Our Indian-ness?

Source: www.wn.com

“Rajdeep Sardesai heckled and manhandled at Madison Square Garden” screamed most headlines across the country over the last two days. A video that claimed to be the other side of the story went viral on social media making more than one pair of eyes roll at how hypocritical the famed journalist could be. Then rose the eye witnesses from the media world who shed light on the real story about how Rajdeep was manhandled by fanatic supporters over what had begun as a simple tweet.

Was Rajdeep in the wrong or was he victimized? Were the Indian ‘brain drain’ just venting the frustrations of the fanatical supporter or did they blindly cross the line? While these are questions being thrashed over social media and argued over single malt, none of them even make it to my bemused Indian mind.

What does creep in is a feeling of shame; because we Indians have done ourselves proud; once again.

Be it the ‘Aam Aadmi’ who leads a frustrated life bogged down by the shadows of corruption and crime that are perennially cast in the motherland he lives in or the suave NRI with the ‘firang’ accent, sitting in a remote corner of the world vocally devout in his aspirations for the development of Bharat Mata or the bandwagon of senior media persons who have dropped everything to follow NaMo halfway across the world- all have proven time and again how consistent we are in displaying what I am now inclined to call the Indian-ness in our behaviour.

Be it in India or out, having a low tolerance for a different view and displaying support fanaticism through violence and abuse seems to be something we Indians excel at. Wherever we go, we don’t seem to change; possessively we cling on to this aggression and impatience and make a proud display of it at every chance we get.

As India goes gaga over its Prime Minister and his exemplary speeches; I wonder if we take a pause to give our own behaviour a thought. While we applaud NaMo for his tough response to Pakistan at UNGA and his perspective on development; don’t we feel even a speck of embarrassment at the lack of basic courtesy we display especially in public?

Why does who actually won the race to initiate the assault first at Madison Square Garden matter so much that it hogs the limelight for days together? Our behaviour shows no sign of questioning the occurrence of such an incident in public in a foreign country; instead all we care about is who did what. Why?

Or is it all but a hype created by Media? The infamous Indian Media who time and again has proved its loyalties to popularity and ratings? – News is after all whatever that sells like a hot cake. An assault on a veteran journalist definitely makes the cut. No?

And while the media and people stay busy with their applause and their insults, I watch the John Oliver show snippet about Modi’s visit and cringe wondering if a day will ever rise when we will realize what a true show of mockery we sometimes end up making of ourselves.