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IBNLive Chat: 'Penalise B'loreans who haven't voted'
Published on Wed, May 14, 2008 at 18:12, Updated at Thu, May 15, 2008 in Nation section
Tags: Assembly Elections 2008, Karnataka
POWER PLAY: Theatre person Arundhati Nag feels that modern construction should not be allowed anywhere near a 3-km radius of any heritage site.
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What can the common man expect from the new government? Better governance? Stability? Addressing civic woes? Can the new government bridge the Bangalore vs rest-of-Karnataka debate?
IBNLIve.com organised a chat with Arundhati Nag, a multi-lingual actress with more than 35 years of theatre experience. One of the prominent citizens of Bangalore, she has also assisted David Lean on his 'Passage To India'.
Here we reproduce the full text of the chat.
Varun: Bangalore witnessed an abysmal voter turnout on Saturday. It's stupidity to expect a good government to be elected when the educated masses stay away from voting. We then leave the job of electing to the uneducated and rural masses, which leads to a lousy government coming to power and taking the people for a ride. Most of the fundamental rights accorded to us by our Constitution are grossly exploited. The right to vote, I believe, is the single right that we can exercise in its total purity. Mrs.Nag, my question is, how can encourage the educated masses and youth to come forward and enthusiastically cast their votes?
Arundhati Nag: I think it’s time we have some kind of a penalising clause for urbanites who do not exercise their franchise. Something that will make them feel miserable like putting their names in the papers and also (this at the cost of sounding didactic) having it marked maybe on their driving license and passport.
Rahul: In the last few years, Karnataka and Kannadigas seem to be turning parochial in their outlook. Would you agree?
Arundhati Nag: I would like to see people from anywhere learning a bit about the culture and language of any place they visit or live in. We all go to France and come back speaking English with a French accent in a matter of weeks....why? Because the French do not speak to you in any other language. India is not that bad, even a villager makes an attempt to speak to you in Eng or Hindi. No harm in trying to respect and learn about the language and the food and culture of a place that is home! I did it. I learnt Kannada after coming to Bangalore.
MD: What will be the future of theatre? In some places theatres are making way for shopping malls?
Arundhati Nag: By theatre I presume you mean drama. Yes? I believe that drama is the mother of cinema and TV. Training in drama equips one for every performance genre. I believe that there will always be a segment of people in this world who are fed up of the mediocre fare on television and the larger-than-life image of the cinema and opt for drama which is the closest to real life. Places like Ranga Shankara where you do not have a Coke or Pepsi ad plastered on all our walls just because they have given us some money to produce a play. Vodafone supports our theatre and has the grace not to cover our walls with their ads, people are tired of seeing more ads on TV than the content they wish to see. Theatre will never die, it has a way of inventing and re-inventing itself. It will perform in basements, foyers, on streets, bus stations and even people’s living rooms, so the malls can grow if the people want them!
Om: Do you have any plans to join political party?
Arundhati Nag: No.
Rama: As a common man, Kannadigas should get their share in Karnataka. What do you think?
Arundhati Nag: Each citizen of this country should get his rights wherever he is placed geographically. We Kannadigas are a warm and welcoming and peace-loving people and that is our greatest wealth. We must continue to be the way we are. We must take genuine pride in what is ours – language, food, art, culture and help people from other parts of the country and world to enjoy and cherish and imbibe it. Imagine if every state began to exist only for their own people, what would become of India?
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Total Comments: 3
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One does NOT have to learn LOCAL language to show his/her respect to local people. Language is just a means
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Let the public figures first talk about penalising the Government officials who make a farce out of election duty and
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It the same story all the time. Big mouths never vote! They just vomit on TV and such like shows.
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