Of Dynasty, Democracy and Media

…the fresh notions about Rahul fastly gaining ground in media these days need careful scrutiny. There have been claims that urban youth, whose parents voted for the BJP or some other party, voted for the Congress for one explicit reason: Rahul captures their imagination, he presents a clean image…

Saurabh Dharmeshwari

What political parties, collective efforts and individual will fail to do, media can. It happened some two and a half decades ago, and it is happening again – the making of a mass leader on wall. The dynasty, democracy and development stand today on a level playing field, somehow.

Ever since the verdict was out, there have been some very interesting readings of it; both the best and the worst, and the end product of majority of them are glorification of Rahul baba, acceptance of UPA’s policies and rejection of other people’s negative campaigning. You cannot accuse them, both the Congressmen and the pundits, for the amazing numbers got themselves registered in the country’s modern history but ground realities could not.

The intensity of all this hullabaloo reminds me of a propaganda we saw in 2004, the NDA’s India Shining, except that it was played before general elections and so gave people an immediate opportunity to respond but this current one, Rahul’s coming of age in Indian politics, miracles of NREGA etc. are all post poll fantasies

The intensity of  all this hullabaloo reminds me of a propaganda we saw in 2004, the NDA’s India Shining, except that it was played before general elections and so gave people an immediate opportunity to respond but this current one, Rahul’s coming of age in Indian politics – need I tell he is a youth charmer, a Barack Obama of India? – miracles of NREGA etc, are all post poll fantasies with a little room for verification and no room for instant risk.

Since the verdict of the elections, the elections which saw Rahul baba become Rahul Gandhi, is still being dissected, let’s give a thought to aforementioned myths of this propaganda.

True, Rahul Gandhi, our fresh prime-minister-in-waiting, a place vacated by BJP’s LK Advani, ridiculously, showed a courage that even the senior most Congressmen could not, he went it alone in UP braving mocking made by opponents, toured the state extensively and produced results. I think, he did 80% of this work in assembly elections held in many states in last one-two years and drew a blank. Ditto for UPA’s policies, pro-poor, development-oriented as NREGA.  

The fresh notions about Rahul fastly gaining ground in media these days need careful scrutiny. There have been claims that urban youth, whose parents voted for the BJP or some other party, voted for the Congress for one explicit reason: Rahul captures their imagination, he presents a clean image. Besides, there is argument that they voted for the Congress because they wanted blackmailing by regional players ended.

Obviously, the above explanation is contradictory in itself. It is hard to picture a youth leader – who used a certain press conference as a platform to woo regional players thus himself laying his party bare to blackmailing – charming the change-seeking youth who are otherwise the worst victim of economic recession as well. So, only a moment’s thought puts a question mark to Rahul’s youth charmer’s image.

Gone with wind, some people, of late, broke all the previous records of sycophancy and even went to the extent of suggesting that the young Gandhi scion is Barack Obama of India. Pity on India and shame on such people. Double shame if these crooks belong to media.

I must tell them what happened to Obama before he was elected the US President. The US media, probably the most freed media of any democracy in practical sense, put Obama under lens, for a term of two years, examined him inside out: he qualified the tough litmus test and became the head of the nation.

Now compare what’s our media doing to Rahul. It is glorifying him through and through, the mamma’s boy. I don’t remember if any of our respected journalists ever dared to confront Rahul on issues of ground realities, on UPA government’s failures, on common men’s aspirations.

Till now, there is no exclusive interview of this prime-minister-in-waiting with any media house, except, perhaps, Tahelka, conducted way back in 2005, which printed Rahul’s interview as it is, without editing the portion of a toddler’s views that the Congress disliked.

Media, going nuts with his exaltation despite repeatedly being denied any exclusive face-to-face with him since, has been unable to convince the Congress that its future leader has to go through this scrutiny, for it is a simple norm of any modern democracy, even one which sometimes chooses dynasty such as US

Media, going nuts with his exaltation despite repeatedly being denied any exclusive face-to-face with him since, has been unable to convince the Congress that its future leader has to go through this scrutiny, for it is a simple norm of any modern democracy, even one which sometimes chooses dynasty such as US, can we compare Rahul Gandhi with George W Bush or with Benajir Bhutto for that matter?

Media disappointed when it relayed Delhi press conference again and again and waxed lyrical about political maturity of its convener and it is disappointing now. It deserves no moral right to declare that the BJP or the Left or a dozen others were defeated at the hustings for they ran a negative campaign, or because they didn’t connect with the people; did media do that, did it shoulder its responsibility as a fourth pillar of democracy pre and post poll?

If the Opposition steered clear of raising the real issues during electioneering, why did media show no interest in taking the initiative? Cann’t there have been half a dozen serious brainstorming debates on TV news channels on inflation, economic recession, terrorism of radical Islam with experts and netas being on panel at the time when electioneering was on. Cann’t they be fired with questions on these issues to let people hear them. Rather, what we had at that point of time was TV soap opera prepared for Sonia Gandhi and her children – showcasing everything pertaining to elections but not touching the issues.

 In realpolitik, personalities dominated only pre-poll scenario; in media, they dominated both the pre and post poll scenes .

Why did media not confront our netas on 80 percent unfortunates of the country at the time of elections, the hungry, the poor, the sick, the unemployed? There were issues and there really are – terrorism, pollution, overpopulation, diseases, environmental destruction, corruption, female infanticides, dowry deaths, school drop-outs, untouchablity. 

Oh, God! Where’s my country? It’s incredible India and unreliable media!