BY BIKRAM VOHRA
For some reason anything the BBC does is given great importance by the Indian mindset. Something to do with the ex-empire I reckon but we all respond with predictable indignation at their efforts to project India’s warts. A part of our psyche sees the BBC as the benchmark of quality and par for the cinematic course. That the BBC makes no bones about taking the mickey out of the Indian condition and is mean-spirited about the way it handles the facts is not great revelation. They have been doing it for years and they do it with guile, panache and not a little spiteful humour. In all, very slick, very clever and very hurtful. Many years ago they did one on the Taj hotel which was practically a spoof.
The fact it was the BBC had all the unsuspecting Indians preening with pride. The white man complex kicks in however much you want to deny it. If this move had been made in Kenya or in Tokyo we wouldn’t have been incensed.
Take India’s daughters. If we had just ignored it and let it run it would not have lifted the scab of a very ugly wound. If access was given to them to speak to the accused rapist one needs to know how and why. We miss the focus of our outrage. This morning’s paper has seven reports of seven different rapes. So there is grounds for deep concern.
By banning the film and letting it go on the Net the Indian authorities actually did the BBC’s work for them and gave them a surge of attention.
We have the largest cinema industry in the world. Go make a movie on shooting blacks in America, racism in the UK, the fact that cameras cover you from landing to take off and you are profiled and tracked. Who is stopping us. We are just too damn lazy to do it. So long as we are dancing and singing on TV and yelling and screaming and showing a dozen serials about mothers in law and done down daughters in law and cannot rise above the common denominator stop complaining.
We should just put our house in order and make it safer for women, especially children who seem to be the current target. Let’s have a game plan for that priority in India and not bother about the BBC… it is no longer valid.