BBC and the ride across the river

On BBC and changing sides.

Oh nothing gonna stop them as the day follows the night
Right become a wrong, the left become the right
And they sing as they march with their flags unfurled
Today in the mountains, tomorrow the world

Gonna ride across the river deep and wide
Ride across the river to the other side

This is a snippet from a song by one of my favourite rock bands: Dire Straits. The song is written by Mark Knopfler. In this song, he talks about war from the perspective of two different soldiers. And through these stanzas, he eloquently captured the essence of it.

BBC recently (Jan 2023) made a documentary about Indian PM Narendra Modi and his involvement in the Gujrat riots of 2002. It was banned in India immediately after the release and soon it was vehemently criticised by the government and Indian RW. Obviously, after that, the Indian government were criticised by the BBC and many other foreign presses.

Now, I haven’t watched the documentary so can’t comment on anything. But recently, the news surrounding BBC really made me think about the song mentioned in the post.

Former England international Gary Linekar recently criticised the current ruling government of England through a series of tweets starting from this (about immigration):

Gary Lineker 💙💛 @GaryLineker

@a_webb @secrettory12 There is no huge influx. We take far fewer refugees than other major European countries. This is just an immeasurably cruel policy directed at the most vulnerable people in language that is not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the 30s, and I’m out of order?

BBC suspended him after this. And then many other footballers joined Linekar in solidarity to boycott the MOTD program by BBC.

I find this very interesting for two reasons:

1. I don’t think any cricketing superstar (as Cricket is our biggest game) in India would speak against the government like this. I had strongly expressed my feelings about this before.

2. How the tables have turned! Just a little more than a month back, the organisation which was criticising the Indian government for banning the documentary, have now suspended one of their hosts for speaking against the government of their own country.

This is totally like a “Ride across the river”: Right become a wrong, the left become the right.

Now, if you think about it, this is not a bad thing to do. You have new information about the world & politics so you’re changing your political views. But in real life, be it a politician or someone else, I have only seen people doing this for their own personal gain. Just like the BBC.

Is the BBC a reflection of society or it is the other way around? I really don’t have an answer for that. We, as a race, are pretty self-serving.