The Rajdeep Sardesai incident is another example of the intolerance of Indians, be it in India or abroad. I do not know what was said or not said between the parties involved but I am appalled at the way certain people are laying down the behavioral guidelines of how a journalist should behave in a public place. Agreed that the person in question is a reputed journalist and a certain degree of restraint is expected of him. But what do you do when someone provokes you or abuses you for your political beliefs? Do you just sit back and take it? Well, no doubt that it is the correct thing to do by the moral guidelines of our society, but sadly it is not practicable to practice it all the time. And who are you supporting by the way? The NRIs who were mostly from one particular community? These people labelled Sardesai as a traitor but most of these people have left the country to pursue their own economic interests and are the first to jump at any sign of inadequacy of their own country. It is this penchant to find fault with all things Indian that has made many of them find a home for themselves in another country in the first place. They should not be laying down the norms of patriotism for the people of this country. They can still call themselves Indians and be proud of it, but can they decide who is a traitor on the basis of ones political beliefs without ample proof to back it up? No. A strict no. As for the appropriateness of Sardesais behavior, its not for me to tell whether it was right or wrong because whatever I have seen of the incident on social media is not conclusive enough to blame either party. If indeed Mr. Sardesai is guilty, then he should be booked for assault and there are no two ways about that. But laying out guidelines on how a senior journalist ought to behave when subjected to abuse is simply not fair enough as it is very difficult to predict an appropriate behavior till the time one is himself/herself subjected to a similar situation. The worst part is that these are the same people who would side with a Zinedine Zidane over the headbutt incident. Why? Because Marco Matterazzi used the choicest of abuses against his family. So why not give Mr. Sardesai a chance, too? Or do we have different parameters of behavior for sportsmen and journalists? I, for one, do not think that should be the case. It reeks of hypocrisy and blatant double standards.
Posted on: Mon, 29 Sep 2014 06:46:01 +0000
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