?We’re watching the Budget show, or are we watching MTV Roadies?? asked Pantulu, our head chef. It was a sort of statement more than a question. His preference was obvious. Since the future of everything in our little hotel depends on what the sambar tastes like, and not on what happens if excise is reduced on bus bodies, chassis and other mechanical objects, and in any case every TV channel was carrying an identical ?exclusive? with the finance minister, we ended up watching Raghu, Rannvijay and Nikhil strut their stuff on screen. They are not to be taken lightly. If required, can also win elections. Also, it is certainly better than suffering the usual suspects on all the business channels saying the usual things, no?
At the end of the day, if what the youth of this nation? aspire for is a reality show in which these guys must appear to be bigger idiots than they really are, then certainly the Budget show is going to fall way behind in any sort of democratic process. Especially one involving numbers, especially of the profit and loss sort, and the larger economic indicators, of the budgetary sort. Sometimes it makes you wonder, doesn?t it?
Is MTV Roadies actually a reality show on how politics is really carried out in India? With a camera that does not shut down when the Speaker orders it to, and passions both covert and overt directing the state of play.?The only way we shall find out is if they start mixing and matching the two television programmes, the Budget and Roadies, and stop pretending that they are any different.
After all, the concept of the show is to?eventually?raise revenue and influence spending. That?s what the Budget aims for. Then we have a bunch of variables thrown in, like politicians changing sides by going to the President of India, whoever it may be, and young people who do not know the name of the President of India, which doesn?t matter either.
And finally, at the end of the day, everybody smiles and waves at the camera. Happy people all around, while we get our pockets picked.
Actually, we should buy two TV sets, one to watch each reality show. And if at the end of it all, we can still buy two TV sets in Dubai or Singapore for the price of one in India, then something is wrong with the reality of how the Indian middle class is getting to earn and pay taxes and finally spend money.
And maybe that?s what the FM meant when he said that it is not the Budget which decides electoral fortunes, but the way everything is projected by the media. That is the thing to remember. Whether Roadies succeeds or the Budget, the TV channels always come?ahead.
