Whither wrong?

Let us first get into our heads, that there is something called as right and wrong. I do not think there will be much of an argument on that!

Second, in a family of two, comprising of a man and his wife, there are thousands (at least, hundreds) of things that the man considers right is considered wrong by the wife. Yes or no? I am sure you will nod in acceptance here too!

Third, when it comes to the extended family, comprising of your children, siblings, parents, in-laws and the rest of this circle of people, tell me how many rights and wrongs exist between all of us. Don't you think that there are thousands and laks of points that you consider right is considered wrong by others.

Check the society!

This huge mass of people in a city and then in a state of India and India as a country and as a part of this entire world, full of human beings devoured by their own thoughts and perceptions. Thoughts that are not accepted by one another is quite common. Leaders like Gandhi always asked people to listen to the others' voice.

In the early days of human civilisation, may be I should call it uncivilised barbaric existence of human beings, any dissent in thought and action met with only two results. One, he is ex-communicated if the top man was lenient and in good mood. Else he is beheaded.

Over a span of tens of thousands of years, civilisation blossomed. We became more and more tolerant to thoughts anti to us. Not because it is ok to have a different thought process but because we realised only such thoughts brought growth in a society. Why do we not admire some of the strains of Islam? While some of them were good, gave Alexandria and its library to the world, there are others that do not encourage thinking and questioning the belief systems.

But still we are a long way off from an ideal system visualised by Rabindranath Tagore in his seminal lines that want the country to awake in a free and fair country not a rich and pompous one. After all, great thinkers know the richness of a land is decided not by the resources that they have but by the fair practices and freedom that they provide.

Even an enemy, says Ramayana, can have his say and go back alive. He need not mince his words. He can say what he wants to say however hurtful it might be. Reminds of Julius Caesar, where the Roman priest whispers into the ears of the Crowning king when the crowd cried hoarse on his greatness, that he is also a mortal. He will also die. That he is also prone to mistakes like any other human. Bringing the king to the ground!

Our English TV channels have become a fish market, no doubt. When a host who invites all of his guests, can start shouting at one of them, I think, we have reached our end. This is too much.

Someone accepts to come to your show, because they think that they will be given a chance to speak their mind. If you do not give them the chance to complete their thought process and think that a debate is all about the loudness of your voice, then it is a sad day for sane thoughts.

If you want to know what and how a debate should be conducted, please see the Patti mandrams of Tamil Nadu. There is leg pulling; there is even personal attacks. But then it is very systematic. Every body is given a chance to be heard. Five minutes, three minutes or whatever it is. Time is given to them to speak their mind. They are given specific time slots after which the mike disconnects!

Every day, these channels conduct in the name of debates, a large scale live fish market on the topic of the day. This leads to defending indefensible points; leads to just speaking out loud and not give proper thought to preparation. Impromptu responses are not good ones. Today's world is a complicated world. Impromptu and instinctual responses are not welcome. Well thought out clear strategies are the ones that will bear result.

Finally, a TV host should be a host. Not one of the debating participants. Obviously, he cannot claim to be an authority on every topic that comes up every day. Nobody expects him to be! To avoid being exposed, the hosts seem to be raising their voices every time.

Let us have positive debates please! Even if it is against you; against the TV channel, against a community of people; against this country. It helps to know what the other persons think. It helps us to correct ourselves. Nobody is perfect. We have mistakes in us; lots of them. May be, he will throw open one such thing.

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