Devil's Advocate | Kangana Ranaut, Munawar Faruqui collaborating for Lock Upp is a lesson for parties with different political ideologies

Devil’s Advocate is a rolling column that sees the world differently and argues for unpopular opinions of the day. This column, the writer acknowledges, can also be viewed as a race to get yourself cancelled. But like pineapple on pizza, he is willing to see the lighter side of it. * A couple of people sat on the ground to discuss the political arithmetic of the ongoing assembly elections. One amongst them is affiliated to a party, while the others seem to come from unspecified ideological positions. There are people in this small group who like what the Bhartiya Janata Party-led government has done during its reign, and there are those who disagree. One of them has even suffered at the hands of the ruling party’s ideological arms. And though there are several cameras trained on them, this conversation appears too sanguine, too respectful to even seem like it is about the politics. Because the chaotic frills of television channel debates have made decorum and dignity alien concepts through screaming matches that make restrained, dignified conversations look like metaphysical poems. This was my first takeaway from five minutes of watching ALTBalaji’s Kangana Ranaut-anchored show _Lock Upp_ that made the news, before it even aired, for hosting her supposed ideological opponent Munawar Faruqui. Political discourse in the day and age of social media is like discussing your neighbour’s money. None of their methods seem reasonable while all ours have ever achieved is reducing us to a life of victimhood. When news broke of Munawar Faruqui, the troubled comedian who has endured a rough time of late, would be part of a show headlined by Ranaut, people smelled betrayal. How could a man who needs to make a living give up the fight that guarantees nothing and take up something that though frankly nonsensical from a distance, at least gets him something tangible? But the roughly five minutes of the show [that basically feels like Big Boss 2.0], that I managed to put myself through, happened to offer the one glimpse needed to confirm why ideological opposites should not just talk, but perhaps also collaborate. Ideologies are subservient to circumstances. Even those in power mould ideological frames to fit the landscape of sentiment. Faruqui has obviously leaped at an opportunity, the same as Ranaut but while there was no – at least I did not see any – criticism of Ranaut for working with someone like Faruqui, there has not even been similar criticism launched at verified Congressi Tehseen Poonawalla, who is, quite absurdly actually, also part of the line-up. I can probably try and second guess why Ranaut’s supporters do not see a problem with any of it but then that would mean identifying performance with virtue. And this is an age where the former’s timing trumps whatever the latter might conceive in the long run. There is, in fact, no ’long run.’ The reluctance to criticise Poonawalla probably stems from the fact that while self-declared party-men are expected to twist and turn for gain, a semi-righteous man from a humble background like Faruqui must prostrate himself as some sort of sacrificial lamb that to everyone else, is just the point they wanted to make. But that is not why all of this outrage seems pointless even if both sides were to offer an equal quota of it.

The fact is that we have lost the ability to peacefully reconcile our differences in the last few years. Both or all sides actually.  

It does not help that everyone in the business of news and politics makes every debate sound and look like a village on fire. Contempt breeds contempt, and it is therefore almost inane, and somewhat hilarious, even to suggest that a show, that can only qualify as some version of trash, offers a sight that has become rare, even in the cleanest corners of the country – the sight of people from opposing, political, and social ideologies sharing their respective worldviews, however undercooked or unstudied. They may sound incorrect or far off the mark in a factual sense but culturally at least, these people resemble a vacuum; one that neither the ones outraging nor the ones indifferent to this spectacle of offence can claim their methods can help fill.   None of this is to claim that the political discourse of this country shall or should be altered on platforms like Lock Upp. But in a show that is premised on incarcerating its participants, there is perhaps a metaphorical clue about what it intentionally or unintentionally implies. Whether you agree with it or not, there is at least a new sight to behold. I certainly will no watch it because there are too many of these shows out there, and the very idea of a 24-hour stream only reminds me that life is too short to wait on unnecessary pleasures like witnessing someone else’s rumble. But what I do not have a problem with is Ranaut, Payal Rohtagi, Faruqui and Poonawalla working together. It does o’t even matter if any of these characters sincerely believe in the ideologies they champion, but at least in this glossy, mishmash of warring factions, there is at least the semblance of a fluid discourse that neither journalism nor politics has achieved on grounds where they call the shots. Lock Upp is streaming on ALTBalaji. Manik Sharma writes on art and culture, cinema, books, and everything in between. Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News , India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.