How we became an uncivil society

Last week, a cringe-worthy video of a blustering TV anchor called Rahul Shivshankar making a fool of himself went viral. But his behaviour tells us who we have become

By now, most of you may know that last week a certain furious TV anchor called Rahul Shivshankar made a jackass of himself on his own show, India Upfront. His invitees were Bohdan Nahaylo, chief editor of Kyiv Post, and Daniel McAdams, Executive Director of the Ron Paul Institute. The cringe-worthy clip that went viral shows Shivshankar yelling at who he thought was McAdams, interrupting everyone’s interruptions, wagging his finger and telling the USA not to “lecture India”.

Unfortunately, the titling was wrong. The Ukrainian editor was shown as the American Daniel McAdams and vice versa. Shivshankar, his mic strategically louder than his guests’, was breathing indignant fire and brimstone until—finally—the real Mr McAdams managed to get a word in.

“I’m not talking,” McAdams said. “It’s the other guy who’s talking. I haven’t been able to say a word.”

“I’m not yelling at you. I’m talking about Mr McAdams,” said Shivshankar.

“I am Mr McAdams,” said McAdams.

In a gentler world, you’d have thought that when a TV show invites a guest from a country under brutal siege and another from the world’s most visible democracy, serious questions would be asked and answered and we would all leave a little wiser. However, Indian television is not that medium. Since discovering the power of “outrage TV”, being loud, cantankerous, belligerent and extreme have been the staples of India’s most-viewed TV anchors. Being a snarling dog in full view of millions, provoking discomfort, fury and red-hot anger have been the key to high ratings.

Rahul Shivshankar is not even the original dog; that was his predecessor and mentor, Arnab Goswami, who proved how savagery can get sensational TRP ratings. However, because the principle is the same, we may ask a simple question—when did we become an uncivil society? What does the embarrassing incivility of Arnab Goswami and Rahul Shivshankar tell us about who we are today?

There are millions of thoughtful, respectful and respectable Indians out there. You’ll not see or hear them much. The list below applies best to those very public, high-profile Indians who are somehow now the arbiters of our identities and what behaviour is acceptable in the public square. Here are five beliefs that seem to define being Indian today.

I don’t care who you are. A good journalist might have familiarised himself with his interviewees’ names and details. But if the purpose of a discussion is not to explore other minds and views but express the anchor’s indignation and opinions, names don’t matter. Outrage TV assumes that whoever that other person is, they’re both guilty and wrong. 

Whatever you say, I’m right. Through his bullying interviews, Goswami teaches his viewers to believe that only his view matters. Everyone else is a sideshow. It is a given of outrage TV that the anchor is infallible and wins every time. He is not there to interrogate reality, he’s going to define it and expose it. He could ask you, “Did you kill your wife?” and find you guilty later because you denied it. In our new world, denial is proof of guilt. 

Whatever you say is not important. There is a stunning clip from one of Arnab Goswami’s interviews—the topic was cultural and artistic cooperation between India and Pakistan, and the interviewee (name irrelevant) had obviously been involved in that project, but Goswami already knew that it was bullshit because, you know, Pakistan and Muslims.

His killer question was “Did it work?” He asked this 11 times in 16 seconds. Each time the hapless interviewee tried to answer, Arnab would shout him down with, “But did it work?” It was not a question; it was waterboarding with a question as a weapon.

There’s nothing wrong with rudeness. The term ‘civil society’ is a misnomer where the volume and content of public discourse is unfettered, and laced with personal insults and ad hominem assaults. In our mostly uncivil society, rudeness is rewarded with viewership. You can see it at every traffic crossing where human lives intersect.

Facts don’t matter. Shivshankar, thinking he was addressing an American, shouted, “If you’re so concerned about Ukraine, get off the fence and put boots on the ground. Don’t lecture us here in India.” If he’d only read his parent newspaper, The Times of India, he might have learned that India too was on the fence as far as Ukraine goes. While 141 countries voted to censure Russia, India mumbled pious words and abstained from voting. Worse, on India’s insistence, the word condemn was diluted to deplore to please Mr Putin.

But Shivshankar is only a novice at outrage and we can expect his incivility to evolve to greater horrors. If his mentor Goswami had been dealing with McAdams the conversation might have gone like this:

“You say you’re McAdams? Ha! You? Who do you think you’re fooling, sir? You think we Indians are stupid? You think I don’t know what an Ukrainian looks like?  You’re 100% not Daniel McAdams. You just don’t know it yet.”

Here, viewed from there. C Y Gopinath, in Bangkok, throws unique light and shadows on Mumbai, the city that raised him. You can reach him at cygopi@gmail.com

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The views expressed in this column are the individual’s and don’t represent those of the paper

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