The kiss of death

Protestors burn effigies over Gere-Shetty kiss

Richard Gere's repeated kisses on the cheeks of Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty in an event to promote AIDS awareness sparked protests in India with demonstrators burning effigies of the actors.

Footage of the Hollywood star sweeping Shetty backwards in a dramatic embrace at the Sunday night event in New Delhi was repeatedly aired on news channels.

Some called for the actors' deaths.

outrage over Shilpa Shetty-Gere kiss

Activists of Hindu rightwing groups went on rampage in several north Indian cities Monday to protest Hollywood superstar Richard Gere hugging Bollywood actor Shilpa Shetty, while a hitherto unknown fringe group damaged the STAR TV office in Mumbai to protest the presence of a Muslim boy and a Hindu girl on the media group's premises.

Shiv Sena members attacked a press conference Monday being addressed by Shilpa in Mumbai in the wake of Gere giving her a surprise hug and peck on her cheeks at a show organised in New Delhi Sunday to create AIDS awareness amongst truck drivers. They also burnt the effigies of both actors and demanded that the Hollywood actor should leave the country immediately.

A shocked Shilpa, who was shooting for her movie, reacted angrily over the burning of the effigies and the protests by the Shiv Sena across the country.

"If protecting Indian culture and tradition means burning our effigies, please go ahead and carry on with your protests. But, our culture also teaches us to imbibe 'Atithi Devo Bhava' (the guest is god)."

"I was completely taken aback. My work was disrupted. The set was damaged. I know it is blown out of proportion. I feel people are overreacting. Don't misuse the freedom of expression in a democracy," she told media persons.

Defending Gere, she said: "He was just trying to strike a dancing pose. In India entertainment means song and dance, so he was trying to do something entertaining. That's it. He didn't try to kiss me on my lips. He was just giving me a peck on my cheeks.

Apart from Mumbai and New Delhi, sporadic protests were seen in Kanpur, Jaipur, Varanasi, Meerut and Indore by so-called guardians of morality.

"This is an intolerable and obscene act. It is against the values, culture and traditions of the nation. Gere must apologise," said a protester at Indore.

Meanwhile, a group of activists belonging to the Hindu Rashtriya Sena ransacked the office of leading media house STAR TV in Mumbai protesting the presence of a Muslim boy and a minor Hindu girl from Surat in the studio.

Moronic Media

This week news channels that claim to have national reach will showcase how Indian news television can plumb the depths of depravity and idiocy. We the people working in TV news channels have made a superb opening on Monday with the Richard Gere-Shilpa Shetty kissing controversy. According to most news channels this is the most serious issue that the country should be debating this week.

By degrading content, by excessively dumbing down, by becoming hostage to easy market economics, by failing to realize the truism of content being king and the market being its courtier, the media in India has erased the credibility of the pursuit of journalism. More often than not it is seen as taking sides, it is seen as a tool of political expediency and easy money. The 1990s has been the decade in which the media has fallen from its hallowed glory. And in the 2000s instead of arresting its slide, the media has further slipped from the Imagination of India, into some other kind of disconnectedness. So we have shows on superstitions and haunted houses on news television in 21st Century India. We have stories of snake marrying each other. We have a seductress on a crime show. No wonder media is seen as a crass tool by a crass citizenry. Use it when required and beat the hell out of it when not. No wonder lathis and hathodas were used by college student turned goondas to protest against a Star News broadcast of the marriage between a Hindu and Muslim.

Isn't intolerance modern 21st century India greatest shame? And a large part of it is because the media in this country has become pliant and soft.

Religion-work disputes happen frequently By H.J. CUMMINS


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