Decibel kings: Manish Tewari & other party spinmeisters

The other day, Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari, tried to rubbish A Raja for implicating Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and former Finance Minister P Chidambaram during court hearings on the 2G scam. He pointed out the impropriety of giving a running commentary in an ongoing court case. Very cleverly, he told newspersons that “any accused may say anything in their defence”, implying that such stuff is often a stretch with the intent of seeking exoneration. They are to be left alone until a judgement is delivered. This does not stop the Congress from feasting on ‘revelations’ in courtrooms with regard to Narendra Modi or the Gujarat government or saffron terror. Remember how Tewari pounced on every adverse titbit from the courtrooms and developed a thesis around it.  No court has yet pronounced on Modi or on saffron terror. [caption id=“attachment_50415” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Today’s spokespersons are spinmeisters who go with the flow. They don’t deliver information, provide a clarification or correct an impression but run at the mouth, keeping news crews engaged, and grabbing space on the small screen Photo:ibnlive.com”]  [/caption] For those who have missed it, Congress alone holds all rights to morality in public discourses and public interest. It can set convenient, floating standards. Unwittingly, however, this man has provided an insight into how and what the spokespersons actually do: say anything in defence of their party and even the government as long as it is politically beneficial to them. It’s much like what opposition party spokespersons themselves try to do. With their broadsides, spokespersons on both sides convert each day’s prime time news telecasts into a tu tu, mein mein, hoping to change perceptions while realities remain. Often, the studio discussions are a kind of free-for-all, with people speaking simultaneously. Politicians alone are not to blame. They use a willing TV for their daily soap to sucker the public. Since substantive politics and debate is already dead, slogans stand in for ideology and slick words are a substitute for wisdom. Note how Nitin Gadkari’s quick response to Raja’s contentions and Tewari’s riposte were telecast in real time by a content-hungry medium. The premise is, the more outrageous the fulminations, the better. The same actors do not find much space in print the next day, certainly not in the same proportion as they did on air. Then why do the spokespersons, or talking heads, strain their lungs and stretch their tongues beyond reason? Because they get to set the agenda for next day’s print coverage as well, much to the spokespersons’ delight. Television guides the print newsrooms on both the tone and angle. The politicians know and practice adroitly this witchcraft, as their purpose is easily served. This was not so in the past and it has little do with the changing requirements and methods of the media. VN Gadgil, usually a taciturn man in public, measured his minimum words as a spokesperson for his party and leader,  Indira Gandhi. He would be thoroughly briefed by Gandhi herself before he uttered a word to the media. He would utter “no comment” more often than any other words. He, however, spoke a lot off-the-record, aware that alert reporters could easily catch him out on any mischief. The Tewaris and Digvijaya Singhs are the pallbearers of that tradition. But the media was not like this in the past. With twice-a-day news broadcasts by All India Radio and newspapers the next day, the business was done in a relatively more relaxed manner than now. And the reader did not lose out even if he got sanitised versions. Now he only gets a medley of voices to hear, leaving him none the wiser. Today’s spokespersons are spinmeisters who go with the flow. They don’t deliver information, provide a clarification or correct an impression but run at the mouth, keeping news crews engaged, and grabbing space on the small screen. This is so especially during poll times. This tribe and its practices are by now widespread. Perhaps they are handpicked only for their glibness. Occasionally, some wisdom dribbles out, as with Tewari. Some leading spinmeisters spread across political parties in India [fpgallery id=121] They may lack access to inner-party tracks and frequently ad-lib because of the urgent demands of the media to have something to carry on the airwaves. This explains why political parties, especially the Congress, often gag a spokesperson or sacks him, as had happened with Ashwini Kumar and Veerappa Moily, for their faux pas. They are akin to short order cooks at a diner, and do their best on the draw. It is a class constantly hoping their cleverness would often save their day. Luckier ones like Jayanti Natarajan manage to cope and are rewarded with ministerial jobs. Manu Singhvi is a hard trier too, but with little success so far. If you note their style, they all like to corner as much time as feasible by their verbosity, obfuscating, drawing red herrings, and creating conflict. The gameplan is to deny the rival an opportunity by hogging the airtime and newsprint space. The BJP is, of course, the initiator of this style. When the disputed structure in Ayodhya was demolished, and the impact, celebratory and condemnatory, reverberated through the country, thanks to the telecast of the deed by BBC and CNN, it seems to have said this is it, and learnt to exploit the visual media to the hilt. They not only spruced up their attires – Pramod Mahajan comes to mind – but also the party offices from the dingy, cramped spaces to elegant briefing rooms with the party emblem in the background. Things have changed, and how!