SANJAYOVACHA | A New Wind Is Blowing Across Moribund Stage | Sanjaya Baru

Just connect the dots. A teenage youth, Aryan Gupta, exposes incompetence and deceit in the conduct of a government organised nationwide examination. The Chief Justice of India, Justice Surya Kant, spews contempt on a desperate youth, calling them “cockroaches”. A little-known communications and political strategist, Abhijit Dipke, springs into action, forming the Cockroach Janta Party, capturing the imagination of the country’s sullen youth.

All this caused a stir, enough to worry the government but not to make it respond responsibly. The mainstream media remained in la la land. Even after a living Gandhian like Sonam Wangchuk had to go on a fast unto death in support of an entire generation of betrayed high school students.

Out of nowhere and in a distant land, a diminutive journalist asks a simple question: Why does Prime Minister Narendra Modi not meet the media and answer their questions? Why is his communication entirely one-way? The Norwegian journalist, Helle Lyng, becomes a celebrity globally, attracting abuse and venom from the Modi Parivar’s troll mafia.

In Oslo, it was just a simple question. By the time Prime Minister Modi arrived in Australia and New Zealand, it had become a tsunami of media mockery. The Australian media roasts the PM like never before. “Look at him hug our PM!” No one overseas had till then made such fun of Mr Modi’s famous “grab and hug” routine. Nothing like this had happened in twelve long years.

But the big enchilada comes out of Bollywood. A popular entertainer whom my generation envied for his role as the poor Charudatta who romanced the voluptuous Vasantasena, played by the star of our teenage dreams, suddenly lit a fire on YouTube. In a never before viewed combination of high politics and sheer entertainment, Shekhar Suman weaved all the threads that have become the warp and weft of middle-class life in India and launched his “Shekhar Tonite” on YouTube.

Till now Mr Suman has been a pure entertainer. Today he has become the vehicle of expression of middle-class angst and anger against an incompetent and insensitive regime. Very interestingly, and I have not yet read any editorial comment on this, his first episode was launched with Mr Modi’s bete noire, road and highways minister Nitin Gadkari, as his guest. Mr Suman was mindful enough to cover all bases, roasting Mr Modi’s adversaries, such as Mamata Banerjee, Arvind Kejriwal and Rahul Gandhi.

Then followed a series of guests from the world of entertainment, ranging from Farah Khan to Sunidhi Chauhan. So, here’s the deadly formula he has crafted. Begin with pungent political commentary laced with a tinge of humour and follow through with good fun and music. His opening remarks are not jokes, as he told Karan Thapar in an interview to The Wire. They are serious questions posed in a non-threatening manner. Like a sharp knife cutting through butter.

Every time Mr Suman’s sword jabs those in power, he steps back to welcome a member of the power elite. So, Mr Gadkari is followed up a couple of episodes later by Amruta Fadnavis -- a banker, a singer and, incidentally, the wife of Maharashtra’s chief minister Devendra Fadnavis. Clever. Both Gadkari and Mr Fadnavis are reportedly favourites of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat. This, however, has not insured Mr Suman’s producers from a visit from the Enforcement Directorate, but that has not yet deterred the performer.

Mr Suman reaches out to traditional BJP supporters repeatedly bringing Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee into conversations. He has memorised most of Atalji’s poetry. He has huge admiration for Atalji’s leadership. Who does not? Along with Jawaharlal Nehru, Atalji remains the most beloved PM of the country. And Nehru and Vajpayee ran a mutual admiration society. All this harks back to the politics of a different, more elegant, past.

Voices of dissent within BJP are finally being heard on social media. Rajasthan’s former chief minister Vasundhara Raje Scindia, a senior BJP figure, recently spoke to her party faithful reminding them of past civility in the relationship between the government and the Opposition, recalling the friendship between Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao and Atal Behari Vajpayee.

That two million viewers have watched Shekhar Tonite is not surprising. I had missed it till I saw Thapar’s interview and then I binge watched all ten episodes. It has been a long time since someone from Bollywood has dared to make a political point. The singer Kishore Kumar tried during the Emergency and Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s minions blocked him out of All India Radio and Doordarshan. We would listen to Radio Ceylon to hear Kishore Kumar songs.

Mr Suman’s political statements range from the simple remarks about middle-class concerns, the corruption in and quality of public infrastructure to anger expressed in chaste and poetic Hindi about the insensitivity of an arrogant power elite. Just as a viewer’s blood begins to boil in response, the Band Stand steps in with music to lighten the effect. Deadly combo.

I do believe that it is Shekhar Tonite that has finally stirred the conscience of Mumbai’s entertainment world. In response to Sonam Wangchuk’s fast several Mumbai and Bollywood celebrities ranging from Shobhaa De to Vishal Dadlani have spoken up. It is not just the usual suspects like Shabana Azmi but a new generation of concerned citizens from the world of entertainment seem to have been inspired by Mr Suman’s show to step out and speak up.

The middle class has become used to corruption in municipal administration, in public services, in real estate administration, in government departments and among politicians of all hues. But corruption in the administration of a meritocratic examination system, on which the aspirations of middle-class children hinge? As if that was not the last straw, came evidence of corruption in the administration of an iconic temple that has occupied the centre-stage of Indian politics for over a half century.

It is not clear how the present situation will evolve. After all, thousands of farmers brought the Narendra Modi government to its knees, but the government survived and the farmers have been forgotten. So too the women of Shaheen Bagh. Will the fate of Aryan, Abhijeet, Sonam and Suman be the same? Will their voices fade with no real political impact? To quote Joan Baez, a conscientious voice of my generation, the answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind!

Sanjaya Baru is a Distinguished Fellow, United Service Institution of India and Takshashila Institution