Idiot box realism

Ektaa Kapoor’s depiction of terrorists on a recent episode of Kasam Se is dangerously reminiscent of the BJP CD used in UP

Nishi Malhotra Delhi

It has always been apparent that television queen bee Ektaa Kapoor's saas bahu serials do not affirm Indian values (as she would have us believe) but instead provide grist to the mill of a Hindu patriarchal society that circumscribes the lives of Indian women between the lakshman rekha of the sindoor and mangalsutra. What has not been noticed, but should have been apparent, are the similarities between the thinking of this ambitious young woman, CEO of Balaji Telefilms, and that of India's saffron party, the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP).

Someone in a position of authority— maybe the censors at the Ministry of Broadcasting, who are ever-alert to kissing scenes on English channels but largely ignore the virtuous bahus on Hindi teleserials—needs to take a close look at what is happening on Ektaa Kapoor's prime time serial Kasam Se. While it may outwardly appear that the only tenuous link between her and the BJP is Smriti Irani (India's favourite bahu Tulsi on Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi, who is also a member of the BJP), there may be another connection brewing here.

The BJP was recently hauled up by the Election Commission in UP for distributing a CD showing Muslims in a negative light. The CD portrayed them as terrorists, cow-slaughterers, abductors of innocent Hindu girls and producers of large families who wanted to outnumber Hindus in India (scenarios along these lines were enacted by actors for the CD). Also, in the CD, Muslims were identified by the outward symbols of their religion—burqas, beards, caps, names like Salim and Javed. The opening episode of the 'play' in the CD showed a Muslim man planting a bomb under an Ambassador car.

In a recent episode of the teleserial 'Kasam Se', which aired at 9 pm on May 14, 2007, a group of Muslim men (identified by their caps and invocation to Allah) was shown making plans to plant a bomb at a Ganesh temple in Mumbai. The event was woven neatly into the plot—the main protagonists of the show, Jai and Bani Walia, who were separated earlier, were to meet at the temple. In subsequent episodes, it was shown that the plan failed and the terrorists, frustrated by the failure, decided to send a 'human bomb' to a playschool. Again, the idea was to weave the impending calamity into the story—the children of the protagonists attended the school in question.

Television is a medium that has much greater reach than CDs, which need to be distributed and require computers or DVD players for playback. The images of Muslim terrorists planning to destroy a Hindu temple on a prime time serial were flashed to and seen by millions of viewers in cities and villages around the country—viewers that included illiterate adults and young children who may not even know the difference between fiction and reality.

If the Election Commission could haul up the BJP for irresponsible and negative propaganda against Muslims, there is no reason why the Ministry of Broadcasting should not rap Ektaa's knuckles for the condemnable act of identifying a particular community as being responsible for terrorism on one of her shows. The most despicable aspect of the portrayal of terrorism on Kasam Se was that it was not used to send a positive social message of outrage against and prevention of such acts, but a negative one of fear and hatred towards a particular community.

Ektaa Kapoor has been earlier hauled up by the Maharashtra State Women's Commission for portraying sex determination and pro-male child dialogues on one of her shows, and the National Commission for Women for showing marital rape on Saas bhi kabhi Bahu thi. It is indeed sad that a young and powerful Indian woman, who has the opportunity to be a tool of powerful change in society through her shows, continues to largely negate the hard work and achievements of the women's liberation movement in India.

As far as the Kasam Se episode on terrorism is considered, it remains to be seen whether this was just a lapse in political correctness on the part of Ektaa Kapoor or whether she has a more political agenda in mind.