The art of politics is being increasingly conducted across the media, turning \u2018sovereign\u2019 people into mere spectators. That is understandable since politicians and the media complement each other. However, a problem has arisen with the growing tendency to debate politics in the mode of televised talk shows.<\/p>\n

The merciless nightly dissection of political subjects has led to two major consequences: political players resorting to point scoring, and some \u2013 mercifully not all \u2013 TV anchorpersons assuming the role of prosecutors and judges on governance issues. Some others blatantly try to be political fixers.<\/p>\n

The result is a cacophony that rules our TV screens every evening with endless commercial messages as the participants prepare fresh salvos. My plea to both \u2013 talk-show hosts and participants \u2013 is to stop treating their audience as a bunch of dunces.<\/p>\n

Though not as brutal as the talk shows, another trend in the media is to create news at all sorts of events like convocations, inaugurations, weddings, funerals, receptions, seminars and symposiums. This practice may be justifiable on account of the media\u2019s right to report all that is fit to be news. Yet, there are occasions when a public representative or official speaks his\/her mind and ends up creating breaking news or even an embarrassment for his\/her organisation or the government.<\/p>\n

In this backdrop of wide-ranging possibilities of all that can happen at an event, the Jinnah Institute\u2019s \u2018Ideas Conclave\u2019 recently held in Islamabad led to faces going red in the corridors of power when a sitting minister called upon friendly countries to desist from funding seminaries that breed extremists or terrorists.<\/p>\n

I am not aware of what the organisers felt about the minister\u2019s frankness at their forum which was ostensibly held to conduct some serious discussion on themes including extremism and terrorism, the energy crisis, and foreign policy with a special emphasis on the regional situation with regard to relations with India and Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

Leaving aside the cracker tossed by the minister, there was enough food for thought at the meeting to seriously and earnestly address the most pressing issues in the country. There was a disclosure during the discussion on the ongoing energy crisis that gave an indication of how clueless (knowingly?) our planners and rulers are about bringing an end to electricity loadshedding.<\/p>\n

It looked elementary for Sherlock but obviously Watson wouldn\u2019t like to acknowledge that the Achilles\u2019 heel is not power production capacity \u2013 which exists \u2013 but transmission, distribution and theft of electricity.<\/p>\n

It looks odd, if not stupid, that the two elected governments blame each other and jointly blame Musharraf for not increasing the capacity of power production. The audience was told that loadshedding can be minimised by upgrading and streamlining the transmission system. Imagine a happy scenario where 80 percent of the country is not plunged into darkness after a terror attack on a power line in some remote place.<\/p>\n

The pressing need would thus not be that of installing more capacity but modernising the distribution network. Yet the rulers neither address it nor talk about it because it is far less \u2018sexy\u2019 \u2013 as one speaker put it \u2013 than inaugurating power plants. Why not address the other non-sexy aspects like putting ceilings on power consumption by the sacred cows that the employees of electricity companies have become. Power theft with the collusion of linesmen and their bosses is well-known enough to be overstated.<\/p>\n

There were other handy takeaways from the Ideas Conclave. A guru of Indian journalism shared sobering thoughts about the behaviour of the Modi government towards Pakistan. He made a profound statement by asserting that the BJP\u2019s stance on Pakistan is still rooted in what it was when they were the opposition party.<\/p>\n

According to him, there is not much hope for early resumption of dialogue between the two countries but once the Modi team finds its feet, it may finally engage with Pakistan although it is not clear if the dialogue would lead to something. I consider that to be the sixty thousand dollar question.<\/p>\n

If the Indian establishment believes that it is best served by keeping a hostile posture towards Pakistan while doing their bit to destabilise and weaken it, then indeed the Pakistani wish of resumed dialogue would become a mere pipedream.<\/p>\n

Alternatively, Indian policy planners may like to consider non-zero-sum options. They can start by paying heed to the wording of the Obama administration\u2019s proposal to Congress for more than $1 billion in military and economic assistance to Pakistan in the coming fiscal year.<\/p>\n

It describes Pakistan as a \u201cstrategically important nation\u201d and says that the US assistance will help Pakistan\u2019s military fight against extremism, will increase safety of nuclear installations and accelerate economic development.<\/p>\n

The administration also informed Congress that continued US engagement will help bring stability to Afghanistan and will promote better relations between Islamabad and New Delhi. That is as plain as can be. We shall see how the mindset prevalent in Delhi reconciles to the US call.<\/p>\n

The News International<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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