter?