Mar 15, 2005 06:43 PM
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(Updated Mar 15, 2005 06:43 PM)
A few years ago when the now-divorced-then-recently married heart throb of millions Imran Khan superstar-supercricketer went on his honeymoon with his then wife, Jemima, the Brit media went on a voyeuristic splurge. They were there every where, clicking photographs of Immy and Jimmy in the buff, making it out on the bed, in the bath tub, on the beach ? you name it and the guys were there.
The pictures were then splashed across tabloids. And Imran became a sensation all over again. But this time the balls (pun intended) people saw were not of the cricketing variety.
A few years ago, Monica Lewinsky sucked Bill Clinton dry (pun intended). The entire world had an orgasm. The poor man almost lost his premiership. Monica became an overnight rage.
Boris Becker sires an illegitimate bachcha and the media makes it the biggest catastrophe of the year.
Back home, the Ambani brothers wage a Karan-Arjun combat with each other and the media fears it is going to be a nuclear war. The Birla inheritance problems make it to the front page. It is definitely interesting, but boys and gals in the media, p-u-h-l-e-e-z! ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.
I had supported Tarun Tejpal?s sting operation because national interest was in the forefront. We ought to know how ministers and important government officials misuse public money to satisfy their libidinous and other baser instincts like greed and gluttony.
Two weeks ago, India TV decided to repeat the Tehelka dhamaka. And what do we see? The posteriors of two Members of Parliaments desperately moving along a human form below them. These two MPs were having sex with call girls and our investigative journos (they uphold the moral fabric of society, don?t they?) caught them with pants, dhotis and underwear all down.
And then of course, there was good old Shakti ?Aaw Lalitha? Kapoor salivating with an overweight journo (who was actually a journalist ? Hawa Hawai!). He mumbled something about Ash sleeping with Subhash ?Kiss Na? Ghai, Rani Mukherjee and Preity Zinta having fun with their Johar ?uncle? and there was something about Yash Chopra also. Okay, so the industry is a rotten place. Fine! Thank God you told me! My mother will never allow me to be an actress! Fine! Thank you mama. These politicians and sportsmen are no better. Thank heavens a thousand times I didn?t choose any of these professions to earn my bread and butter.
Now I come to the crux of the issue: Is the media justified in exposing the private lives of public personalities? The answer is simply a big, fat NO.
? **What Imran and Jemima did was well within their conjugal rights. The media had no right of getting into their private space.
? **What Monica did to Bill and Bill to her was definitely not within their conjugal rights. But what the hell! They enjoyed it. Didn?t they? Why did the media make Monica and Bill superstars for all the wrong reasons?
? **Boris Becker may have sired a thousand children for all I care. I didn?t like tennis then, and I don?t like it now.
? **The Ambanis and the Birlas may be fighting for all the booty but I will read anything on them only if they decide to donate fifty per cent of their jaaydad to me.
? The MPs had sex with call girls and Shakti propositioned a (wrong one though) girl. They all did it behind closed doors. They did not rape the women. If the former won their girls through money power, Shakti bhaiyya tried using filmdom?s oldest lure ? a career in Bollywood. Everything was being done within the parameters of what is known as privacy.
In all these cases, the media has acted as a voyeur. It has time and again got its relief through such acts. Why project yourself as a crusader of truth and moral decorum? We live in a world where money, lust, sex, sin have emerged from the domain of righteousness. Who knows who was right? Preety Jain or Madhur Bhandarkar? Who knows and who cares?
