By Sushil Kutty
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan must be wishing he hadn’t told Russia’s RT television network that he wanted a TV debate with Indian counterpart Narendra Modi. What must be striking to Imran Khan and his countrymen and countrywomen is that cricketer Khan’s wish elicited a reply not from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, but from Thiruvananthapuram Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, who spoke of “jaw–jaw” only to see Russia start “war-war.”
Shashi Tharoor is a frequent reminder that we are brown sahibs with insufficient knowledge of the language English and that the majority of “us” speak this foreign lingo in horrible native accents, and tens of thousands of us murder English with hardly a concern for what we are doing to Wren & Martin, grammarians to Indian children from as long as can be remembered.
Tharoor is perhaps an Imran Khan fan. One thing is certain, Shashi Tharoor is an avid Pakistan-watcher. And barring Mani Shankar Aiyar—Shashi Tharoor must have the most number of admirers in Pakistan. Tharoor’s ears perk up every time a Pakistani from its ‘Who’s Who’ throws a Googly from across the Wagah though he gives less “jaw-jaw” to cross-border terrorist-incursions.
Imran’s googly did not, however, stump Shashi Tharoor altogether. The once upon a time playboy from Peshawar’s only regret if he leaves office today would be that Modi didn’t place an “international call” to him. Neither did Modi divert his flight to Pakistan to shake hands with Imran like he did for fellow Prime Minister Nawaz Sharief.
So, when RT-TV asked Imran his one wish, Khan promptly said he wanted a TV debate with Narendra Modi so that differences can be sorted in a true friendly fashion and nobody would be the loser. But, being Pakistani, Khan couldn’t stop from mentioning ‘Kashmir’ and that told him, he wasn’t going to Russia much less have a TV debate with Modi.
The grapevine in Pakistan says Imran Khan’s wife Bushra calls the shots in the Khan household and that she rules the roost not just in the kitchen but in every room in the PM-bungalow including the master-bedroom. Now, though not confirmed, there are snatches of conversation that says Bushra has had enough of Imran!
Could be why Khan expressed a wish to meet with Modi over a TV debate—the two leaders could strike it rich. However, the third person in the mix, who is no mean player in the playboy-stakes, took Khan’s googly on the shoulder and told Khan to “take it easy policy”, ’cause even if “jaw-jaw is better than war-war’, no issues are ever resolved on India’s TV debates, only exacerbated.
“And some of our anchors would be happy to ignite World War III if it would increase their TRPs…,” Shashi added. A couple of other Congress politicians also replied to Imran Khan—Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Manish Tewari, both of whom told Imran Khan to take a hike, and not even talk of the gimmick. That could be because they don’t have Pakistan’s back like Tharoor has. Some of Pakistan’s finest are in Twitter-touch with Tharoor.
Another dimension to the episode is that if anybody knows Indian TV channels best, it’s Shashi Tharoor. The extra-ball Tharoor threw at Indian news TV channels was his utter disgust at how he was hounded and media-trialed following Sunanda Pushkar’s messy death. His quip that “some of our anchors would be happy to ignite World War III to increase their TRPs” told eloquently of his disgust with India’s TV news channels.
One English news TV channel in particular went for broke to hang Tharoor from the rafters of the 5-star hotel where Sunanda spent the last few hours of her life. It stopped only after a court put a halt to the “media trial”. Today, if Tharoor tells Imran there’s no way a TV debate with Modi will be able to solve Kashmir, it’s because Tharoor has had enough of TV going after him using his late ‘BV’!
That said, the only thing that is striking after Tharoor tweeted to Imran is that President Putin, perhaps taking a cue from Tharoor, put a stop to “jaw-jaw” and went “war-war!” (IPA Service)
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