It’s time the moderators show up before the world blows up

I will start the story with a situation in an Indian middle-class family. A girl of marriageable age is in love with one of his office colleagues. She shares the same with her parents. However, the father is not happy with the match as the boy is not from the same caste. He objects to the marriage and things get stalled. The mother then comes in the picture and plays the role of a moderator. She convinces the father and shows him the positive side of the alliance like the boy is well educated, comes from a family with a good value system, respects women and last but not least loves their daughter. The father sees the points and relents. Finally, marriage gets fixed.

The reason I started with this example is that we have people in our society who play the role of moderators. It can be a mother in the family or a friend in our circle. It can be the panchayat in the village or the seniors in our society whom we call the “Bade Bujurg”. They play the role of a catalyst and cool down a situation before it explodes. The moderators show both the parties the perspective of the opposite party and finally prevail upon one of them to give up their defiance.

The situation in our country is boiling because there are very few moderators who can play the role of a catalyst. I am not only talking about politics but many other areas where our views are so much polarized that it is either my way or highway. So, let us see what are these situations and how badly we need moderators.

Bollywood Movie reviews badly need a good moderator

Every movie release is preceded by so much hype on the media to which we are exposed. It starts with social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter followed by The Kapil Sharma show on television and finally by Newspaper reviews. And mind it every review says that it is the ultimate film and everybody should watch it.

Then comes the release on the theatres. Now we have two groups on social media – Facebook and WhatsApp. One group says that this is a must-see movie and one of the best of the lead actor whether Akshay Kumar or Salman Khan. On the other hand, there is another group which says that this is one of the worst movies and one should not waste his time and money on the movie. So the movie is either too good or too bad.

A Movie called Housefull 4

Let me give a recent example. Housefull 4 starring Akshay Kumar, Bobby Deol, and many others got released a month back.  Bollywood news portal like Koimoi.com and Bollywood.com were giving daily updates on how the movie is beating all records. The movie has already joined the Rs 200 crore plus club. Before the release, there were tweets on how this will be one of the best in the Housefull series. I also tweeted saying going by the Housefull series, I doubt that very much. I was surprised to get a very nasty reply that I should watch it before passing such a comment.

Housefull 4 must-have collected Rs 200 crore but it couldn’t get even 20 minutes of my mother’s attention. Her one-line review was  “It is a trash movie and how come Akshay Kumar is in the movie”. She watched it on one of the OTT streaming channels and said it was a total waste of time.

The producers are laughing all the way to the bank but the Indian audience isn’t. The false hype took them for a ride. And what about the Newspaper reviews? Well, they balance out giving 3 or 3.5 stars to every movie with a super-star whether it has a script or not. Readers don’t believe them anymore. We need film critics who are good moderators and who give a frank review in the interest of the readers.

The Politics of India needs a good moderator

The current scenario doesn’t need any further elaboration. There is a Pro-CAA and Anti-CAA group. The Pro group says that citizens don’t need to worry as it won’t impact them at all. The Anti group says that with this act, every citizen will have to prove his citizenship in the country. And so the fight goes on.

An average citizen who is more worried about the price of onions and petrol is not able to make up his mind. If he supports the Pro-CAA group, people in his social circle label him a pro-ruling party. On the other hand, if he is Anti-CAA, then he is labeled as anti-secular. This is where we need moderates. Moderates who can find a mid-way and explain what is good or what is bad for the nation.

Moderators can show us the mid-path.

There is always a mid-path. A path where the ruling party takes into consideration the sensitivities of people who are protesting and find solutions to address it. On the other hand, the protestors need to find out a better way to make their voices heard. Violence will lead us nowhere. It will only take the nation backward. There can be silent protests like a candlelight protest or a black-band protest. Most of the protests in Hong Kong have been silent  (though few turned violent).

The moderators can be picked up from different fields – Educationists, Industrialists, Entrepreneurs, Film Personalities, Retired Armed Forces people, Retired Judges, etc. The moderators can appear on different mediums like television, social media and address the concerns of both parties.

I would like to add a personal opinion here. We need more people like Atal Bihari Vajpayee who ruled with an iron hand on one hand (remember Kargil) and with soft on the other (used to respect the opinion of opposition parties and his electorate). The Opposition parties also need to play a constructive role here. They have a right to protest but it has to be in the right spirit. They should not try to score points by misleading ordinary citizens.

The World also needs moderators

America has just killed the topmost generals of Iran Qassim Suleimani. Suleimani was not a terrorist. What he was doing was in the interest of his country. It’s a separate issue that his actions were not in sync with US actions. But this doesn’t give the US the right to kill him. The World has condemned US actions. Countries like China and Russia have criticised while Europe is treading carefully.

Whatever reasons the US may give to support its actions, killing a General who was the 2^nd most important person in Iran’s hierarchy can’t be justified.

What happened to something called diplomacy? What happened to a body called UN which is supposed to play the role of a moderator?

We need a new World view

My way or highway is a dangerous path. It will make the world polarized even further. We are just happy with the two global extremes – the Artic and the Antarctic circle. There is a major problem in front of humanity like climate change. Australia is just suffering from a huge forest fire and millions of animals have been killed. It’s time world leaders including India focus their energies on finding solutions to a problem threatening mankind.

For getting elected you need people and for people to survive you need to take care of them.

Read more such similar stories on my blog. Click on the link below:

Colombo: Take a vow that you will not bow to the terrorists

Dear Mr PM: We need a peaceful Dwarka and not a Mahabharata

PM Modi – Apps you need to upgrade on your India-phone