The Only Crime is Getting Caught? Not really!
“The world has changed!” Lulu, my parrot, said with a heavy sigh.
“That’s a very interesting observation” I replied. “What really has changed?”
“Well, when you were young, Bollywood movies showed poor committing crimes. And the justification given by the poor man – and I must tell you that the script writers in Bollywood could never think of anything other than this one – ‘papi pet ke liye kya kuch nahi karna padta’ [I am forced to do many disagreeable things to keep myself alive].”
“And what has changed? Have the script writers found a better line?”
“No Sir!” Lulu, my parrot responded emphatically. “The character of the thief has changed! Ha ha!! Now the thieves are no longer poor people; they are wealthy business leaders like Rajat Gupta, or political leaders like…. No, no. I am not taking anybody’s name.”“It is okay. Everybody knows who has made money. But you have made a very interesting observation – the modern day thieves are prosperous people before they indulge in corruption and not after they do it! Ha, ha!! The modern day thieves do not live below poverty line! Where have the good old poor thieves gone?” I wondered.
“They have not gone anywhere; their crime does not make juicy stories on TV channels.”
“It must be an interesting job to report crime on TV.” I thought aloud.
“Sure. Unless you are on Zee News TV.” Lulu reminded me of the Jindal – Zee News scandal.
“Oh, Jindal has caught them by the collar and Zee News is looking for cover. What will happen if a News Channel staffer is convicted and sent to jail? Will they show greater responsibility and discretion in their news reporting?” I asked.
“Oh, come on! The TV staffer will make right connections in jail. He will then be an invaluable asset to his channel. The real world of crime and criminals is not known to common men, not to the Press too. It is known only to police and to the jail birds.” Lulu laughed as he circled over my head flying low before settling there.
Vivek