Slaps and slights

Should Kulwinder Kaur have slapped Kangana Ranaut At the press conference on stock market scam allegation should Rahul Gandhi have said the reporter Mousumi was expressing the BJPs party line when she asked if the Opposition demands for JPCs to waste taxpayer money Are these the relevant questions Or do we need a different type of questionGlee suffused social media in response to Kulwinder Kaursrsquos slap followed by sheepish propriety There was confusion about the appropriateness of a person in uniform losing crossing a line But as a beautiful line I just read in a book review said Every categorical declaration and moral certainty eventually winds up at war with the story of some real individual Yaniki itrsquos complicatedA Kangana Ranaut clip encouraging Pahadi women to give every champu a pahadi thappad circulated soon after But itrsquos not about thappads is it Itrsquos about the fact that Kangana has been a diligent instrument of violence for the ruling party She has fueled toxicity hatred othering and perverse arguments as drumbeats for actual violence She has done so as part of the cultural penumbra of a government that bulldozes Muslim homes permits lynchings acquits rapists permits trolling of young women who express their views online with death threats and rape threats and never responds with empathy to peoplersquos movements or hardshipsKangana did not critique the farmersrsquo movement on points of principle She denigrated the women sitting on protestmdashof whom Kulwinder Kaurrsquos mother was onemdashas rentable for 100 rupees only because they stood against the government Will anyone ask Kangana a question about what happens when you help architect a world of violence instead of empathy and mutual consideration Kulwinder Kaur was suspended for the tangible slap Who will hold Kangana to account for her intangible but real violenceThat would be difficult for our mainstream media to do because it would require them to reframe the debate and see things at least for a moment from Kulwinder Kaurrsquos point of view not to chase simplistic judgements but explore the complexities of the issue the why of itSimilarly if reporters merely repeat the dismissals of the BJP as questions when Opposition leaders raise issues are they not merely following the terms of reference set by the ruling party Where are their own questions to help viewers understand the issue and decide for ourselvesThe mediarsquos sycophancy is not the only thing that has destroyed public debate in the last decade Itrsquos that they have reduced every debate to binaries thereby making any real discussion possible They have disconnected incidents from contexts mdashwhen it is in the connections that political questions lieLast week we were introduced to a young man called Deshpremee on Samdish Bhatiarsquos documentaryonthego YouTube show The 18yearold from Darbanga painfully hesitant painfully malnourished so his body is that of the child was a piercing and heartbreaking confrontation with the inequality and suffering in our countryBut our debates are framed by the liberal or conservative desires of urban elites not the truths of those who suffer what is bracketed as ldquorural distressrdquo They go out not to save some abstract idea of India but in hope to save themselvesNow that debates feel possible our political endeavours must lie not in whose side they take but how these debates can be reframed to reflect what matters mostParomita Vohra is an awardwinning Mumbaibased filmmaker writer and curator working with fiction and nonfiction Reach her at paromitavohramiddaycom