Media & reckless fans: What Modi must learn from Kejriwal

Narendra Modi’s overzealous trumpeters, both official and unofficial, could be doing more harm than good to his cause. A product of canny media management himself, Modi maybe willfully unaware of the efforts of loyal followers to ascribe him super hero attributes at this point, but the sooner he realizes it could be counterproductive for him the better. Too much attention-seeking and overreliance on the media, online and offline, could be a double-edged weapon. If he has doubts, he should consult a man called Arvind Kejriwal in Delhi. The irony of the situation is, Modi, a control freak, appears to have lost control of the hype machinery. It has been taken over by right wingers of several shades, from the rabid to the reckless to the moderately reactionary. His own publicity machinery could be trying to project him as a leader with a balanced yet firm perspective of the world around him and with pragmatic solutions to many of its problems, but the overactive hype machinery is bent on reinforcing the very image Modi wants to live down. [caption id=“attachment_906501” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Narendra Modi is exposing himself to harsh scrutiny down the line. PTI image[/caption] Why on earth would an intelligent leader make the preposterous claim of rescuing 15,000 stranded pilgrims in a day, knowing fully well that it would be open to scrutiny and nasty criticism? His skills as a manager and an administrator are well-known. Even the political rivals acknowledge it grudgingly. That being the case, did he really need to bank on a lie to take his image as a `doer’ nationwide? He would be stupid if he did that. The report of what the Congress sarcastically calls the Rambo act,did not have a source, nor was Modi himself eager to dwell on it. So where did the story originate from? It has to be the fertile imagination of his supporters. The more Modi courts the media for self-promotion, the more he exposes himself to harsh scrutiny. The phenomenon of Kejriwal, the restless rebel with a cause, grew and survived on the media support. Once fatigue with it set in, the tables turned against him. He was no more treated with kid gloves and had to answer hard, unflattering queries. By then his die-hard followers had created enough enemies for him and his cause. His movement did not take long to collapse after that. Modi is still in the honeymoon phase with the media. Not too many questions have yet been put on his several claims regarding communalism and development. But his overeager loyalists are busy creating enemies for him already. They have created the same duality of choices for all concerned as in the case of Kejriwal: ‘You are with us or against us’. They leave others no scope to think and judge. Modi needs to be extremely careful. Criticism of him has started growing in several spaces, it could grow. Leaders are derided in India for being corrupt, spineless, incompetent and what not, but no one, it appears, has ever been called ‘feku’. The term denotes someone bragging or making exaggerated claims about himself. There’s already a feeling that what Modi’s publicity machinery churns out for public consumption many not be true and what Modi himself offers as solution to the country’s problems maybe too simplistic. As he comes on the national stage, he would certainly face tougher questions. For the situation he should blame the overenthusiasm of his blind supporters. For the last several years, Modi’s singular focus has been to tone down his hardline Hindutva identity and build an image that is nationally acceptable. Right now, he speaks of development from every platform available and avoids any mention to religion studiously. He tries to make hope and aspiration of the young India the central theme of his public speeches. But check out the comments on social media. For most of his fans he still remains a Hindtutva icon, the last hope of the Hindu community in the battle against the Muslims and others. This lot is communal, illiberal and stands for all the wrongs that the hardcore Right wingers in India are identified with. They would defend Modi and attack his opponents with equal zeal when there is actually no need to do so. Would their media-savvy leader approve of it? Most probably no. But they operate beyond his control. If Modi is serious about his image, he must rethink his media strategy and find a way to disentangle himself from some of his supporters.