Reach

'Sansani' is a Hindi word which roughly translates in English
as "something causing an uproar"... (I'm not that good translater)

Sansani is name of one of the TV shows started in the "Star News" channel in India.

Once while skipping through the channels I came across this show.
The compere's appearance and his way of speaking caught my attention.

He has quite an unorthodox look being in India.
He sports a moustache and a beard (okay, people in India have that), with a pony tail (rarely seen).

His voice is characterized by his effort to command the audience :)
Tries to speak too loud and in higher pitch.

Now about the show.
The show focuses on carrying 'sting operations' against -
* Self proclaimed Sadhu's (Saints) who claim to have a panacea for any worldly problem
* Government departments taking bribes etc

In short they ask people who have been duped to approach them.
Sansani would try to help these people by bringing the injustice caused to them in public...

Wonderful idea!
These 'sting operations' are not a new thing per-se.
However, the way Sansani does it is something which I really hated.

There was one Baba (Sadhu/Saint) who claimed to have remedies to cure ailments of some girl. Baba took some money and did not lay-by his claim. Girl approached Sansani. Sansani was all set to carry out the operation.

Baba's false claims were open in public, which forced Baba to wrap-up his store and quit.
Okay till here... This is done for the good.

What followed next was horrible.
Baba was punished in front of camera.
He was told to bend down his knee and do some stuff our teachers asked us to do in school. Why humiliate a person so much? Sansani did what it wanted to and Baba's shop did close. But this stuff was really bad and not upto the taste of a channel like Star News.

Few days later I noticed a similar program on Zee News, another news channel in India. This guy's tone was similar to the Sansani guy. The show did the same buisiness as Sansani.
However, Zee news did something real disgusting.

One such Baba was approached and when Zee News made their identity known to him, the poor fellow was frightened so much that he peed in his pants! I came to know about this because, Zee News camera person shot his pant and the commentator was giving a whole-hearted commentary on their latest kill. Shucks!

Is this the new trend in journalism ??? or something we would like to see ???
Sorry, Nope!

It is okay for Sansani or the other program to help public by doing good to them and exposing such false Baba's or whoever they want to. However, it should be done with decency and flair.

Manish.