Revolution Evolution

El Politico : India. A nation where every realm begets political ramifications in some shape or form. Nothing is safe from the political powerhouse that controls every thought, every emotion of the "common man", an image best inked by the legendary R. K. Laxman to comically (albeit vociferously) represent silent acceptance and gullibility.

This thought process was revitalized when I observed a simple example on television. Those of you in India or the Middle East (or in the US, with the Dish Network Mega/Value Pack), have probably caught the reality show, Fame Gurukul. For those who haven't, its a reality show where contestants have been residing in this mansion of music education, called the Gurukul, being eliminated by audience votes to produce a "fame Jodi", if you will, of a talented duo. The final 3 that the competition has come down to, after 'crores' of votes and hundreds of eliminations, are Ruprekha Bannerjee, Qazi Tauqeer and Rex D'Souza. Over the months, I have witnessed the elimination of some really talented and gifted singers, by so-called audience voting (which is carried out by phone calls and SMS-es across the nation, and is re-emphasized by non-televised campaign rallies). Seems simple enough so far? Now comes the political manifestation of the same. Qazi Tauqeer is visibly a good stage performer, with a Hritik Roshan fixation, not to mention a good-looker with a hairdo resembling a disregarded mop. But when it comes to the singing department, he falls short by orders of magnitude of several of his predecessors who are unfortunate not to be in his position today. Why? Because he's a Muslim from Kashmir. The minute he would have lost the public vote and left the Gurukul, his first media interview would have been crammed with allegations of discrimination. And India would burn. It would, trust me! It takes very little sparks to ignite conflagrations in our nation. And most minority leagues who are bereft of funding and a tad bit 'mental', (hence, funda-mentalists), just wait for an opportunity to grab the riot limelight. Hence, he remains. And with a grand chance of winning one half of the title, as well.

Moreover, get this. Rex, Rooprekha and Qazi. C'mon! A modern-day "Amar Akbar Anthony", don't you think? Why piss off any of the communities and their respective bodyguard commissions that cry reckless violence when mildly discriminated or even, disregarded? Why ignore the communities that relate to the religion of a candidate rather than his talent, and bring down the TRPs? Its sad that in a nation of disparities and heritage, that calls itself the world's largest democracy, even a so-called simple televised music competition falls prey to negative communalist variables.