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    Let’s call a spade a spade. We all know. TV-channels, more often than not, run on the fetish of TRPs. Nothing more and nothing less. Even if a cock and bull story, has the girth to sell and bring TRPs. TV channels will broadcast it—period. For important may not be interesting and interesting may not be important, for viewers.

    Rahul Gandhi is one such case in point. Ever since he lost UP polls. He became that non-charismatic politician, and after Lok Sabha debacle- useless, and after his 56 day spiritual-sabbatical at Myanmar, a gone case. As glaringly drummed by TV- channels.

    But this time TV-channels went berserk. When they used an impudent idiom like ‘missing in action’ to describe ‘RaGa’s absence from the Indian political space, during his sabbatical and thought they’ll be able to justify it by giving it a semantic hue, if asked. And, I even heard some senior journalists of repute, using this silly idiom while covering ‘Raga.’

    But that apart. I was quite surprised when Congress Party and more so. The young Rahul Brigade did not take umbrage to such a dubious and debatable term of expression. That on one end hinges on–‘as presumed dead’ being used for their young leader. When I’m sure the likes of dictionaries or thesauruses could have offered a much more dignified and decent set of words to describe ‘Raga.’ Or, is it that the TV-channels slipped up this time on simple English, which looks quite unlikely, or is it daggers drawn with Raga. Only they can explain.

And, let us for once analyse how close ‘missing in action’ is ‘to presumed dead.’

As per the Oxford ADVANCED LEARNER’S Dictionary

Meaning of ‘missing’

1. That cannot be found or that is not in its usual place, or at home SYNONYM- LOST: I never found the missing piece. * My gloves have been missing for ages * Two files have gone missing * They still hoped to find their missing son * (especially brE) Our cat’s gone missing 2 that has been removed, lost or destroyed and has not been replaced: The book has two pages missing/missing pages * He didn’t notice there was anything missing from his room until later on. 3 (of a person) not present after an accident, battle, etc. but not known to have been killed: He was reported missing, presumed dead. *Many soldiers were listed as missing in action. 4 not included, often when it should have been.
2. Google

Missing in action (MIA) is a casualty classification assigned to armed services personnel and other combatants who are reported missing during wartime. They may have been killed, wounded, become a prisoner of war, or deserted. If deceased, neither their remains nor grave has been positively identified.

Missing in action

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the military term. For other uses, see Missing in action (disambiguation).

    Grave of an unknown British soldier, killed in 1943 during theBattle of Leros. Because his identity is unknown, he is missing in action.

    On a dismal note. one can only hope the nation’s conscience keeper- the fourth estate and more specifically the English TV channels will introspect the real meaning of “missing in action” within themselves by rewinding their sound bites; when RaGa is back safe and sound.

By Kamlesh Tripathi

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