Few years back, it was Pranav Mistry whose talk on Sixth Sense technology became hot topic in many technical universities. If you are an avid internet surfer you must have at some point or the other watched a TED Talk. The series features achievers in different walks of life who deliver a powerful narrative of their life. It’s all about who they are, what they did and how they achieved success in their field of work. Today the show is not limited to internet.
‘TED Talks India: Nayi Soch’ created in partnership with TED, a non-profit organization is now being aired on Star Plus. The first episode premiered on 10 December garnered a rousing response. It was telecast on six channels: Star Plus, Star Pravah, Star World, Star Gold, Star Jalsa, and Movies OK. According to BARC, it had a reach of about 42.4 million. To add more to it, on social media the show has received over 140,000 mentions from more than 31,000 unique users translating into over billion impressions. All the stats conclude that the show has gained immense popularity within a short span.
Recently, I watched TED talk ‘The power and the risk of raising your voice’ by the self proclaimed ambassador of peace Miss Gurmehar Kaur, student of Delhi University whose claim to fame is “Pakistan did not kill my father, war did.”
Gurmehar Kaur started her speech by stating that she is the daughter of a martyr and then spoke about hullabaloo caused just because of her call for peace. She also spoke about her recluse to Vipassanā Kendra when she was surrounded by hate and violence. Gradually she builds a narrative that just because she wanted peaceful future she was subjected to various derogatory remarks. As per her talk she just protested against violence at educational institutes.
Gurmehar Kaur also questioned if the weight of some political opinion was greater than life of an individual. In the end she mentions that words are superpower which everyone has but it’s the responsibility of individual whether to use them to spread love or propagate hate. The talk was fine as Gurmehar Kaur was confident in whatever she wanted to convey but then a question stuck me.
Does Gurmehar Kaur have any moral authority?
One must not forget in October the free speech activist issued threats to a couple of young boys who ran Facebook page ‘Squint Neon’ just because they made some memes featuring her. The memes were essentially a criticism of activism of Gurmehar Kaur that went viral within no time. The ‘Free Speech’ activist could not bear the criticism and did the opposite of what she preached. The admins of ‘Squint Neon’ were threatened of defamation case, police action, and even a destroyed career.
Gurmehar Kaur’s ignorance was much evident by the fact that she got indulged in cyber bullying, the very same thing that she accused Squint Neon admins of. Aware of Miss Kaur’s political connections and scared about their future, the young admins unpublished their Facebook page and deactivated their social media profiles. After the placard incident Gurmehar Kaur became the darling of various Left organizations. She was made a co-founder in ‘Citizens for Public Leadership’ that is well known for offering fellowships in areas usually dominated by the left-liberals.CPL is backed by different politicians, journalists, activists, etc. who are left leaning. They believe in having a mafia like control on various institutions just like different universities that enrich the Left ecosystem.
These organizations work in tandem to obtain the support of all the docile and gullible people, who have no strong convictions of their own but are prepared to accept a ready-made system of values if it is only drummed into their ears sufficiently loudly and frequently. It will be those whose vague and imperfectly formed ideas are easily swayed and whose passions and emotions are readily aroused who will then swell the ranks of Leftists. Political inclinations of Gurmehar are not hidden from anyone.
Figure 1 CPL Team
Figure 2 Meme featuring Gurmehar
Figure 3 Meme featuring Gurmehar
Figure 4 Threat
Unfortunately, the TED team including Shahrukh Khan overlooked this part of the story and invited her to give talk. It’s matter of shame that SRK who generally remains abreast with current affairs not only gave Miss Kaur ‘public platform’ but also promoted her as ‘Free speech’ champion without due diligence.
Perhaps, TED team turned a blind eye to Gurmehar Kaur’s hypocrisy. It would have been much better had TED platform been given to some other people who have made some substantial contribution but did not gain fame.
Role models are a reflection of what a person values. When we value honesty, integrity, determination, morals, boldness, leadership and hard work, we must choose role models those who exemplify these values. Instead, most often it so happen that fame and perception created by media overrides the core values. In today’s society, its responsibility of media to project some authentic candidates instead of fakes ones as role models but the freedom to choose is with you. So, choose wisely.