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.