December reinforces 2017 as year of the ‘jumla’

As the year draws to a close and people scramble to find words, phrases and one-liners to describe 2017, two words ‘double standards’ seem appropriate to remember the passing year.

The art of Loving

Actress-entrepreneur Shilpa Shetty Kundra was honoured with a 'Hero to Animals' award by animal rights organisation, People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) on December 17 at Mumbai.

“Her exemplary workincludes speaking out against the cruelty of circuses; signing a petition asking the government to uphold the ban on Jallikattu, bull races, and bullfights; and adopting a stray kitten,” PETA said in its acknowledgement.

But barely three days later, Shetty posted on Twitter a picture of a roast Turkey, telling her followers to celebrate the festival with her “scrumptious Christmas special recipe.”

The art of the ‘secular’ artist

Similarly, Bollywood actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui, who had pulled out of a Ramleela programme following threats from the Shiv Sena which objected to a Muslim on the stage, posted a powerful message through a video that showed him holding up placards on secularism.

Ironically, when Amitabh Bachchan, Shiv Senachief Uddhav Thackeray and Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut announced a biopic on Bal Thackeray this week, they announced Siddiqui in the lead role of the Hindu, right-wing leader.

The actor posted a “teaser of the year” on Twitter and pinned the post: “Three million views on Facebook and Youtube. #ThackerayTheFilm.” Sharing the poster of the biopic, an “honoured and proud” Nawazuddintweeted that he was indeed “most fortunate in the whole world” for getting to portray the role of “the real king of the country” on screen.

The art of the rebel

NDTV journalist Ravish Kumar invariably sounds worried on his primetime shows, public speeches and in his lyrical and imaginative writings. Kumar has many a times asserted that “the national project for instilling fear has reached completion.”

It is only the lapdog media which is safe in India today and the media, according to him, is firmly under the heel of the emperor. “The media has become useless – it can’t do anything for you. Don’t let it be your Achilles heel,” he keeps reminding his audience, asking the middle class to walk barefoot.

This past week, however, with a smileKumar received the ‘Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Award’ from Vice President of India M Venkaiah Naidu.

Ironically, earlier this year Naidu had supported the one day ban on NDTV after accusing it of “anti-national” propaganda.ThenUnion Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Naidu had asserted that the ban on NDTV India was “in the interest of the country’s safety and security.”

“At present we are confined to holding protest meetings. Very soon, we will have occasion to see each other at condolence meetings,” this is how Kumar had reacted after the death of Gauri Lankesh.

Akshaya Mukul, a journalist from TheTimes of India, had refused to accept the award for 2016 on the grounds that it was being given away by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Mukul could not “live with the idea of Modi (and him) in the same frame. But while some of his fans expected Ravish Kumar to also boycott the function, he seemed to have no problem accepting the award from Naidu.

The art of electoral politics

During the recently held Gujarat assembly elections, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Amit Shah told his party members across the state that there would be no victory processions if BJP was unable to win 150 plus seats.

But though the party could bag only 99 seats, Shah flashed the V sign and celebrated the victory even as party workers showered rose petals on his triumphant procession.