I have come late to the tamasha just concluded in the beautiful Garden City primarily because the media-voracious controversy became so ludicrously polarised, making comment superfluous. Of course, contests like the one we saw last Saturday should be held if people are determined enough to hold them, even if the whole business of judging the "fairest of them all" on the basis of one rehearsed sentence—"I want to work in Calcutta with Mother Teresa", "I would like to climb Mount Everest"—and a couple of flashy walks down a ramp is rather preposterous. Be that as it may, I found the abuse and ridicule which daily damned the protestors as cranks and lunatics out to besmirch the fair name of Bangalore and Bharat repugnant. If Mr A. Bachchan in his latest starring role as protector and purveyor of shudh native culture could harness crores of rupees and half the police force of Karnataka to stage his beloved pageant, the 'lunatics' also had a right to do whatever they did. Self-immolation, doubtless, is going too far but the argument that beauty contests are a modern variant of the cattle market seems sane. At any rate, what makes India a vibrant democracy is the respect we pay to the dissident who is allowed space to be heard. The Bangalore shouting-brigade needs to be congratulated for demonstrating to the world that besides conventional wisdom, unconventional wisdom also flourishes in India, and we would be a poorer country if the combination was lost.
