Gandhigiri - Star Gold's version

Coming is the long weekend due to Bapu’s b’day; a week full of celebrations here in Mysore owing to Dasara as well.

Gandhi Jayanti may mean different things to different people. For school, college and office goers it may mean just another welcome weekday holiday, for academicians it may mean another opportunity to discuss the relevance of Gandhian principles in today’s society, for wine and hard drink enthusiasts it may mean cursing Gandhi because it’s a dry day throughout the country; very often a one day frenzy to do and discuss every thing closely or remotely related to Gandhi. (Disclaimer here: Remember the list is not inclusive and in no way mutually exclusive)

So govt. may hold a Shanti Sabha, politicians will garland Gandhi’s idol which else would have been gathering dust for the entire past year, very few might consider visiting a nearby Gandhi gallery and most may just be happy to watch a movie on Gandhi on one of the TV channels. It is the later part which I think has left a little distaste with me this Gandhi Jayanti.

This Dasara, yet again channels are springing to cash in on the long weekend crowd and grab the highest share of TRP’s by attracting crowd. Referring to one noticeable attempt by Star Gold, I think either Star Gold has a very poor knowledge of Gandhi (and for that matter history) or it’s just one of those typical channels driven by monetary concerns and with very less aptitude for appripriateness.

It’s very easy to guess that the program schedule is driven by business sense with no regard for what is being shown and to what degree of appropriateness and relevance. Gandhi Jayanti Spl is being shown on 1st Oct and RDB is being shown on 2nd Oct, a movie which I personally, think is a little inappropriate if not grossly unfair.




Leaving aside arguments of business sense, one might argue
· RDB does represent nationalistic (debatable) sentiments so is totally appropriate to the scene
· Gandhi Jayanti has lost its significance so screening of RDB or any other movie doesn’t make much difference
· I am being far more sensitive on this topic than one should be

But I am not for any typical leftist opinion that foreign companies should be banned because they propagate SCB (Subhash Chandra Bose) sentiments when they should be preaching Gandhigiri but I think the schedule has definitely left a bad taste on me.

I am no ardent supporter of Gandhi but to say that he didn’t have any significant positive contribution to the Indian society would be foolish and I respect him for his contributions and in fact in some ways look up to him. It is driven by this respect and probably (as some of you may accuse and I will admit as well) mine one day frenzy, I believe that Star Gold could have done better by planning the program schedule in a better way.