Beauty and the beastly

Pakistan’s performers, singers, actors, and playwrights and poets, more than politicians, have benefitted its image.

Recently, on a nightly political talk show, a rather odious character from the “pee-em-ell-noon” engaged in a distasteful display of derogatory remarks against the performing arts fraternity, because of their support for the newly-launched APML ( All-Pakistan Muslim League). This politician mocked actors, writers, singers and poets, suggesting their political contributions are intellectually inferior, simply because they are from the artistic community, dismissing them as “gaane bajane waale”.

These statements betray the mind-set of the PML-N — that politics should remain the sole domain of the super-rich, dynastic, oligarchy already in control of it. Self-made individuals who have earned their name through talent, merit or artistic endeavour are not welcome. They are to be ridiculed and denigrated. The loud-mouthed politician employed demeaning assertions, personal remarks and a spiteful tone about members of the entertainment industry. When his ad hominem attacks were challenged by the other guest, Ms Atiqa Odho, an accomplished actor, entrepreneur and social activist, he replied that highly personal attacks are what she should expect, and accept, if she enters politics.

Despite the provocation, Ms Odho did well to maintain her poise. The brash PML-N hack boasted that he had secured 70,000 votes, snidely implying that good-looking celebrities had no chance in elective politics.  A seasoned politician, in place of Ms Odho, would have been unable to resist the temptation, given the opponent’s glaring deficit in the looks department, to retort that if bad looks are no barrier to getting votes then why should good looks be? Such a cutting remark would have been well-deserved, given the man’s shameless use of personal comments in political discourse.

Perhaps he would not have been so keen on endorsing personal attacks as political strategy if he had realised how vulnerable his own party leadership is on that count, particularly when it comes to charges of vanity and superficiality. Even before the infamous follicular transplants, political insiders and analysts pointed to the inherent narcissism, when a major political party is named after one man. A few political parties use family names. At least that allows other family members to share the glory of eponymy. Not so for the party that carries its leader’s first name.

As for the charges of vanity — well they are now legendary. A prominent female politician related the leader’s fondness for holding court, Mughal style, surrounded by members of his women’s wing, seated below him on Persian carpets, taking turns complimenting his “fair and lovely” complexion. The secret is “frash anaar ka juice jee”. A bureaucrat, serving as DC in a remote hill station at the time, recounted how this juice had to be flown in at any cost to maintain the leader’s rosy-cheeked look. Further evidence of this vanity was revealed more recently in a programme where children question public figures. When a school girl asked why such a “good-looking” man had chosen politics rather than modelling, the reply was that modelling was not a career option decades ago.

It is laughable when a politician accuses another profession of being superficial, given the paucity of intellectuals in our political landscape. The PML-N has opened itself up to these ripostes from the entertainment and artistic community which deserves an apology from it. It is unacceptable to denigrate a valuable segment of Pakistani society. Performers, singers, actors, and playwrights and poets, more than politicians, have benefitted Pakistan’s image in this region — as well as internationally — through the works of the late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Madam Noor Jehan and many others. Even today it is the “gaane bajane waale” who have contributed tirelessly to flood relief, charity work and national morale. It is their voices that still win over audiences and keep avenues open in hostile territories, where politicians fear to tread. Pakistan’s artistes have transcended race, religion, and regional tensions to earn plaudits and goodwill. Pakistan’s politics already has enough vanity — it could do with some beauty instead.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 12^th, 2010.