7 hours Ago By Mid-day
I don’t want to comment on how thin-skinned politicians are, or how they get away with uncouth comments while expecting good behaviour from everyone else, or how their double standards never shame them into acting like decent human beings. I avoid saying these things because it may be true of politicians outside India but can never be true for the white-clothed, soft-spoken patriots who spend all their waking hours serving us. Who amongst us has heard an Indian politician behave in anything but a respectful manner?Then again, every other month or so, something occurs to change my opinion.
A few weeks ago, for instance, members of an otherwise peaceful political party vandalised a venue because a stand-up comic who performed there said something to upset one of their ministers. It seemed like a stupid response, given that the venue had nothing to do with what the speaker was saying. Then again, as I recalled later, this was the kind of party that would ban a book despite few of its members being able to read.
After factoring illiteracy into the equation, the response didn’t seem that farfetched after all.Another thing the incident made me realise is how stand-up comics don’t really have a role to play in India 2.0.
They belong to the past. India 2.0 is a world-beating country in the process of being built soon after we figure out how to manage issues related to poverty, malnutrition, unemployment, and infrastructure.
It is serious business, and humour can only cause more harm than good when this sort of development is underway.It is also important to acknowledge that, historically, this has never been a country capable of laughing at itself. That ability is reserved only for people who are secure in their skin, and we have never met that criterion.
It explains why violence, threats of violence, or abusive language is always the first response to anything. To engage in debate or respectfully disagree is something only citizens of evolved nations can do.Part of me also believes that stand-up comics are redundant in a place where so many genuinely funny people gravitate towards politics.
There are jokes all around, for those who care to look for them, because our elected representatives say the most hilarious things whenever a microphone is thrust before them. Consider, for example, the comment by a former chief minister about how India had access to satellite technology and the Internet centuries ago, because it’s how information was transferred by the blind in the Mahabharata. Or, as another exhibit, one minister’s dismissal of Charles Darwin based on his argument that if man evolved from the apes, our ancestors would have documented it.
Also, remember that every other month brings with it statements about how cow urine can cure cancer, or how some minister laughed off the coronavirus because he knew it could be cured by practising yoga and overcoming mental stress. Speaking of that infamous virus, we can’t possibly have forgotten what ministers asked us all to do instead of focusing on boosting healthcare infrastructure. While other countries set up emergency hospital beds and stocked up on vaccines, thousands of our countrymen fought Covid-19 by banging utensils and screaming their lungs out.
That was free entertainment, only we didn’t recognise it at the time because so many of us were cremating loved ones. It’s too bad those avoidable deaths and lack of information from the government didn’t offend anyone as much as jokes on stage routinely do.I sometimes think we would all be calmer if we applauded our honourable politicians for their humour more often.
We spend so much time focusing on the crimes they are accused of, or the crores they accumulate as if by magic after coming to power, or the billionaires they sell public assets to, that we forget the humanity that shines through when they open their mouths in public. They try and entertain while we keep failing to notice it.Tomorrow’s India doesn’t need stand-up comics.
It just needs more appreciation for the comics masquerading as politicians. I distinctly remember one of them saying, not long ago, that climate change isn’t real because it is we who have changed, not the climate. The same erudite gentleman laughed off malnutrition by saying it had less to do with data and more to do with figure-conscious girls obsessed with dieting.
As I said, there are jokers all around us, even if none of them identify as stand-up comics.When he isn’t ranting about all things Mumbai, Lindsay Pereira can be almost sweet. He tweets @lindsaypereiraSend your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.
comThe views expressed in this column are the individual’s and don’t represent those of the paper..
