Aadhaar and adharma are beginning to merge
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A stand-up comic, friend of mine, had a terrific idea for a sketch recently. A baby is born in a hospital but is not allowed to leave till it can show its Aadhaar number. That was the nub of it, although he – like all good comics – stretched it to include stories of India’s hospitals being more overcrowded than its jails with grown men and women who haven’t seen the world outside the hospital because they don’t have Aadhaar cards.
And then we read about a hospital in Bhopal which ‘in no uncertain terms instructs hospital staff, ward in-charge and security guards, not to allow new-borns to leave the hospital premises unless the unique ID is produced’.
When reality is a step ahead of satire, a nation is in trouble. If stand-ups in Modi’s India face the problem, so do their counterparts in Trump’s America. How can you be funnier than the original when the US President announces that those who didn’t stand up and cheer his speech are guilty of treason? Our Prime Minister is probably kicking himself for not having thought of that one.
When George W. Bush finished his term, talk show hosts shed a tear. They asked, like Marc Anthony did of Caesar, “When comes such another?” One that provided them with endless material? Soon came Trump. Now the talk show gang cannot keep pace with him. Nothing they say is as funny as what he says.
In India, it is not the talk show hosts or even stand-ups who try to stay one step ahead of the natural comics ruling the country. It is the twitterati. A typical response to Vinay Katiyar’s call asking all Muslims of India to go to Pakistan is met with “Mr Katiyar, are you a travel agent?” One tweet combined the obsession with cows and national elections with the tweet: “What next? Allowing cows to vote?”
Rahul Gandhi’s election-eve temple-hopping has garnered its share of responses too. One said, “One more term for Modi, and Rahul will be seen building the mandir at Ayodhya, brick by brick with his own hands…”
Trump’s obsession with the Clintons is matched by Modi’s with the Gandhis. Both are obsessed with personal appearance, from hair to suit. Trump tapes his tie together, Modi has worn a suit bearing his name. Trump hasn’t thought of that one yet.
The Washington Post reported recently that Trump imitated Modi, accent and all, while discussing the situation in Afghanistan. There is no report about Modi imitating Trump – not the accent, anyway – so it would be interesting to see who would feel more insulted if compared to the other.
My friend, the stand-up, is busy making a list – women being made ineligible to vote, Trump and Modi exchanging jobs, all non-Aadhaar personnel being sent to Mars – so he can get a few laughs before it all becomes reality. Truth is stranger than humour.
Thanks to our leaders, satirists are out of a job – unless they reclassify those who sit and starve as being ‘gainfully employed’.
(Suresh Menon is Contributing Editor, The Hindu)
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A stand-up comic, friend of mine, had a terrific idea for a sketch recently. A baby is born in a hospital but is not allowed to leave till it can show its Aadhaar number. That was the nub of it, although he – like all good comics – stretched it to include stories of India’s hospitals being more overcrowded than its jails with grown men and women who haven’t seen the world outside the hospital because they don’t have Aadhaar cards.
And then we read about a hospital in Bhopal which ‘in no uncertain terms instructs hospital staff, ward in-charge and security guards, not to allow new-borns to leave the hospital premises unless the unique ID is produced’.
When reality is a step ahead of satire, a nation is in trouble. If stand-ups in Modi’s India face the problem, so do their counterparts in Trump’s America. How can you be funnier than the original when the US President announces that those who didn’t stand up and cheer his speech are guilty of treason? Our Prime Minister is probably kicking himself for not having thought of that one.
When George W. Bush finished his term, talk show hosts shed a tear. They asked, like Marc Anthony did of Caesar, “When comes such another?” One that provided them with endless material? Soon came Trump. Now the talk show gang cannot keep pace with him. Nothing they say is as funny as what he says.
In India, it is not the talk show hosts or even stand-ups who try to stay one step ahead of the natural comics ruling the country. It is the twitterati. A typical response to Vinay Katiyar’s call asking all Muslims of India to go to Pakistan is met with “Mr Katiyar, are you a travel agent?” One tweet combined the obsession with cows and national elections with the tweet: “What next? Allowing cows to vote?”
Rahul Gandhi’s election-eve temple-hopping has garnered its share of responses too. One said, “One more term for Modi, and Rahul will be seen building the mandir at Ayodhya, brick by brick with his own hands…”
Trump’s obsession with the Clintons is matched by Modi’s with the Gandhis. Both are obsessed with personal appearance, from hair to suit. Trump tapes his tie together, Modi has worn a suit bearing his name. Trump hasn’t thought of that one yet.
The Washington Post reported recently that Trump imitated Modi, accent and all, while discussing the situation in Afghanistan. There is no report about Modi imitating Trump – not the accent, anyway – so it would be interesting to see who would feel more insulted if compared to the other.
My friend, the stand-up, is busy making a list – women being made ineligible to vote, Trump and Modi exchanging jobs, all non-Aadhaar personnel being sent to Mars – so he can get a few laughs before it all becomes reality. Truth is stranger than humour.
Thanks to our leaders, satirists are out of a job – unless they reclassify those who sit and starve as being ‘gainfully employed’.
(Suresh Menon is Contributing Editor, The Hindu)
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