LINES THAT DON’T DIVIDE BUT UNITE- RECOLLECTIONS-1

LINES THAT DON’T DIVIDE

Man has fought majority of his wars on perceived reasons and imaginations linked to his faiths, likes and dislikes. Rare are wars fought over to protect the rights of the poor and the innocents. Also one should not imagine that every time ‘war’ means –army formations on either side in combat mode. There are silent, surreptitious, proxy and open wars. They are fought on so many fronts. One such war is going on in the southern state of India, Andhra Pradesh.

The fire lit some 60 years ago is still burning and threatening the very federal structure we built assiduously in the post independence era. A simple division of a state on purely administrative grounds albeit after a prolonged demand by a section of the people occupying the geographical area, is perceived as if it is a division of a nation.  For around two years now the agitations inside Andhra has caused lot of hardships to the poor and the downtrodden. It is well known, in any agitation like this only the marginalized would be hit.  The rich bother about their factories, malls, their un-real estates and all other immovable properties.

Naturally the rich are few in numbers and the poor–big. Then how did the agitations is large and sustaining for years?  The poor are ill-informed and hence participate.  The youth of the region think their livelihood will be affected as averred by the media . Their emotions are raised to higher pitch to attract the vulnerable for furthering the interests of the elite.  Gone are the days of regionalism or narrow parochialism, Indian companies are purchasing and running companies all around the world.  The very Andhra people are in millions in their neighboring states and are the most successful in running business empires, hospitals and hotels. They contest in elections and people have been electing them for decades now. The Andhra people are heading various political parties today and are never seen through the prism of ‘language or state’ in any state.  Majority of the ideologues of the Dravidian movement in Tamilnadu were Telugu people and the mother tongue of the founder of the rational movement Dravidar Kazhagam was Kannada.

The film fraternity of south India or Bollywood is a shining example that stands a testimony that languages or regions have nothing to do before the exhibition of real talents. For instance the most popular singers in Tamilnadu hail from its neighboring states and the legendary playback singer TMS’ mother tongue was Sowrashtra.Akin to this millions of Telugus live across the world and are in millions in the U.S. and other western nations.

 So when all the synchronization and assimilation is over, and flowing smoothly, where does the need arise to raise voice to protect regional interests. The   troubles in Andhra are purely the creations of the media. The political leaders will toe the line of the media if they present what is right. The politicians need to sail with the majority for their survival and creating and supporting such majority opinion are the duty of the media alone. Blaming one political party or the other is not going to solve the issue.

The media has to play a pro-active role in shaping a right opinion   that suits the nation- here a division of the state and convince people of both sides accordingly.  The common man with a right perception of the division has no platform to air his views. They are forced to agitate or remain calm as per the dictates of the media. Are there not a single south Indian serving in media houses of Delhi and Mumbai? Why did the media blow up a few words spoken by a senile person? Is there a dictum that the media has to report every word a leader mouths every time? Can’t they clamp a censorship on their own?

Yes the differences over sharing of water or natural resources do exist. The very same issues are there between any two adjoining states all over the country. Just because problems are there, we can’t resist change.  I hope the media will soon shed their love for the news from both sides of the imaginary lines that are going to be drawn and help build a public opinion that hurts none.