Dear Jayaji,
I write to you as an admirer, both of your acting and political career. From the time you made your screen debut in Satyajit Ray’s Mahanagar and then your first Hindi film Guddi, in which you stole a nation’s hearts as the sprightly and bubbly schoolgirl, you have been one of our foremost actors. You will have to excuse me if I don’t get effusive about your recent roles, like in Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, but it happens to the best of them. But you made a smooth transition from cinema to politics and unlike many other celebrity-politicians, such as Govinda, Hema Malini and your one time co-star Rekha, you have engaged yourself fully in current affairs.
Further, you have been faithful to your party. When Amar Singh, your mentor and Jaya Prada walked out of the Samjawadi Party, you chose to stay, showing consistency and loyalty — not very common traits in politics today. You take your role as a politician and an MP quite seriously.
With so much happening in the country, we expect politicians like you to speak on issues that matter to the nation at large, especially to the underprivileged and the voiceless. They may not have elected you directly, but you do have a duty towards them. There is so much you could speak on — price rise, which hurts each and every one of us, rapes that have now become a daily occurrence. Even cinema, a subject you know so much about, could benefit by your interjections — the appalling manner in which women are treated in films is a handy issue.
But alas, no. You choose to speak on something that bothers you and your fellow parliamentarians. You seem to be offended by the mimicking of politicians by radio jockeys and want it to be immediately stopped, preferably by executive fiat. We all wondered why you picked on hapless radio jockeys when you could have easily made a general statement. You may have tuned in to the radio during your long rides and what you heard got your goat. “These youngsters are getting above themselves — why not use all my power as an MP to put a halt to this nonsense,” you thought to yourself and immediately decided to bring this to the attention of the Rajya Sabha, thereby turning it into a major national issue.
You must have felt quite heartened when you were supported by other MPs, including those from the BJP and your party’s rival Bahujan Samaj Party. Obviously, they too had been brooding about it. What is more, even the information and broadcasting minister Prakash Javadekar endorsed your views and declared that “Something Must Be Done”.
And, I forecast, something will be done, and soon. This is how it will go: The I&B ministry will soon issue a circular to all radio stations asking them to cease and desist from making fun of MPs. Some of them may have already done so voluntarily within five minutes of your speech becoming public, but those that haven’t will comply with the ministry’s order. The mimicking will stop. You would have scored a triumph.
But here’s something that could happen too. The mimickry will move online and to offline sites such as comedy clubs and even to the hundreds of variety programmes that take place all over India. Many of these will find their way on to YouTube and will be circulated all over the social media. Cartoonists will have a field day making fun of you and your fellow MPs. And, as you know from your long experience in the film industry, the politician is often caricatured in Hindi films as either a venal, corrupt criminal or a lecherous figure of fun; that will just increase.
So would you then ask for a ban on cartoonists, stand-up comedians or scriptwriters? Will you use your enormous influence in the film industry to call for a complete boycott of those who make fun of politicians? Will you lead the demand for censorship of newspaper cartoons and controls on the Internet? If this sounds alarming and, to your mind, far-fetched, please note that your demand that the government “do something about it”
Is just the kind of opening that it needs. If the radio stations capitulate, it will only encourage the government to go a few steps further and
that, for me, is worrying.
You will say that all you want is a stop to “objectionable” content. But who decides what is objectionable? One of the great strengths of a democracy is that freedom of speech cannot have exceptions — abuse is part of it too. I am not a public figure like you, but even I get some real vile, filthy abuse on Twitter (and women are perhaps the biggest targets.) When it becomes a threat, it is a problem — the rest you learn to take in your stride.
Banning is no solution — years ago, your husband banned the media because he was not happy with the stories about him. And what was the result? Did the media change its ways? (And you may have noticed he gets a lot of favourable coverage these days.)
You seem rather angry at the ways of the world and the media in particular. You upbraided them for calling your daughter-in-law Ash as if she were a friend. Well, if you expect journalists to bow and scrape every time you or your family give them an audience, forget about it.
I suggest you learn to take things lightly and shrug off any silly mimicking by funny guys. There are much bigger problems to worry about — the communal tension in Uttar Pradesh, ruled by the Samajwadi Party is one such. Can we expect you to soon talk about it in Parliament?
