I don't like Arnab

Face it, he does not even have to try hard; we all have a general feeling of dislike towards Arnab Goswami. The quality of the company which runs his TV channel is suspect. Breaking News! has become the staple headline on that channel - even (I apologize), particularly, when it is about Rakhi Sawant's Swayamvar. Politicians have taken a vow of silence for people like Arnab try and make sure that whatever they say - from economic instability to indigestion - can and will be used against them. I am sorry to use the term, but usually nobody likes people like Arnab. Probably he enjoys it. Nobody cares.

But again, personally I do not like any of the other people on news channels either. Ranging from the kale-rang-ka-kala-bandhar types to the most sophisticated salt-n-pepper bearded people, I do not like them. I am not so much to name names here. News today is manufactured by one and all. No matter how classy or how crass it seems, 40% of the world's media is controlled by a single man. We have heard so much of this 'beware of the WATCHdog' thing, that it takes a real knee to the chin to wake us up. We are a sleepy people, we human beings are.

It was today's DEBATE that made me feel the most annoyed. It made me think a thought that put things in perspective. The topic was the austerity advice by the Finance Ministry to all Govt. Employees. The ruling is simple; all govt employees should for the effect of the following one year, due to the global financial crunch should spend govt money in moderation - including travel. Govt officials are to travel in the Economy class of the flight. Here comes the clincher - a special exception to the rule; MPs are exempted from this rule. Arnab whips up a copy of the ruling in front of the camera and says, what makes the MPs beyond the dictates of the country. In a time of crisis, should not the leaders and representatives of the people show their committment to the cause through action? Bottomline, does the taxpayer have the right to know how his money is being spent? These questions triggered off a debate which amused me and face a rather inconvenient truth - that we perhaps need people like Arnab to ask questions like these. Frankly, I do not like Arnab Goswami; but the Indian system makes him inevitable.

Some of the issues that cropped up during the discussion...
* MPs are NOT govt servants! Seriously, if you had thought that the govt being a body that you (as a citizen) have contributed in constructing and in turn is in charge of the Members of the Parliament whom you have elected to take part in the govt are govt servants; YOU ARE WRONG! They are not govt servants! They are LEADERS! And LEADERS of a nation should NOT walk in the street, eat the same food as the common-folk or sit in the same section as the hardworking taxpayer - because they are LEADERS!

* If you travel in the Economy class of an airplane, you will reach the destination later than if you travel Business class. If any of you thought that the MPs stick it out because of the free drinks, shame on you. They do it so that they can reach there quicker. Them and their train of seven-eight cronies. Help them to help you. Pay taxes to give them a chance to pinch air-hostess' bottoms (or stewards for those inclined thus).

* Asking a Member of the Parliament how the taxpayer's money is spent is a crime. You can be hung in the square for that. How dare you think that representatives of the people are actually answerable to the people? Are they not taking a 20% cut from their salary? Yes, they are merely getting eight hundred rupees now. Excluding their travel allowance, food allowance, vehicle allowance, coffee allowance, biscuit allowance, lapdance allowance, bar allowance, clothes allowance, wives allowance, kids allowance and a list of another five hundred and thirty seven categories. THEY WILL NOT BE AUSTERE BY GIVING UP THESE ALLOWANCES. They will concede 20% of their salary. Whew! What a huge sum! I am breathless. I realize that with just the 20% poverty can be eradicated in the nation AND we can mass produce a single vaccine that will prevent us against H1N1, HIV, Cancer and a bunch of other things.

* No, just because a person wears an unbuttoned cotton shirt and appears unwashed on national news television, it does not mean that he will support the cause of equality between the MPs and the commonfolk. It doesn't matter if the person is supposed to represent the party that has achieved the longest running democratically elected communist regime. He still will insist that a ruling, no matter how good or bad from the govt WOULD not be binding on him, because he is an MP and MPs are directed only by the Speaker of the Lok Saba. True.

* Security, interestingly, was never an issue raised by any of the MPs. Of course, that is a valid point, that angry people might just slit their throats if they travel in the same class as them.

* There are a million other expenses that are involved in the running of a country that a normal person cannot understand - because the term normal person is a lie maintained by the govt to make us feel better; because the normal person is a retard. We let the MPs fly first class because they help us maintain that illusion.

So, bottomline... Do I say that if the MPs stop eating caviar, drinking champagne, humping Scandinavian women and flying first-class - would we find the cure for cancer or at least save enough money to produce one kilolitre of clean drinking water? Maybe not. But flying economy is a symbol - a first page to a host of ways that people who are addressed as the leaders act befitting to the title. Of course, the MPs are right; little things will not make a change. They will not make a difference. Its alright if the MPs spend the taxpayers' money - for the fact it is being spent on the MPs means that it is being spent WELL! No questions asked.

I am a simple man. A reductionist, you may criticize me to be. But imagine an assembly of four families living in a piece of land where they meet to discuss the expenditure to build a common fence to protect the fowls from animals. If the meeting takes place for three months with a chicken each day on the table from their coops for the purpose of the meeting; by the end of the meeting, there will be no more fowls to protect. Yes, I am a simpleton.

Maybe we simpleminded folk are not aware of the fact, that by spending govt money on higher priced tickets, the MPs are actually contributing towards the bailout of the civil aviation industry. That'z the secret of their energy!

Thanks to such developments, I will think of air-travel with all its political layers included. But I still do not comprehend how the finest becomes the right of 545 people in the country for the only reason they are meant to represent the 1 billion others. A majority of the billion will look up at the sky when an airplane passes by, and sigh.