Neglect the “verdict” these media are giving and vote by yourself! The real “Krishna” is in all of us, and we need to wake up to this truth. Sitting & expecting an idli-eating SMK or a masale-dose eating SS with all their wall-posters will come and catch us from falling into this pit will be stupidity. Vote for who you KNOW is good, and lets not vote so that a particular character becomes this-M, that-M, or CM.

BTW, very well articulated by Sisya!

That probably is not the point. There’s nothing wrong in Krishna being media savvy. It is just that like the author, I have also observed the Krishna-savviness of the English TV media recently. Obviously, the Sardesais and the Dagar Dutts and the Prannoy Roys get ‘decorated’ with awards by the Congress govt., and they feel obliged to do their bit for the Congress’ election campaign.

That Sagarika Ghosh’s interview with SMK and Siddu (in the same programme) is also revealing of the elitist rot and intellectual dishonesty that these channels have brought to the media. Watch it carefully.. first she conjures out of the blue, a “blore vs ktaka” dichotomy - tailor made to ensure that she can indulge in the self righteous “oh bangalore is going to dogs-see what they have done to blore post krishna-kannada chauvinism is on the rise” canard all she wants.

So, after conveniently setting up the viewer thus, she interviews SMK in his house and cannot help drooling over his ’sophistication’ and the visual seem to cry out — “ohh! see his house.. he even has a pooja room! the pooja room has tastefully carved teak panels!! and look! there is a pujari alladsing his gante in the pooja room!! I’m moved. eeks! he eats idli vade with a spoon!! What a man! Blessed are we that we will have him at the helm after these elections”…

Then she moves to Siddu, who much to her discomfiture also has a pooja room in his house! And the bugger even speaks English!! God.. and then the idiot has a Mona Lisa (not a Maramma) hanging in his drawing room.. oh we’re so owned.. boo hoo.. what shall I do? Gotcha! look.. he’s eating masale dose with his bare hands! sheesh! how parochial and chauvinistic is that?!.. I am sure if I asked him.. “Shree Sidarumayaji.. do you think that Kannadigas should get priority in Karnataka”.. to which Sidarumaya answers at length that he is indeed for it.

Gotcha!!.. Back to the studio.. snip my question out.. add my commentry in.. squeeze in Sidarumayaji’s answer and lo and behold! We have the viewer totally convinced that all but SMK are parochial chauvinists.. and the contrast we have so very convincingly etched between the american gowda and the kuruba demonstrates the blore-ktaka divide..

“I told you it existed.. I told you. See if you believe you can take your viewers for a ride, you’ll find something as you go along. You must believe in yourself…you should be a go-getter. whew!” sagarikaji was heard telling a certain deepa balakrishna - the stammering kongati who these days seems to be perfecting her art of KKK-baiting (remember when the sidilu badidante mira mira minchutta iruva “superstar” speaks in Kannada, he is “speaking in a language the Kannadigas understand” WTF! Journalism seems to be the first refuge of scoundrels.

Due to what we call ‘love marriage’?

Your suggestion that there might be “two elections taking place. . . one election is taking place in English, and the other in Kannada” speaks to the clout of Bangalore’s elite electorate rather than to Krishna’s image.

PS: NDTV nightly news rocks!