Shooting From the Mouth,The National Pastime

The nation has recently been afflicted by a serious disorder to which a number of people have fallen prey. The disorder is oral diarrhoea characterised by a profusion of loose, often inane and hazardous talk.

Words can make or mar, heal or wound. But who cares. Everyone is bent on shooting from the mouth — whether one has a locus standi in the matter or not. Passing comments and making remarks at the drop of a hat have become the norm rather than the exception. And the consequences of this are all too clear. From Babri to Dadri, a lot of water has flowed under the bridge and Incredible India has become Intolerant India.

There is no end to the debate on plunging tolerance levels in the country. First, it was superstar Shah Rukh Khan, and now Aamir Khan, to speak out on the matter, and in between, there have been several politicians who did their bit to keep the issue burning.

Our public representatives, of course, are past masters of the art of doublespeak. They make a loaded statement today and the very next day follow it up with lame excuses. “The media has distorted my statement” or “I am misquoted” are frequently the claim.

God has given humans two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak. But the problem with many is that we do not listen to understand but to reply.

Thanks to social media, the common man is generous these days in sharing his nonsense, fear and ignorance widely. Loose talk online has its own consequences as it has the potential to reach far more people than something said in the physical world. Some people have this bad habit of giving their expert views based on mere hearsay. Where is the need to invent a story with your small mind and share that invented story with your big mouth when you have not seen with your own eyes and heard with your own ears?

Panelists on television news shows, of course, are ever ready to stoke the passions further with instant commentary. Often, words are put into the mouth and innocuous statements turned into sensational ones. For the electronic media, controversies are the easiest way to boost TRP ratings.

Making a mountain out of a molehill is the favourite pastime of many of us. Whenever a controversy erupts, the Toms, Dicks and Harrys are ready to air their views — often compounding the matter further. Politicians, for sure, stick to the policy of one controversy a day. And most of them try to one-up on each other. A Union Minister recently created ripples with his ‘dog’ remark while a Delhi minister kicked up a row with an observation about ‘beautiful women’ going out at midnight . Not to be left behind a Karnataka minister raised hackles by saying that yoga was for ‘lazy people’. Defending such outlandish and sectarian remarks leaves the government on a sticky wicket.

Wise men speak as they have something to say, fools because they have to say something. But nowadays everyone wants to wax eloquent and mostly end up saying the wrong thing at the wrong moment, while some put their foot into the mouth every time they open it. Who, nowadays, remembers the golden principle of thinking before you speak, and, of course, Googling to verify something before you post.

As an anonymous wit once put it, great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events and the small minds discuss people. If only one would stop poking one’s nose into everything and desist from backbiting, things would  look up — both at the individual as well as at the national level. The moral of the story, therefore, is: Speak only if you can improve silence.

- J.S.Ifthekhar,

Hyderabad based journalist.

Article published in The New Indian Express

Dated December 2,2015.