As the year 2024 draws close, gods of tragedy and comedy – unlike our political parties – seem to have formed a coalition. Hindi’s largest selling daily runs a banner headline quoting the primeb minister that tells us he has been subjected to insults for 20 years. He is also sharply critical of the recent incident outside parliament where India’s vice president was allegedly mimicked by a disgruntled MP amid many of his colleagues from the opposition.
Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty
The alleged mimic was among a 106 MPs suspended from the parliament for unruly behaviour. Ever since our media has been flooded by multiple narratives and videos supporting the ruling party, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and the expelled group. Both sides are using ‘whataboutry’ to remind each other of their similar behaviour within the hallowed portals of the parliament and the media is obliging them with footage to prove their point.
This recent unity of misery and insult among India’s privileged and powerful coupled with a media split between two hostile groups to speak for each side is a new phenomena in a surreal time. And it is overtaking most of the available media space leaving little to no informed and informative discussion on the economy and climate change issues.
Several major Bills became laws passed by the House, while 143 opposition MPs stood expelled. They were charged with indulging in unparliamentary acts because they were demanding that the Union Home Minister give a statement on the serious security lapses that resulted in an attack by mavericks inside the parliament. While the entire media ran with this story, a gut wrenching story about the mass burial of 87 Kukis killed in Manipur – with the youngest victim being a month-old baby – was relegated to the inside pages or just ignored.
The new year is a coming-out party of sorts for Godi media that now publicly squabbles over a gas canister, and will black out any news that, according to their handlers, is unfit for consumption. Dramatic public display of outrage by the most privileged about their humble origins or their caste being deliberately maligned by harsh words is a tad surprising when, just yesterday, everyone was busy locating and consolidating vote banks of the poorest and most backward groups.
Also read: Who Are Our Young Andolanjeevis?
Amid this cacophony, chief economic advisor V. Anantha Nageswaran in a recent essay said that India is displaying a strange convergence between growth and inequality. And a deepening of inequalities without any major push backs has resulted in not just malnutrition and low wages among the larger sections but a very alarming lack of access to education and health care for the poor. These will directly impact and reduce growth potential of India in a rapidly changing corporate demand for highly skilled labour.
Strange to hear the privileged complain about feeling miserable and persecuted while the silence of the lambs goes unnoticed. There is little in the news about an increasingly vast number of graduates being 22% of all unemployed in India. On the other hand, white collar flexi staff: brand consultants and coaches running their own gigs or partnering with someone, are having a ball like never before.
The evolution of our corporate landscape (and that includes the media also) and work being redefined is a story hardly ever highlighted. Not loyalty but flexibility is the flavour of the season. Recruitment agency (CIEL HR) reports 55% of organizations surveyed across sectors are now engaging gig workers and companies have said that they are going to hire more gig workers who are flexible, scale their workforce as required in an atmosphere where project demands are changing swiftly and workloads keep fluctuating. As a result, fresh formal job creation has dipped to a seven-month low in October according to Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) data while gig freelancers’ earnings have grown by 294% according to gig platform Pick My Work.
Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty
The IT firms, who ushered in a media and communication revolution early in the century, also now prefer the gig industry. Their needs are changing ever since AI’s arrival. The last decade of the 20th century saw designers, content creators and creative writing professionals rule the work space. But that is no longer the case. Staffing service CIEL’s data shows that top employers like Tata, Infosys and LTI Mindtree are now mostly recruiting freelancers from the gig industry that helps them locate workers with different skills. For enhancing efficiency and honing their skills, they need not attend coaching classes taught by humans. Superior guidance will be forthcoming to them from AI!
One is reminded of an old story about emperor Akbar in which the he asks his confidante and all weather man Birbal, “La Birbal koi aisaa Nar, jo Pir Bawarchi, Bhishti, Khar (bring me a man who can be a sage, a chef, a water carrier or a donkey as per need)”. The new generation of job seekers guided by AI will soon be such a multitasking nerd with a fat salary.
Once one falls into that particular rabbit hole guided by a non human entity, one will accept living without privacy, and outside time. There will be no clocking off ever in the redone work space but also no gossip sessions or friendly banter with colleagues, nor drowning of anxieties in a pub or hanging out at the corner gym doing pilates.
The writers will have to unlearn writing along their own whims and fancies, the actors will no longer act but play out the theme from a graphic series. Remember Batman and Archies’? The painter need never sit outdoors to study light or form because AI will reproduce old masterpieces and more. It could only happen in this scenario that the largest opposition group, the Congress party’s online crowd funding effort ‘Donate for Desh’, allegedly met with over 20,000 bot attacks and 1,340 data theft attempts within 48 hours of being launched.
All that is needed to divert public attention are red herrings while over a 100 shanties are bulldozed in one day because suddenly those beautification drives demand that they be removed as inessential and illegal. Entertainment and infotainment is the opium of the people today. Some of these stories can make one laugh till one cries. A curly haired star talking of struggles as a young actor and persecution by political and Bollywood enemies. A star mother saying they used to be so poor that only she could fly first class while her children flew in the economy section.
It is true that many powerful mortals today, like former US President Donald Trump for example, have bad hair days. But a profound misapprehension of real world among the smart phone addicted young, when whipped up cleverly with memories of a great reformer suffering unproven insults and abuses, can build powerful narratives. These help turn the tide of public sympathy towards ‘the wronged leader’ like nothing else can. The narratives may eventually prove to be be toxic but in a world run by digits and AI, people will have no trouble believing them.
Saakhi is a Sunday column from Mrinal Pande, in which she writes of what she sees and also participates in. That has been her burden to bear ever since she embarked on a life as a journalist, writer, editor, author and as chairperson of Prasar Bharti. Her journey of being a witness-participant continues.
The Choreographed Misery of the Powerful
12
10
24.12.2023
As the year 2024 draws close, gods of tragedy and comedy – unlike our political parties – seem to have formed a coalition. Hindi’s largest selling daily runs a banner headline quoting the primeb minister that tells us he has been subjected to insults for 20 years. He is also sharply critical of the recent incident outside parliament where India’s vice president was allegedly mimicked by a disgruntled MP amid many of his colleagues from the opposition.
Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty
The alleged mimic was among a 106 MPs suspended from the parliament for unruly behaviour. Ever since our media has been flooded by multiple narratives and videos supporting the ruling party, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and the expelled group. Both sides are using ‘whataboutry’ to remind each other of their similar behaviour within the hallowed portals of the parliament and the media is obliging them with footage to prove their point.
This recent unity of misery and insult among India’s privileged and powerful coupled with a media split between two hostile groups to speak for each side is a new phenomena in a surreal time. And it is overtaking most of the available media space leaving little to no informed and informative discussion on the economy and climate change issues.
Several major Bills became laws passed by the House, while 143 opposition MPs stood expelled. They were charged with indulging in unparliamentary acts because they were demanding that the Union Home Minister give a statement on the serious security lapses that resulted in an attack by mavericks inside the parliament. While the entire media ran with this story, a gut wrenching story about the mass burial of 87 Kukis killed in Manipur – with the youngest victim being a month-old baby – was relegated to the inside pages or just ignored.
The new year is........
© The Wire
visit website
login
who are we?
contact us
qosheapp
Toi Staff
Gideon Levy
Belen Fernandez
Andrew Mitrovica
Mort Laitner
Rami G Khouri
Ali Fathollah-Nejad
Nikkei Editorial
