Channels and Chappell: Barking up the wrong tree

"They are entitled to make any comment they like. That's what they are paid to do in parliament.”
Greg Chappell, the Indian cricket team coach, in South Africa
By John Cheeran
You should fear media organizations in India and especially, if you are a journalist.
Journalists are free to run down anyone, from George Bush to Manmohan Singh and you can still keep your job.
But can any journalist in India criticize the media organizations for the silly things they indulge in to create news and hope to remain as a journalist?
Nope.
The utter drivel that has been mouthed by the 24x7 television anchors on cricket makes me puke. Award winning channels are going after Indian cricket team’s coach Greg Chappell for his comments on the Indian parliamentarians. Chappell has been quoted in the beginning of this post.
I know, and you know as much, that Indian parliamentarians were caught on camera accepting bribes to raise issues in the Parliament. Lok Sabhaa speaker Somanath Chatterjee had to strip the MP status of many in the wake of the sting report by cobrapost.com
Chappell, the outsider, only said Indian MPs are paid to speak. So did it hurt?
Aren’t the MPs the most privileged lot in the country? There are gentlemen and criminals in the Indian Parliament and that should not surprise anyone. Chappell did not question Indian MPs rights to criticize Indian cricketers and him.
So why hang him just because you don’t like the guy?
Channels can’t hit and harass captain Rahul Dravid at the moment since he has been stoic and solid off and on the field.
I was shocked to hear in a channel that Chappell was told to shut up by the BCCI vice president Rajeev Shukla. Shukla in fact defended Chappell by saying, the English idiom used by the Australian coach was misunderstood by a few. But then Shukla, himself an MP, launched an attack on his brothers.
Shukla demanded that Indian MPs should do their homework before speaking on cricket. He pointed out that Sitaram Yechuri and Brinda Karat know their cricket but MPs such as Samajwadi Party’s Mohan Singh should shut up. Shukla even said those political parties (Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh) who do not release cricket grounds to the BCCI to stage international matches have no right to speak about the state of Indian cricket.
But Indian channel warriors are sense-proof in this winter of discontent and continue to tilt at windmills.