Sunday, December 23, 2007

Modi and Indian culture

I know, I know, what are the two doing together? Well, nothing. Except both happened today.
I'm no fan of Modi, or of the sort of politics he's accused of employing. However, what has always bothered me is the sort of campaign that has been going on against him. For instance, I distinctly remember the large-scale vilification that was started by some left-wing activists resulting in his request for a US visa being refused. I mean, you can't place the man in the same category as Saddam Hussain, Polpot, and the like! Yes, he fiddled when Gujarat burned, and that is a crime, no less, and if he is found guilty, he must be punished severely - but how are his accusers, one who talked about large trees falling, and another who was proud of how his boys killed dozens of Muslims to 'takeover' a village?
If Modi has really done the sort of development that he claims to have done, this victory is well deserved and is a slap of the face of the pseudo-secularists, the media and the left intelligensia.
Many of you might have watched the long series of dance programmes on the various regional channels, including Sony, Gemini, Star Plus, and the like. What has bugged me, and in fact, the incident that prompted me to write this post is the so called children's competitions that these channels conduct. The children gyrate their hips, making the most decadent moves on screen - and this is not limited to girls only - many of the moves the boys perform are not those I'd want my kids (if I had any) to watch! This is shameful - how can parents let their children dance to such steps?

2 comments:

Balbir said...

Grow up Gops. I am not talking about Modi, but children dancing is a different thing. If they enjoy and you look at it with the view point of enjoying music with free spirit, you'll see nothing wrong.

Dance and Music are an integral part of life.

Gops said...

Yeah, I knew I had that coming. I agree, though that vulgarity is in the eyes of the beholder, what I think is vulgar, someone else might find artistic.

I also agree that dance and music are an integral part of life.

But I somehow still think it is exploitation of the kids. I can't substantiate it, but it just "feels" wrong.

For instance, I believe that the moves a Rakhi Sawant or what-is-her-name does is to titillate the audience. Not that anything is wrong in it, but having children make the same moves somehow makes me link it to child pornography...

Maybe I'm just being a big prude.