JAVED AKTAR

DEMOCRACY HAS PLANTED ITSELF IN THE PSYCHE OF AN AVERAGE
Javed Akhtar shifts gears with amazing alacrity. From screenplay, lyrics and poems he switched gears recently and just weeks before the elections took to quizzing possible Prime Ministerial candidates with Pritish Nandy on Face Off, DD’s prime time election special. If he stole the show from a seasoned journalist of Nandy’s stature with his verbal salvos, he also managed to stun an otherwise ready-witted Mr Vajpayee speechless with his rapid fire. Akhtar had the last word even this time. He says it’s his political awareness and not any in-depth research that lent him the cutting edge. Face to face with the man who faced off leading politicos with clinical precision and characteristic savoir-faire...

How did you suddenly think of joining the pre-poll media circus?
Oh, it just happened when I was in Delhi one day. There was no grand plan behind it. Pritish (Nandy) is an old friend. He told me he was interviewing a few prominent politicians and when he named them, I suggested some questions that might be interesting. He liked my questionnaire so much that he insisted I join him as a co-interviewer. I was rather hesitant at the outset because I’d never interviewed any politicians. I’d only interviewed Manmohan Desai, Majrooh Sultanpuri and Ashok Kumar for some channel earlier. I asked him to give me some time to think. I mulled over the proposal for two days and then said to myself, “What the hell, it’ll be fun. Let me experience this too.” Moreover it was just a matter of a week, I felt it would be well worth it. So, I went along.

How did you go about shortlisting Prime Ministerial candidates?
All the people we interviewed, except George Fernandes, were in the running at that time. Things were rather vague then. We even wanted to interview Laloo Prasad Yadav and Kanshi Ram, as they are prominent political forces in their own measure. But since time was short and they were so busy, we couldn’t get hold of them. Otherwise we’d have had them also on the show.

For a cinema person, your queries showed you to be very were well-informed politically. Did that involve a lot of reading or was it all thanks to in-depth research?
There was no research involved at all. I come from a family which has always been politically active and aware, before and after independence. They are people who discuss politics, who make it a point to read most newspapers and magazines. Even in college I was a keen debator. I was barely 16-17 when I was debating about India’s nuclear policy, the role of UN, religion, secularism vs communalism and such topics.

Secondly, every person has different facets to his personality — I don’t see why anyone should be so surprised if a person working in films is interviewing political personalities. Afterall, the film industry has even sent some of its members to parliament. I was merely interviewing those aspiring to join parliament. Big deal.

Could you break the ice with the infuriatingly diplomatic politicians ? Did you manage to unmask them?
If you are taking interviews, you’ve to play the devil’s advocate. You’ve to be totally objective, you can’t take sides. We were interviewing a cross-section of politicians right from Mr Vajpayee to I K Gujral to Mulayam Singh Yadav, Jyoti Basu, George Fernandes and Manmohan Singh. We never played favourites. Without being discourteous or indecent, we asked them what most people would have liked to ask. As for breaking the ice, it's for the viewers to decide.

You did leave Mr Vajpayee speechless though, didn’t you?
(Smiles) He’ll be giving a speech in parliament, nonetheless.

Which are the most memorable moments of these encounters?
A couple of moments with Mr Vajpayee. He is not known to be left speechless in any situation. But there were times during our show when he didn’t have the answers. He insisted he wanted to have a uniform civil code because he wanted to set right the gender-bias. I reminded him that in 1956 when the Hindu Code Bill gave some title rights to the Hindu woman, the party who protested against it, shouted blue-murder, was Jan Sangh and the person who led the procession was none other than Mr Vajpayee. How was he talking of gender-equality now, when years ago he’d protested against the right to property given to a woman? He didn’t have an answer to that one. Likewise, Manmohan Singh, albeit reluctantly, had to admit that it wasn’t fair on the Congress’ part to drop Narsimha Rao just like that and make him a convenient scapegoat. Then there was Mulayam Singh who raises the flag of secularism on one hand and on the other joins hands with reactionary fundamental Muslims. What kind of a party and principles is he upholding? He tried to defend himself, in vain.

Now that BJP is in power, leading a 18-party coalition government how do you foresee the future?
In all fairness, political adversaries of the BJP have to admit that the top party leadership is extremely sensible. They are also politically very competent, so I don’t think they will let this coalition fall apart very easily. The way they’ve handled Jayalalitha is an example. There isn’t anybody more competent than them to run the government with an 18-member team. But really, I wonder if it will be possible for the government to remain in power for a long while.

So do you think this is only a sort of a semi-final, so to say?
If by semifinal you mean that a single party will sweep the country in the next elections, it is impossible. But, we have to realise and accept the reality that in the years to come, India has to live with a coalition. We have to develop the etiquette and culture for a coalition. In the last 50 years, only one party ruled the country for 40 long years. Rest of the parties have got used to sitting in the opposition. But India can no longer be taken over by a single party, there are many regional aspirations now — fair and justified in their own way. There’ll be many pockets of power now. We have to learn to accept that society is moving towards federalism. Certain classes who have monopolised policy decision so far will have to share power and the nation’s wealth with the rising backward classes. Perhaps, 30 years ago a Kalyan Singh was a remote possibility in the Jan Sangh. But things are changing for the better today. A villager may not know about your fancy computers and satellites but in his own language and metaphor he’ll prove his wisdom. It’s not just a coincidence that democracy is thriving in this country. Langdi, looli, bahri, kani jaisi bhi hai we’ve been able to establish a democratic system and sustain it for 50 long years. It has planted itself in the psyche of an average Indian. We cannot do with anything less than that.

Then how are our sensible masses swayed emotionally, voting a crumbling party on the strength of one woman’s speech?
It happens, but only for a brief while. Eventually they come back to their senses and the middle path of moderation — psephologists can decide, but I am sure there are more reasons than just one woman’s speech for the kind of mandate that the Congress has won. The Congress with all its contradictions and paradoxes, represented the Indian ethos for a long time. May be people are tired of extremist parties now.

With a conservative party like the BJP, what kind of I&B ministry do you see in the near future?
Last time, within 13 days, Sushama Swaraj had passed strict orders of dress-code for lady newsreaders. I hope this time she will not be as puritanical. In my opinion all lady newscasters are most dignified. Wonder what disturbed Ms Swaraj? She comes across as an ultra-conservative person. Lets’ hope she doesn’t behave like one.

What about the film industry, with BJP holding the steering wheel do you envisage the emergence of a tougher censor code?
It depends. BJP promotes culturist nationalism like all conservative parties the world over, they can have radical views about what’s right and what's not. I don’t want to be biased but such parties tend to repress women. They have a phobia for sex. They try to purify everything by eliminating foreign influence and pull back everything back by a few centuries. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen.

With your kind of political awareness won’t the next logical step be to get actively involved in politics?
I don’t think so. Tomorrow if I decide to join politics I don’t know which party to align with. I am not impressed with any of them.

Yet you voted for one of them?
I did vote,yes. Like most Indians who don’t vote for a party, but against it.It was a sort of negative vote.

You do paint a black picture for tomorrow’s India?
India is going through a transition period, the political situation shouldn’t really bother us at this point of time. It’s better to have an unstable government than artificial stability that we had had for years together. Now we are waking up to the realities facing the sub-continent. We’ll overcome our problems. These upheavals are inevitable for the evolution of any society. All will be well in the end. I am an incurable optimist.