News @ 8

We sat down to dine on a typical Thursday and tuned into a popular news channel to catch up on the happenings in the country. Barkha Dutt appears on screen. After a terrible attempt at serving rice and looking sideways to see if I was in for a lecture on my sloppy serving skills, I finally look up to hear her say, "...how the killing of a young girl has now become a political battle between two women. We have Renuka Chowdhury, the union minister for women and child development on camera with us, live from Bangalore" . The screen now shows the minister on one half and the details of the case on the other half along with Barkha on the top corner.

B: What is it that angered you about Mayawati's comments?
R: My only objection is that the IG of Police, Delhi has no right to make a statement about the character of a minor child and or make a personal remark about her. He should realise the responsibility that comes with the office that he holds. Thousands of children are watching the news everyday, how do you think they would feel about all this?
B: Fair enough Ma'am. You also said, "I feel for this child like a mother and I don't think Mayawati realises what it is to feel like a mother". Don't you think this was a rather personal remark on the fact that she is still single and wouldn't know what it felt like to be a mother?
R: I didn't mean it like that. All I said was I felt for the child like a mother and she being a lady should also share similar feelings for the child. It was not a personal attack.......(blah blah)

They run a short footage with Mayawati's comments. I'm bored by now. It hardly sounds like a political battle. Looks like two women are fighting for media attention and looks like they are getting it. The actual case, the murder of a teenage girl and the manservant of the house, is forgotten in this nonsense squabble. Bah! Let's switch .... (few minutes later we are back on the same channel after a full cycle) Its Barkha again. This time the video clips show men protesting. The headline reads ' Gujjars in the capital' and a reporter is saying, "This is not Rajasthan but the streets of Delhi....." The Gujjars are fighting for ST status. All the highways connecting Delhi to other states have been blocked and the Gujjars are firm in their demands. Barkha now gets the group head on line and asks him why he hasn't accepted the chief minister's invitation for having talks and negotiating. The chief quickly says, "She hasn't phoned me!". Barkha does all she can to stifle a giggle and continues to tell him that the chief minister doesn't really have to call him personally, he has made it amply clear. The poor fellow still doesn't understand, he starts to say, "Look Barkha...." and I see we have moved on to another channel. If people are fighting to be classified as STs ans SCs and calling it a 'status' then India sure has moved on from the days when these were the opressed classes. Today, it seems like they are the privileged ones. Why else would people fight to be scheduled? My dad tells me around 40 people have died in this 'struggle for ST status' and they haven't been cremated yet to arouse sympathy or for whatever reason they saw fit. Yet it sends a shiver down my spine when I think about those poor souls who died without a reason and were let to rot on the streets when their own men went chasing after some meaningless so-called status. After another surf-cycle we are back to news at eight (its almost 8:30 now). Barkha informs us that a 28 year old American has a lodged a police complaint in Chennai alleging that she was kidnapped and raped. She was left in a house in a residential area where she awoke the next day in a semi-conscious state. Barkha exclaims, " Incidents like these re-affirm our belief that India is not a safe destination for women who travel alone". Tch Tch.... and we could take it no more. Click and the screen goes blank. We look at each other, our faces reflect the blank screen. We gobble up the leftover food and leave to finish unfinished chores.