O J’s Corner

Essentials ditched,
trivia played up

These days when we tune in to channels and go through the print media, instances of trivia being played up are mounting at the cost of essentials being put in a corner.

I know the superficial items are an essential component of globalised world. Therefore, these can find a place in the channels and papers. But should these be given the importance as is being bestowed now? Mind you, this playing up is at the cost of marginalising the quintessential.

Harbhajan Singh slapping Sreesanth, Shilpa Shetty presenting her beau, Paris Hilton disfiguring the toilet walls are all blown out of proportion. I have no doubt these should be made known. But there is no justification for giving so much of space and time for the trivia. India’s achievement in sending 10 satellites at one go deserves better display.

Harbhajan and Sreesanth appear to be both hyper-sensitive. Their pranks should not be allowed to corner much of the space and time, even in a world where 24-hour channels and multi-edition papers are in competition to grab fresher and latest incidents.

We give so much space for globalisation and privatisation and liberalisation. That is fair enough. But we are not giving justice to the marginalised in an equal measure. Those countries which have capitalism and liberalised economy have fool-proof social security system to take care of the jobless, incomeless people. Do we have a comprehensive scheme like this, even as we have liberalised most of the sectors? We are ignoring the victims of liberalisation even as we allow economic giants to reap all the benefits. Even the leftists and the opponents of liberalisation do not highlight this aspect.

Every newspaper and channel should have a daily dose of instances of denial of social security measures to those who are already poor and are becoming poorer on account of these measures.

Liberalisation does not mean there should be a system by which all the benefits should go on mounting to the enterprises, leaving the hapless like that.