Defenders of an open society can do better than to focus on Sach Ka Saamna.
What does Sita have to do with the new reality show Sach Ka Saamna? If the public shenanigans of our political class and some media channels are any indication, then truth could yet again be in danger of becoming a casualty. The verbal antics that pass for parliamentary debates in India are reverberating through unimaginative talk shows of India's television channels and print media. Battle lines are drawn. On the one side are self-righteous protectors of India's cultural morality, drawing their legitimacy as avowed representatives of the people of India. Facing them off as self-appointed defenders of freedom of expression, democracy and truth are electronic-media houses, show producers, news anchors, print journalists and the chattering classes in general.
The bone of contention is the latest offering from Siddhartha Basu, Sach Ka Saamna, on Star Plus. This is a reality-based game show, modelled on an American show called The Moment of Truth, in which contestants are asked 21 intimate questions about their personal and professional lives. Contestants are hooked up to polygraph machines, and then have to answer the often extremely personal questions in front of their family and friends, and have the option of leaving or revealing their 'hidden' (hopefully embarrassing) feelings. Those who pass the polygraph test and answer the questions become eligible to win up to INR 10 million.
Trouble started to brew in mid-July, when Kamal Akhtar, of the Samajwadi Party, complained in the Rajya Sabha that obscene questions were being asked by the show's anchor, Rajeev Khandelwal. In its earlier episode, Akhtar noted, a woman named Smita was asked (as her husband and other family members looked on) whether she would have a physical relationship with another man if her husband would not find out. When Smita answered that she would not, the polygraph said the answer was wrong, prompting Akhtar to wonder how this whole thing made Smita's husband feel. Akhtar was not worried, mind you, about Smita's own feelings. And he is not alone. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ideologues such as former Rajya Sabha MP B P Singhal are following suit – all the time unmindful of the fact that Sita of the Ramayana herself had to pass through a far-worse humiliation to prove her chastity to the people of Ayodhya. Two petitions were subsequently filed before the Delhi High Court, seeking a discontinuance of the programme on grounds of 'objectionable' content, allegedly running counter to the 'culture of India'.