A speech, selective amnesia and scary movies

For once, the debates were all about what the PM had said and done, not what he had not said and not done

For a gentleman of very few words, Manmohan Singh was — and there's no polite way to say this — a real chatterbox, Friday night. His address to the nation lasted approximately 30 minutes — 15 minutes in Hindi, 15 minutes in English — which is more than we've heard from him in the last six months. Even longer. It speaks volumes for the man whose silence has been deafening in the face of boisterous and incessant criticism that he finally appreciated how words can, sometimes, speak louder than (in)action.

The prime minister's speech was not a game-changer but it certainly changed the conversation over the weekend in TV news studios. For once, the debates were all about what the PM had said and done, not what he had not said or not done — for example, Tim Sebastian's The Outsider debate on Sunday (Bloomberg TV).

Now that he has broken his vow of silence, let him speak up more often. For if news is about perception, the perception thus far is of Singh as a mute witness to his own prosecution by news television and political parties during the Commonwealth Games and 2G scams, Anna-Ramdev campaigns or coal allocations. He may not have silenced his critics but for one brief moment, he dictated the headlines.

If US President Barack Obama and his Republican challenger Mitt Romney can watch the sitcom Modern Family, our PM would do well to watch our serials. They have perfected the art of saying little and doing even less and yet holding the viewer's attention. They do this by adding a new twist to the tale, often preposterous, and then dwelling lovingly on the reactions of the other characters. That sounds like our TV news debates, doesn't it?

... contd.

ALSO READ

The responsibility to protect

Ego trips

A police force of his own

A suitable CAG