The musical talent program by the name of ‘Afghan Star’ or ‘Sitara-e-Afghan’ is very popular among the television audiences these days. This is the latest edition of this program after its previous versions gained wide acceptance and popularity among the Afghan community. Program started a number of months ago and now it’s in its final stages.
This is a program that follows the format introduced by American talent hunt program by the name of ‘American Idol’ which got so much popularity that it was copied by almost all the countries of the world like, ‘British Idol’, ‘Arab Idol’, ‘Indian Idol’ and many more. These programs are all worth-praising as they bring out the hidden talents found in the youth of the country and provide them with a platform to exhibit and polish their talents. At the same time, they provide a healthy entertainment to their audience.
But unfortunately, this year’s ‘Sitara-e-Afghan’ came up with such circumstances that it gave birth to a widely inflicting disgust and resulted an invisible drift among the different communities and nations of the country. First fault was that of the voting system. In all such programs, the results are compiled on the basis of votes received from the audience and on the basis of points given by the judges but in this program; results are compiled on the basis of votes sent by the audience only. The contestants started demanding votes in their own languages and thus every contestant received vote from the members of his or her community only. Due to this inappropriate system, the singers who were not able to sing well and who did not receive good points from the judges, moved to the next rounds while the singers who sang well and also received good comments from the judges, were eliminated from the contest because they were not able to receive sufficient number of votes from the audience.
It was also heard that some community members used to vote in large numbers to the singer who belonged to their own community. This rumor is also confirmed from the fact that last four remaining contestant received votes from their own community members only.
On the other hand, the scenes on the stage were also disgusting when the judges criticized a singer and the singer laughed at them and said that he/she did not care about their remarks and was confident to get sufficient votes from the members of his/ her community.
It is hoped that organizers of this program (Tolo Television Network) would be careful in their future programs to devise a system that should not risk the general solidarity and unity in the country and the promotion of singers would be based on merit.
Similarly, concerned authorities of ministry of culture and others should check that there should not be any such program that should harm the national solidarity and bring drift among the unity of different communities living in the country.