We are in a 21-day nationwide lockdown amid the ongoing corona crisis, which means that we are not allowed to venture out as usual for business or for pleasure. Those of who are sane enough to understand the gravity of the situation or are not in essential services are staying home. However, being cooped up in a house for 3 weeks has its own set of challenges. Amongst them is a rather innocent looking but historically proven to have made people do incredibly stupid things: boredom.
Perhaps it was to dissuade the thrill-seekers from breaking the lockdown out of boredom that the decision to re-telecast Ramanand Sagar’s iconic TV series Ramayana was taken by the I&B ministry. During its first telecast in the late 1980s, the series had a viewership of 82%, a record high for any Indian TV series and also entered the Limca book of records as the most-watched mythological series.
We have all heard quirky anecdotes like the ones where people would light incense sticks in front of their TV sets before the show began or how outraged they would get in case of power outages. Even the busiest of cities came to a complete halt during that one hour. In its rerun, maybe the I&B ministry aims at soliciting the same response from people, as nothing short of the same discipline is required to break the COVID-19 chain.
A few days and about twenty episodes later reactions on the show have started to come in. In the Netflix era that we are in, even a slightest slow moment in a show swiftly meets its fate with the fast forward button. Ramayana the TV series packed with multiple songs and minutes of actors smiling at each other has surprisingly been received positively even by first-time viewers. But as always is the case with any decision taken ever, this too hasn’t gone down well with a certain section of people.
As a matter of fact, even during its first telecast, the show was criticised by few for planting the seeds of communal disharmony in the early 90s. Some are calling it the governments plot to incite those feelings again. Others are blaming the show for any inconvenience or death caused during the lockdown. The mass migration of daily wage workers on foot was also credited to the Ramayana.
Is the crisis being perfectly handled by the government? Certainly not. There have been many slips. But do you believe that these slips were caused because those who were responsible for controlling the situation failed to do so as they were busy watching a TV series? If instead of Ramayana the government had decided to telecast a popular TV series like Game of Thrones would the lapses then still be credited to the series?
The DD network’s program guide in the lockdown includes reruns of a number of popular TV shows.
Several other popular shows are being rerun, from genres ranging from fantasy to comedy. Yet, only the Ramayana being singled out for the ineffective handling of the situation reveals that the problem lies not with the entertainment it offers but the nature of it.
The target audiences of these popular reruns are people who are in the comfort of their homes and not those who are out fighting for their survival. TV shows will not alleviate their sufferings. A lot needs to be done for them and undoubtedly it should be the government’s priority, but how can a TV show like Ramayana get in the way of the government in carrying out the relief work?
If airing the Ramayana was publicised as a relief package rather than an entertainment one it would have been fair to criticise it. Otherwise, it’s like saying you could not sleep well last night in Delhi as there was loud music playing in one of the houses in Mumbai. Are the two issues even related?
For a diverse and vast demography like India, there is no one size fits all remedy and this is precisely why there are several states, ministries, departments etc. that have specialised powers and responsibilities. If you feel that the government has faltered in its efforts, find out where and how so that it could lead to a positive outcome or at least create awareness among the people so that they can make a more informed decision the next time they go out to vote.
Don’t just criticise for the sake of it or to appear “woke”. Let your criticism be based on facts that can stand the test of reasoning. People who criticise every move without facts get labelled as biased and their arguments are ridiculed without even considering them.
Ill thought out and flimsy populist arguments based on trending topics like blaming a TV show for ineffective management shows ignorance and laziness. Such arguments also get those involved in positive criticisms getting painted in the same brush of ridicule as such people are only a handful. Filtering out the good content in a sea of mediocrity that is the internet is no easy task.
On a lighter note, the Ramayana re-telecast has an upside for those of us who are blaming it for ineffective management of the COVID-19 crisis. Given that the show is being widely watched by many including young voters, there’s a chance that it may give them ideas about Ramrajya or the ideal form governance and realise that we are far from it.