Page 114 - EW April 2023

Postscript

New lumpen bourgeoisie arrested or allowed to go about their business. Merely
repeating charges and confronting the accused with “evi-
dence” and “proof” of wrong-doing in the hope of tripping
HAT INDIA IS RANKED #80 OUT OF 150 coun- them up is not legitimate investigation, but brow-beating.
tries on the Berlin-based Transparency Internation- And it’s highly doubtful if confessions or evidence ob-
Tal’s Corruption Index 2022, well below Botswana, tained under duress will be admissible in courts of law.
Chile, Taiwan and Cabo Verde, doesn’t seem to bother The mental picture of ill-trained officers of CBI, ED and
India’s politicians and middle class — “we are like that tax agencies repeatedly asking the same questions over
only” — who love to proclaim India’s greatness from every and over again for hours, and proudly filing 1,000-page
available roof-top. Yet for man’s sheer inhumanity to chargesheets written in gibberish, reinforces the popular
man, consider this story filed by Petlee Peter, a corre- belief that the process is the punishment, if not that the
spondent of the Times of India, Bangalore edition (March law is an ass.
1). Instead of commending investigative brow-beating and
On February 1, IT professional Sunil Kumar received mental torture of citizens, judges would do well to pass
the devastating news that his wife and elder daughter strictures against over-zealous officials of investigative
were crushed to death under a concrete mixer truck agencies who are bringing the justice system into further
driven by a reportedly sleep deprived driver. After the disrepute.
bodies of the deceased were taken to hospital, the driver
of the hospital ambulance refused to drive the bodies
home unless he was paid Rs.21,000 in cash. After the Inflection point? Nah
amount was paid, employees of the mortuary refused to
issue death certificates unless Rs.60,000 was paid up in LL OF INDIA HAS GONE GAGA OVER TWO
cash. Indian productions — knockout song Naatu Naatu
Nor are these examples exceptional. Many years ago, Afrom the blockbuster hit RRR and documentary
your limping correspondent was denied a ride by several short film The Elephant Whisperers — winning top
autorickshaw drivers after emerging from a hospital with honours at the 95th Oscar Academy Awards held recently
a pulled hamstring. The truth is that with routine extor- in Los Angeles. However, it’s pertinent to note that but
tion and rents extraction at every level, corruption has for OTT (over-the-top) major Netflix co-producing The
permeated the DNA of India’s middle class. To the extent Elephant Whisperers, this heart-warming documentary
that the new lumpen bourgeoisie typified by the neta- wouldn’t have seen light of day. Ditto All that Breathes,
babu brotherhood, doesn’t hesitate to extort money from another Indian production which was nominated in the
people in extreme distress. documentary short feature category, was backed by a
Karnataka, where the bereaved Mr. Sunil Kumar had British producer and streamed on HBO.
to suffer man’s inhumanity to man, goes to the polls These two Indian documentaries got their moment of
in May. The “folk-lore of corruption” — a descriptive glory on the Oscar stage thanks to foreign funding and
invented by Nobel laureate economist Gunnar Myrdal in support. Indeed, the advent of OTT platforms Netflix,
the 1960s — is set to sink the incumbent BJP government. Amazon, Disney Hotstar among others has been a major
gamechanger for the Indian documentary films genre,
Investigation or brow-beating? which had few backers in a country obsessed with glossy
song-n-dance cinema.
Curiously, foreign OTT production bosses are aware
HERE’S SOMETHING SERIOUSLY WRONG with that there’s a huge, educated English-speaking middle
the heads of the top brass in Central government class in India, within which there’s a sizeable minority
Tagencies such as the CBI, Enforcement Directorate (small in percentage but big in numbers) appreciative of
and Income Tax Department, who summon and question documentaries which portray real-life stories rooted in
citizens for eight-ten hours at a stretch to unearth alleged the Indian socio-economic milieu. The Elephant Whis-
suspected crimes and misdemeanours. perers is drawn from the actual life of a tribal couple par-
Take the case of K. Kavitha, MP and daughter of enting two baby elephants in the forests of Tamil Nadu,
Telangana chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao, who was and All that Breathes follows the life of two brothers who
interrogated by detectives of the Enforcement Directorate rescue injured birds in the national capital. These are
for nine hours on March 11, and again for ten hours on intelligent stories for which Bollywood and its several re-
March 20. All this in connection with a case filed by ED/ gional clones have neither the time, funding nor patience.
CBI against the Aam Aadmi Party whose Deputy Chief The Oscar award to The Elephant Whisperers is an
Minister Manish Sisodia is charged with master-minding inflection point in Indian cinema, and marks a departure
a liquor excise duty scam by changing the Delhi state from mindless, logic-defying formula films churned out
government’s policy to favour a cartel of South Indian every year. RRR which featured the Naatu Naatu song
businessmen and politicians with whom Kavitha is alleg- is a formula film produced at a mind-boggling cost of
edly involved. Rs.550 crore. Ditto the Shah Rukh Khan starrer Pathaan,
The merits and demerits of the case apart, one which is breaking box-office records.
wonders why such prolonged questioning of witnesses/ What are the chances of the two documentaries and
accused is necessary and permitted. In most democratic success of OTT platforms changing the mindsets of Bol-
countries the maximum time allowed for grilling the lywood badshahs and vernacular cinema producers in the
accused is one hour after which the accused are either near future? Nil.

114 EDUCATIONWORLD APRIL 2023