Forging PAN Indian identity thru soft power

Another run of Indian Idols comes to an end with a victor crowned. While many lamented the rather limited talent of singers coming to the fore, this particular series will be known for another reason.
For a change the 2 finalists were not from main stream India and seen by most - which is essentially the North/West and South of India. Rather both of them were from East - One from Darjeeling which a part of Bengal still has its own identity and the other from very East Meghalaya. TV news channels were reporting a lot on how it has fired up the people of North east to finally see one of their own occupying national centre stage. There were reports that the usually very estranged Garo and Khasi tribes of Meghalaya for once united in supporting a guy from the state. This is a very healthy sign.
I personally watched Indian Idols rather very infrequently. From what I heard from most was that the candidate from Meghalaya was the most talented of the lot though I personally preferred the voice of the Darjeeling hero (and mind you I say the voice not the singing talent). Well one show is not fair to pronounce judgement on someone but most of friends were holding the Meghalaya guy as the winner for many weeks now.
What might have happened is that the usual bane of such shows strike and maybe people voted on ethnic lines and Bengal is a very large state. On the other hand, winning a show is also about preparation and lets face it, when its just two finalists, both of them will have great talents. So a song selection and that one day can make fortunes. Lets hope that indeed that was the case in which case Meghalaya will not be disappointed.
It was good to see politicians for one realizing something. The final had clips showing the prime minister and the chairperson of the ruling coalition meeting the two finalists to wish them well. This is something I saw for the first time and I think it was significant. For both the finalists to come from North East (and lets face it the favorite was the Meghalaya guy) it was as much an endorsement of the fact that india is slowing coming into its own.
Many say that the unifying factor in India are cricket and Bollywood. Its a thought I can readily agree with. There might be a lot of hostility between ethnic groups within India but Hindi movies and Cricket does fire imagination across India. It is this soft power that is often neglected by most Indian policy makers. Thus it was heartening to see the top policitos realizing this importance and were seem to wish the two. I only hope this will encourage other NE Indians to come forward for such. If we look at it, i remember no cricketer from Northeast. There is Bhaichung Bhootia who is quite a superstar but in football, a game not that main stream in India. The only noteworthy actor from NE India has been Danny Denzopa and he too is old now.
By encouraging more people to come, especially into mass media from NE (cricket takes too many facilities to begin showing results) we can ensure that not only NE guys start seeing them as a part of a PAN Indian identity, it will also make them more familiar to the rest of India. Ignorance of our own brethren from East is a blot on the rest and it can only augur well for the future of India if the same is rectified early.