Opinion Remote Control

Why Indian television would do well to learn a trick or two from foreign channels like Al Jazeera

August 25, 2012 03:22 AM IST First published on: Aug 25, 2012 at 03:22 AM IST

Im tired of endless speculation about news that makes no sense. Like,why is the BJP doggedly persisting in disrupting Parliament and asking for the Prime Ministers head? The strategy has never paid off in the past. And now,it transpires that Coalgate happened because the Opposition had resisted the auction route. Such dreary politics doesnt merit speculative airtime.

Exhausted by ennui,I switched to more exotic channels,swept through BBC and CNN (yes,they look exotic from where I sit,thats geography) and stopped dead on Al Jazeeras 101 East. This episode concerned Japans battle against the Yakuza,the network of criminal gangs which have infiltrated business and government and runs up annual revenues of $9 billion,which is approximately the GDP of Zimbabwe. But this was no black-and-white programme.

Last year,Japan instituted new laws criminalising dealings which benefit the Yakuza or anyone associated with them. It has press-ganged the public into a battle which cannot be won otherwise. Even a bartender who was interviewed is required not to serve Yakuza patrons,though how he identifies them is a mystery.

But the government is not winning because the Yakuza benefit everyone,even the police. A journalist explains that 10,000 police officers retire every year and are recruited by corporates to deal with Yakuza shareholders who try to influence policy. The Yakuza provide the policemans retirement plan.

This new Japanese law is so different from the European way. Italy had smashed the mafia by creating a legal superstructure completely insulated from the people,led by a public prosecutor protected by armed police. In contrast,Japan is criminalising its people for being involved with a network of organisations which have been embedded in everyday life from Edo times. In fact,the police have earlier used them as its partners. As an iconic retired policeman explains he is so iconic that he features in manga We were supposed to make arrests right to the top,but we told them that we would draw the line; in return,they told us what had really happened.

I watched 101 East because the situation in Japan is not very remote from us. Cinema,the pulse of India,was made with gangster money until banks were permitted to bankroll it legitimately. I dont remember this being reported extensively in the emerging news television of the Nineties. Gangsters are deeply invested in trades involving real estate and large manpower resources,and politics. During the run-up to the West Bengal elections,in which the Trinamool Congress unseated the Left,inexplicable violence was reported from an unremarkable riverbend. But it was a traditional landing place for arms. Whoever controlled it,controlled state politics,but no TV cameras ever got there.

Al Jazeeras coverage included interviews with a retired detective who consults with big business,a policeman in a red light district who is ambivalent towards the Yakuza because they help him keep the peace,jailbirds who cut off their fingers in a Yakuza rite,the police chief of Fukuoka,which sports a huge number of unexplained murders,and even a real,live Yakuza chieftain.

Out here in India,we get the masala remix of Black Rain. Why does Indian TV report so sparingly and simplistically on linkages between crime,business and politics? Why are we,the consumers of news,satisfied with endless reruns of news that Dawood Ibrahim lives in Karachis Clifton,that Bollywood stars routinely attend his parties in Dubai,and stills of the don from the Eighties? When will Indian news television give us the crime story straight up,like Al Jazeera has reported from Japan?