The Unpleasant Truth: 90 Percent of Indians Are Fools

“90 percent Indians believe in astrology, which is pure superstition and humbug,” he further writes. “Even a little common sense tells us that the movements of stars and planets have nothing to do with our lives. Yet, TV channels showing astrology have high TRP ratings,” he justifies. In a reply to Katju’s article, R Jagannathan of Firstpost writes, “If belief in the unscientific is proof of foolishness, half the world is a fool. In a world where people clutch at all kinds of straws to make some sense of the madness around them, astrology is hardly the defining factor for foolishness.”

The media hype for cricket and Bollywood has always been Katju’s pet topic and this time and he came down very hard on Indian media’s obsession with the above mentioned and said, “cricket has been turned into a religion by our corporatised media, and most people lap it up like opium.” He says the real problems are the socio-economic issues such as unemployment, education, price rise, housing, poverty, malnourishment, lack of healthcare etc. that 80 percent of the population in the country faces. He laments over the media hypocrisy as it minimizes or sidelines these issues and gives greater importance for on the lives of film starts, cricket, fashion etc. He condemned the way how Indian media depicted events such as Sachin’s 100th century and Dravid’s retirement as the most important events of the country while facts like a quarter of a million farmers’ suicides and 47 percent Indian children being malnourished were severely sidelined.