If we had deliberately chosen to make our country an international laughing stock and worked towards that goal — One Nation, One Buffoon — we could not have done more, or better, than the reigning duo in Delhi. Here is the latest:
Having registered an FIR — under the most draconian provisions of the law it can find — the Delhi police will do what, exactly? Go to London, where it has no jurisdiction, and “investigate”? Arrest people where it has no power to even question? I mean, what is the end game here?
Worth pointing out that the Delhi police reports directly to the Home Minister — and at least as per ANI, filed the case at the behest of Amit Shah’s ministry. Does he even have a clue?
This move comes a little over 12 hours after Times Now invited an Australian professor onto the panel debating the “attack” on the Indian Embassy, and got properly schooled.
The question and answer is worth listening to in its entirety. Two standout moments: One, where the guest says he can’t understand why a nation that prides itself on its strength acts in a “petulant” manner, and later when the anchor, by then losing the plot entirely, argues that “only one” person was arrested, and the guest correctly points out that only one person perpetuated what can be termed an attack.
Tell you what, the media — some of whom, including this particular anchor, are old enough and know enough to have seen better — seems to have decided that the Indian police force under Amit Shah is the gold standard, as witnessed in the wake of the anti-CAA protests and resulting riots, when the police arrested 2,456 people. It’s over two years since the riots. Two people have been convicted thus far — and this is despite having four fast-track courts hearing the cases.
I’m reminded of American late-night show host Bill Maher who, during the height of the Iraq frenzy, vehemently opposed George W Bush’s military misadventure and, for his trouble, got called an anti-national who “hates” his country. He responded with an hour-long show titled I’m Swiss — and the throughline of his stand-up was “I don’t hate my country, I am merely embarrassed by it.”
I’m like Maher — I’m increasingly embarrassed by a country that is putting satirists out of business.
Smoke Signals 