Media in the age of populism
Ramesh Rao
As the line between traditional media and new media begins to blur, can politicians simply ignore the media and go directly to their constituencies? Narendra Modi has solved his media relations problem but what’s in store in the current hostile environment?
This week, in national defence and security, India has attracted global attention for all the wrong reasons. Consider: India has been dubbed as the world’s largest spender on military equipment and thus a lucrative paradise for weapons merchants; a controversy related to the Chief of Army Staff General VK Singh’s date of birth which was dragged to the Supreme Court; General Singh’s interview to a national news daily, which sparked a nationwide debate on the issue of corruption in defence deals; and very recently the story of a military drill published in another prominent national daily, which has sparked a heated debate on Dr Manmohan Singh has plodded through seven years of prime ministership and his media appearances have been few and far between. Sonia Gandhi seems to not care a whit what the media thinks because she has truly understood Indian feudalism. The label of “sphinx” is a well-earned epithet by the most powerful woman in India who habitually refuses to inform even the Lok Sabha Secretariat about her foreign trips. Politicians like Narendra Modi, who has earned enough opprobrium from the media to last a few lifetimes, are still successful in convincing voters of their ability to govern, and more interestingly presenting themselves as victims of a media conspiracy. Attempts by the powerful liberal media elite at painting him as a genocidal villain notwithstanding, the “strong man” of Gujarat has remained unshakeable. The people of Gujarat have placed faith in him through two Assembly elections and numerous other electoral battles at various levels. Facebook helps him connect with fans and supporters. His staying power has not been diminished by the media, and now foreign media and think-tank experts are making their way to Gandhinagar to try and understand the man they earlier sold as a hate object.
Meanwhile in West Bengal, “Didi” sails forth and flails at sundry targets and the media seem to have not made much of a dent in her image. Of course, she does not have her own TV channel like Karunanidhi and Jayalalithaa have: what happens in Tamil Nadu politics and how matters are portrayed depends on what channel the viewer has turned on or tuned into. And then there are media darlings like the oh-so-handsome Rahul Gandhi, who despite his inarticulateness and his insufficiencies is portrayed as the “scion” of the “royal family” just waiting to take India into the big league.
Those portrayals did not matter much because he and his party got trounced in Uttar Pradesh. He promised a lot, like others did, in the land of freebies that India has become, but others promised more or promised differently and so the “scion” of another, but local royalty, is now Chief Minister of the largest state in India. Populism and pandering are tried and tested strategies for politicians, and a democracy, as the inimitable Oscar Wilde said, “…means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people!”
Ramesh Rao
As the line between traditional media and new media begins to blur, can politicians simply ignore the media and go directly to their constituencies? Narendra Modi has solved his media relations problem but what’s in store in the current hostile environment?
This week, in national defence and security, India has attracted global attention for all the wrong reasons. Consider: India has been dubbed as the world’s largest spender on military equipment and thus a lucrative paradise for weapons merchants; a controversy related to the Chief of Army Staff General VK Singh’s date of birth which was dragged to the Supreme Court; General Singh’s interview to a national news daily, which sparked a nationwide debate on the issue of corruption in defence deals; and very recently the story of a military drill published in another prominent national daily, which has sparked a heated debate on Dr Manmohan Singh has plodded through seven years of prime ministership and his media appearances have been few and far between. Sonia Gandhi seems to not care a whit what the media thinks because she has truly understood Indian feudalism. The label of “sphinx” is a well-earned epithet by the most powerful woman in India who habitually refuses to inform even the Lok Sabha Secretariat about her foreign trips. Politicians like Narendra Modi, who has earned enough opprobrium from the media to last a few lifetimes, are still successful in convincing voters of their ability to govern, and more interestingly presenting themselves as victims of a media conspiracy. Attempts by the powerful liberal media elite at painting him as a genocidal villain notwithstanding, the “strong man” of Gujarat has remained unshakeable. The people of Gujarat have placed faith in him through two Assembly elections and numerous other electoral battles at various levels. Facebook helps him connect with fans and supporters. His staying power has not been diminished by the media, and now foreign media and think-tank experts are making their way to Gandhinagar to try and understand the man they earlier sold as a hate object.
Meanwhile in West Bengal, “Didi” sails forth and flails at sundry targets and the media seem to have not made much of a dent in her image. Of course, she does not have her own TV channel like Karunanidhi and Jayalalithaa have: what happens in Tamil Nadu politics and how matters are portrayed depends on what channel the viewer has turned on or tuned into. And then there are media darlings like the oh-so-handsome Rahul Gandhi, who despite his inarticulateness and his insufficiencies is portrayed as the “scion” of the “royal family” just waiting to take India into the big league.
Those portrayals did not matter much because he and his party got trounced in Uttar Pradesh. He promised a lot, like others did, in the land of freebies that India has become, but others promised more or promised differently and so the “scion” of another, but local royalty, is now Chief Minister of the largest state in India. Populism and pandering are tried and tested strategies for politicians, and a democracy, as the inimitable Oscar Wilde said, “…means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people!”
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