katharnak Posted September 16, 2010 Report Posted September 16, 2010 Nearly 60 years after the formation of Andhra Pradesh, the airwaves are thick with sub-regional injustices - especially the kind allegedly meted out to the people of Telengana. Like is the case in any story, this one too has its sides of truth, partial truths and outright lies. But what is surprising is that the protagonists of separate statehood are mostly telling the "lies" side of the story. And this brings us to the key question. Why do sections of the people tend to hear only that side? A common explanation is that the TV-Digital age makes it easy to wall yourself off from inconvenient data, to spend your time in ideological “cocoons,” to hang out at 30 minute specials where you get to play "victim". Makes sense to me. But, however big a role the electronic media plays, it’s just amplifying something human: a tendency to latch onto evidence consistent with your worldview and ignore or downplay contrary evidence. This sadly is the case that is now ailing the Telengana movement. In a move to gain instant sympathy, the main patrons of the movement have since the by-election consistently downplayed on the truth. They are not even coy about it anymore. If anything they are aggressive about their self-proclaimed truths - be it quota for lawyers, civil service aspirants, doctors or just about anything. This is an unhealthy trend that they should stop sooner than later.
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