The sweep is wholly Goebbelesian. Much as you might try to get away from it you can be sure about one thing: there’s no escaping him; you may wish to give him a miss, he won’t let go of you. You wake up with the voice and sleep with it; for the present at least the voice is your companion for keeps: breakfast, lunch, tea and dinner. The message is the thing and the messenger is unrelenting.
It is right there on the front pages of all your newspapers, it confronts you the moment you switch on your idiot box, no matter how often and when. And, it is there again if you have chosen to escape to the radio channels, AIR, FM stations. If you think you are being clever by turning to untouchables like the Antakshri or, why, even the Krishi Samachar, you are in for a surprise. The voice, if not the face, is there even before you have made the switch. The relentless voice of “the most popular Prime Minister of India” follows you everywhere, even to your bed, like Goebbels’s did promoting the Fuehrer’s cause. Lesser PMs like Nehru, Shastri, Indira, Atal Bihari Vajpayee be blown.
The message must chase us from morning’s ‘surya pranam’ to the ‘shubh ratri’ at night. Mr. Modi y’see, has so much to tell us – right from how important it is for us to wash our hands each time we use them, to his scheme-a-day plans for us to overtake China. Like, say, made in India must yield place to make in India. All these, and other noble thoughts. Like, bringing to book all wrong-doers, tax dodgers, hawalawallas and swindlers, who have deposited the nation’s wealth in foreign banks. The maa-beta too shall be exposed.
Y’see much deplorable as Indira Gandhi’s assassination was how possibly could one let her martyrdom day observance overtake the significance of the “unity day” which Mr. Modi had ordered to be celebrated nationwide, linked to the name of the architect of the country’s unification after the British decided to quit, Sardar Patel to wit. After all the Sardar was by far the tallest Indian, next only to Mahatma Gandhi. Jawaharlal Nehru? Who?
The man who consolidated the nation’s freedom, along with Sardar and who unfortunately died in 1953, leaving Nehru to preside over the destiny of India for almost 17 years. How sad, the Sardar had died so soon after freedom. With him around, India story would indeed have been different. It was his, Mr. Modi’s dream, to fulfill the Sardar’s unfinished agenda. Did it matter if the late leader had not lived long enough to see his dream realized?
The Sardar might have ordered banning of the Rashtriyya Swayamsewak Sangh of which Mr. Modi was once an ardent pracharak, but all that was in the past. And why do the pseudo sickalurists (originally secularists) crib if the great patriot and sarsanchalak, the presiding deity of the RSS, Parma Pujanya Mohan Bhagwat, addresses the nation on the State-owned media networks. What’s wrong with that? Nothing. But the stupidity in me persists to ask : why had Sardar Patel banned the RSS as the country’s first Home Minister in 1948.? Because he was aware of the RSS complicity in the murder of Mahatma Gandhi.
The Sardar as far as I know died in office and as a shudh Congressman. Not that being a Congressman makes you virtuous, certainly not after Indira’s ascendance. Mr. Modi has exposed the Congress party’s bankruptcy. It is at the moment in a comatose state, and on not a very promising life-support system. But then that is not enough reason for ordinary Indians like me to be celebrating. A comatose Congress poses a greater threat to the political stability of our nation. Mr. Modi in his present form needs a strong, restraining opposition. What with sycophancy in his own camp acquiring calamitous proportions. I haven’t heard even one critical remark from within the bhagwa parivar, let alone its political front, the BJP.
There have been occasions these past two weeks when Mr. Modi’s government appeared to have tied itself into tiny little knots yet not one dissenting or disappointed voice was heard. First came what threatened to sound like a volte face by the Modi government on the issue of Indian money lying in Swiss banks. It took a stern warning from the Supreme Court to persuade the senior advocate-turned Finance Minister, Mr. Arun Jaitley to rush in with quick amends. The Attorney General, would probably have liked to brazen it out. Mr. Modi took a few days to realize the damaging potential of the initial refusal to give out the names. He renewed his poll-time promise in his ‘man ki ki baat’ broadcast to the nation on Sunday to expose and punish the guilty.
Another embarrassment to hound the BJP last week, when Mr. Jaitley made the headlines with his admonition of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, a constitutional officer, strictly not under the government and reporting directly to Parliament, to resist the temptation to make headlines with premature disclosure of his findings. Ironically, Mr. Jaitley was one of BJP’s principal spokesmen urging and applauding the former ACG each time he made a disclosure revealing alleged indiscretions/blunders of the Manmohan Singh Government in matters like the allocation of coal belts, the 2G spectrum etc etc. Sauce for the goose obviously was not sauce for the gander, Jaitley seemed to suggest. If the BJP believes it has silenced its critics by submitting the entire list to the Supreme Court has ordered by it, has no reason to celebrate.
The fact is that the list had already been given to the special investigation team which made the latest exercise a bit of an anti-climax. While the Government continues to look outside for black money, the parallel economy within India, estimated anywhere between 25-75 per cent of the GDP, Transparency International believes the focus should be on the problem of black money generated within the country. But the Prime Minister spent a crucial part of his latest ‘man ki baat’ on assuring us that every paisa of the money stashed away in foreign banks will be traced. And this latest mantra has been repeated ad nauseam by radio, Doordarshan and the TV channels for three days running. All of it intended to counter the stink that had already been raised.
Of course the Government continues to enjoy unrestricted access to sarkari and private media organizations and one doesn’t expect it to let up on that. We will continue to be bombarded by the expert propaganda mills, social media included, the next time we have any more gaffes from our rulers.
His preference I believe would be an information blackout, initiated and implemented by him alone. The media would be expected to live on Government handouts. This minimalist approach has to be his policy approach towards the media. The DDs, AIR stations and the starved TV channels would of necessity have to use his word as breaking news every time he chose to speak. Or alternatively, to let his expert media team, as distinct from the Press Information Bureau, manipulate the media.
And as for Mr. Modi himself he surely doesn’t need any coaches to help him make the impossible look possible. Frankly how many can tell the difference between converting made in India to make in India. I have tried to find the difference but unsuccessfully. Trust his experts and him to expose your ignorance. Make involves your own genius, made means to do it to others specifications. A profound difference which to most of us would not make any difference. Double-think or double speak, take your pick.
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