Much as they hate it, Modi, Arvind Kejriwal need the media

Some time late December last year, Narendra Modi made his way to Mumbai following a blinding media blitzkrieg that included mammoth billboards, scores of radio spots and an SMS campaign. However, unlike his other rallies, there was something distinctly amiss at the Mumbai one. Be it the Mumbai crowd with little appetite for cheer-leading at a political rally, or the fact that the space inside a city like Mumbai wasn’t enough to pool in a crowd worth its roar, Modi’s Mumbai rally did miss its usual bite. During an address mostly met with patient silence, Modi exhorted the crowd to chant ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ with him. As a weak response emanated from the crowd, Modi hollered, “Shout with me. The media people have now turned their cameras on you. They will now take your picture, they are done with me.” Almost in response, a louder wave of applause rang through the crowd. What Modi effectively tried doing while asking the crowds to play to the media, was to make the thousands at his rally identify with him while making the ‘media’ out to be an entity that should be treated with a fair amount of disdain and often just dismissal. By saying that the media is ‘watching’ them - them meaning Modi and his audience - the Gujarat CM also urged his audience to treat mainstream media as a habitually critical entity. [caption id=“attachment_1336745” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Narendra Modi and Arvind Kejriwal. Agencies.[/caption] This wasn’t Modi’s only taunt ever directed at the media. At another meet in Mumbai itself, early in 2013, he had said that if the number of articles critical about him were to be collected, it would fill up an entire room. And most recently, he turned on the media at the Goa rally, accusing TV and print journalists for focusing unnecessarily on a party like AAP with no proven governance records. By talking about Goa CM Manohar Parrikar’s credentials, and then his own, Modi tried to convince the people not to vote for “television faces” which were neither tried nor tested. “I have been working so hard, serving the people of Gujarat for the last 12 years but I have always been portrayed as vanquished in TV and newspapers,” Modi said at the rally. Modi’s constant public dismissal of the media works in several ways beneficial to him. Firstly, it bolsters his image as a victim - perpetually criticized and wronged by the established channels of political opinion-making. Given that a section of the media - namely the English language channels and print establishments - have only  a niche reach, he also, very cleverly and subtly plays a class card which can successfully manipulate many sections of the country to treat the media as a realm of the privileged, the luxury of the haves as opposed to have-nots such as them. Therefore, they should also be treated with a fair amount of suspicion as their realities are far removed from Modi’s true supporters. Finally, by publicly acknowledging the fact that sections of the media are critical of him, Modi cannot be accused of taking the backdoor and dodging criticism. The Gujarat CM, who rarely holds press meets and refuses to entertain questions raised by mainstream media on a plethora of issues, also deals with the media on his own terms. For example, you’ll mostly get his reactions on every issue, every allegation against his party and every faux pas of his opposition, but either on Twitter or when he addresses a public rally. In the latter, he has the opportunity of moulding a reaction, defence or an explanation to make it seem like an assertion. Or better still a counter-accusation thrown at the source of criticism. And this, unlike a press meet, can be done without no opposition, no debate. So while his reaction is aired, it is aired with a certain air of confidence and some might say, arrogance, around it giving Modi’s image of a doer a further boost. Sevanti Ninan, in an article on The Mint , sums up Modi’s disdain for the media. She writes: “There has been no other politician in recent memory who has been so clear that he does not need the media to reach the people with an election approaching. Not a single speech is made without a jibe at the English language media. “Normally I stay away from English papers and channels. (It is) Not my responsibility to run their channels,” he said. In fact, in September last year, Modi had taken on the broadcast media and had made an unflattering comment on a group of journalists visiting the UN. The condemnation letter issued by the  Broadcast Editors’ Association read: “The Broadcast Editors’ Association finds Gujarat Chief Minister Mr Narendra Modi’s statement against Indian media at a public rally in New Delhi today as objectionable. The BEA believes that such statement aims at demeaning Indian media, which is a key institution of democracy.” However, Modi is not the only political entity that is critical of the media. Most parties, including the Congress, AAP and other leaders of BJP, have come out criticizing mainstream media and even niche publications. However, most of them also find it necessary to maintain somewhat of an interface with the media in the way of press releases, conferences and write-ups issued by senior leaders to media houses for publications. Recently, Arvind Kejriwal, right after he was elected the chief minister of Delhi accused the media of concocting an issue with its MLA, Vinod Binny. Asked if there was any truth in the news that there was rebellion in his party, Kejriwal quipped, “You tell me, you guys made it up.” However, lets make an honest appropriation of this let-the-media-be-damned attitude of out contemporary leaders. Given that social media is the luxury afforded by just a few, does the political parties really have much disdain for the media? Or is it, like we observed, a deliberately cultivated stance to make sure that the if the media can’t be wholly manipulated, how it is received, surely can be?  If Narendra Modi and his publicity machinery indeed didn’t need the mainstream media’s attention, would the party have floated one small detail after another about his rallies in advance. Had it not been the mainstream media who picked up the Rs 5 ticket story and played it up, would BJP leaders have the occasion to come out on social media waxing eloquent about how beneficial the move is. When the move is not questioned, or reported, surely, it is also neither discussed nor does word spread about it. Why then are rally numbers officially announced and flaunted by everyone from BJP to the Congress as a measure of the party’s reach? How else, would something like the AAP’s manifesto have created the buzz that it did if it was not being discussed on prime time television and newspapers - English and vernacular? From Modi to Rahul to Kejriwal, everyone loves to hate the ‘media’. Everyone needs it too.