Living with Liberhan

The family was discussing the Liberhan Commission report on November 23, 2009. Apparently an Indian newspaper got hold of sections of the report. An Indian news channel followed it up with studio discussions throughout the day. The last one was the family discussion. This is a highily knit family. You can see them, or a combination of them, on this channel almost every day. It is more of a Mutual Admiration Society of editors, bureaucrats and politicians, present and past. They debate and argue on things national and societal and political, for appearances sake. Because the family comes first. So what if in the process they are evidence of the nexus between the Indian media and politics. They arrogate to themselves the right to think on behalf of India and Indians. They are arrogant enough to pass off heresays as facts. They are the self-styled arbiters of the Indian mind. They play out a P3 game show every evening.
On November 23 the family was discussing the Liberhan Leak and its implications. After a marathon session, they labelled the report as a joke, the findings as dumb and concluded it was not worth the paper it was written on. And they went home, happily after telling the Indian audience they could go on demolishing temples and mosques and churches and even zoos and latrines with impunity and without fear of punishment. They concluded that the Indian state was a non-governable body.
The fact they forgot to mention, intentionally, was that they being a part of that very same society and politics they were laughing at, they should be laughed at, too.
Barkha Dutt was as usual anchoring the show. Vir Sanghvi and Swapan Dasgupta were the editorial pulpits. Shekhar Gupta was not present as it was his paper, the Indian Express, which apparently printed the Liberhan Leak. The rest of the cast were the usual political suspects who are distinguishable from the channel staff because of the sheer fact that they do'nt as yet carry the channel ID.
The issue was whom to blame for the demolition of the Babri Masjid. That question was twisted a number of times until the issue was whom did Liberhan indict for the demolition. Another round of twists and it was who should pay the price for the demolition. Yet another twist turned the issue into what took Liberhan 17 years to come out with the report. And so it went on for two hours.
They managed to steer the blame away from the BJP and towards the Congress. They were merciless in attacking a person now dead: PN Narasimha Rao, who as Prime Minister in 1992, remained silent as the Masjid came down. The collective idea was to protect the current leadership of both parties, the Congress and the BJP. To make the family secular, the head of the Muslim Personal Law Board was invited to the table. To make it unbiased, a former bad boy who founded the lumpen arm of the BJP was also invited. They were the props, because the air time was entirely for the family alone.
I think most Indian journalists may have watched this show on the channel, mostly because they had nothing else to do or they couhldn't find a table at the Press Club. Most of them may have worked for, with or under the family members at least once in their careers and so, would know, if they cared to, how these members have made a volte face in these 17 years. Archives would show what they said in 1992 and what they said on November 23, 2009. Possibly, as members of the global village of India, they decided that religious quibblings did not go down well with a march towards globalisation. They were in a hurry to forget what happened in 1992. That is why the reiteration, irrespective of right, left or centre, that 17 long years have passed since the demolition. That is why the reiteration that the Liberhan report is a sham and cannot lead to any judicial conviction for the accused. Let sleeping karsewaks lie. That's their motto.
What a shame to call them journalists or politicians or bureaucrats.