"Would you ask us for votes on the name of religion?" asks a Kotkapura resident.
"The issue of drugs is still there, what face AAP show to the people?' asks another resident of Faridkot.
Faridkot
When India is in election mode, in Punjab, most of the social and mainstream media is allegedly abuzz about what the family members of late legendary duet singer Amar Singh Chamkila and Amarjot Kaur, and their associates say. The news hungry media is after the news which turn coat has got the ticket or which politician can switch over to the A, B,C or D party. The youtubers and others are allegedly in a race to convenient cozy interviews as taking the politicians to task or posing unscripted questions to them is a risk in our media culture. We can not offend them.
The otherwise most watched apart from political news, videos or podcasts is the crime stories. They occupy the important space. The social also offers us a lot of invaluable content which we watch because of very low intellectual level. But towards our issues, our people are ignorant.They don't demand a job for Rs 15000 per month, but satisfied with being depicted beggars just getting free power, Rs 1500 monthly pension or expect to get Rs 1000 from the AAP government. The political scenes are unpredictable as even AAP could not guess that their turn coat candidate, who had won the by elections on their ticket, would once again switch over to the BJP.
The real issues of the state are unemployment, lack of industrialization, looting of students by private schools, failing education system, law and order, problems of link roads, water supply and clean environment and dying of without affording for medical facilities.
But these issues, though don't come in the way of the National elections, are still relevant to the Punjab legislatures who campaign for their candidates. The three parties, including the AAP, SAD which consecutively ruled over Punjab for ten years and congress, which was in power before AAP came to power are answerable to those questions. The SAD had launched "Save Punjab campaign", but ask them who destroyed Punjab while it had ruled over the state for most of the time. Why farmers are committing suicide, why private schools are charging at their whimsy, why people are forced to buy drinking water due to allegedly contaminated water of water works, why mining and other mafias are still at work, why our rivers are being polluted?But these issues are missing in the media.
When only 27 per cent of Punjab land is being irrigated by canal water, why Punjab is allowed to exploit so much groundwater. Instead of a canal network, We are getting highways occupying fertile land for ever and ever.
But nobody talks about these issues.
For about a month, people have been crazy about The Chamkila story, though most of his songs can not be enjoyed in family.
His songs were played on the tubewell motors at night or in small indie tape recorder rooms because some of them had double meanings and were vulgar in nature. I am not against Chamkila as he could not be minus from the Punjabi singing, but what is his contribution towards the development of intellectuality of youth?
The baby boy born to Sidhu Moosewala parents overshadowed all issues. The media was after exposing their personal life.I was surprised to watch how an international broadcaster exposed their privacy.
Bhana Sidhu’s arrest pushed Gurdev Singh Kaunke’s alleged brutal murder under the carpet.
The question is where are we heading towards?Iran-Israel conflict, Russian –Ukrain on going war is an international game. Amar Singh Chamkila is a history now. But our leaders befool the voters during all elections. The promises are the same for decades.
“Our grandparents, parents and us have been voting since independence, but we have not been aware of how to exercise our right to vote. We must stand up for our issues instead of shouting slogans only. The people are being befooled by the media and real issues are sidelined. They build a false narrative and we fall into an emotional trap,” said Gurinder Singh Mehndiratta, a serious reporter of a vernacular daily and a social worker.
“If they can not give us anything, at least they should give us a clean environment, drinking water, education and other basic facilities,” he says.
I recall once when I was working with a national daily, ignoring all my important stories that day, my news editor directed me to write a bull story during Magi Mela Muktar.
Is bull and cock stories, as latter hogged lime light in Bathinda, are our state and national issues? Only people can tell.