Politics: Media’s Obsession with Modi

August 15, 2013. As usual, the Prime Minister’s address to the nation was telecast live by all channels in the country. This is the done thing. It is the person in the driver’s seat addressing all stakeholders and the message has to reach everyone.

This address was followed by an unprecedented live telecast by all channels – the speech given by the Chief Minister of a state in a college somewhere in his own state.

Now, every politician, big or small definitely hoisted the flag somewhere – be it their building, complex, gully, mohalla, school, college, assembly, secretariat or party headquarters. It is not possible that any politician of any stature did not hoist the flag and give a speech somewhere.  Every single Chief Minister also must have definitely hoisted a flag somewhere in their state and given a speech. All of them must have been in public and all media must have been invited to their functions. Some of the speeches must have preceded those by the Prime Minister, some must have been concurrent and some must have followed. Most must have been political.

But the media, all sundry television channels across the country chose to telecast the hoisting presided by the Chief Minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi, live. After telecasting the speech by one Chief Minister to the entire nation, thereby bracketing him along with the Prime Minister, the channels chose to spend the rest of the day dissecting the timing and the contents of the address.  It is not like either Narendra Modi or the BJP could have dictated to the channels that this is what they should do. The decision to telecast this particular speech and then spend airtime on discussing it is solely each channel’s.

In trying to create controversy, air time and newsprint have been spent on dissecting the timing of Modi’s speech. If Modi would have spoken before the Prime Minister, the criticism would be that he did it deliberately to place himself above the PM. If it was concurrent, the diatribe would be about him having pretensions of being the PM. Since his speech followed the PM’s address, the screeches were that he did it calculatingly to counter everything the PM said.

Modi’s stature today and the horror he holds for Congress is largely due to the media’s obsession with him. They cover, discuss, dissect, report and analyse practically every breath that he takes. The media is responsible for mythicizing him as both, a monster and a messiah.

Neither of the two parties, Congress or BJP, which are likely to form the next government in 2014 has announced their Prime Ministerial candidates. Yes, Modi is a very strong contender to being announced as a Prime Ministerial contender from BJP, but he hasn’t yet been announced as such. Yet Modi is accorded the same importance as the current Prime Minister by the media.

The media’s obsession with Modi has worked brilliantly for him, because as every public figure knows, ‘No news is bad news’. Whether Modi-bashing or Modi-lauding the media has made sure that he is the most recognised face and politician in India today.

Politics: Narendra Modi: "Can and We Will"

 Narendra Modi’s gathering in Hyderabad attracted a crowd of 1.50.000 people. This must be the largest crowd for a paid rally (admission was at Rs. 5). Modi gave a rousing speech which he ended with, “We can and we will.”

Flak followed. This was Obama’s slogan in his 2008 campaign. That was his first attempt to become the President of the USA and this slogan galvanised the nation. Flak. Flak. And more flak for Modi for using the same slogan.

A whole day of television airwaves featured various Congress party members deriding Modi. He was dismissed as a man without vision or ideas. #Feku and #Pheku are the derogatory hashtags and handles that Modi-bashers have created for him in the Twitter-world. These were gleefully circulated and reinforced.

The anti-Modi celebratory party lasted for probably a day. The raucous chatter was firmly silenced when the BJP released an old speech of Modi’s.

Circa 2004 (note the year – 4 years before Obama’s campaign) in the Vibrant Gujarat summit, Modi has spoken the exact same phrase: Gujaratis can and they will. He said this in English and Gujarati.

Since Modi’s slogan came before Obama uttered those words, did the US Presidential candidate of 2008 copy the Chief Minister of Gujarat? This is not a very far-fetched notion since Obama has Indians amongst his numerous speech writers. But as the winning candidate of the world’s leading nation, he cannot be questioned.

Consider that Obama did knowingly speak the same phrase as Modi, did the slogan lose its will and power? Would it then not have galvanised Americans? No matter who in the world speaks Martin Luther King Junior’s words, “I have a dream...”, they still resonate.

If Obama’s slogan had not been as widely publicised as it was, would Modi receive flak for using his own slogan? If it was, let’s say, the Presidential candidate of Papua New Guinea who had used this slogan, would we even know that it had been used somewhere in the world? Would India then have spent crores on television airwaves and in terms of man hours to debate the slogan?

For the record, the motto of Birla Public School (erstwhile Gopi Birla School) in Mumbai has been “I can and I will”. It is said that this phrase was also used by Swami Vivekanada.

“We can and we will” talks about development of the nation. It shows a path and a mission. We have high inflation, the rupee is steadily falling, businesses aren’t doing well, corruption is commonplace, safety is abysmal – we can rise out of this mire and we will.  It is hope. It is determination. It has a sense of purpose.  Instead of debating over the usage, it would be better if everyone made this a personal slogan and moved ahead with fortitude and resolve.