A section of the Indian population exists which is always over eager to demean the Indian Right-wing, to insult the Indian Right-wing and exaggerate every little shortcoming of the Indian Right-wing political parties to humongous proportions just so that they can feel better about their political affiliations. Facts are gladly ignored in this misguided pursuit and all logic and reason goes for a toss without so much as a second thought.Unfortunately, the mainstream media of our country seems to be suffering under the same bias.
And what’s worse, a certain section of the Media seems to have developed an unhealthy habit of catering to this section of its customers and merrily indulges in propagating and perpetuating lies to vilify the BJP and Right-wing in general. As I keep saying, we live in a Post-Modern Era where Facts mean nothing, truth matters little and the narrative is all that counts.
And the person who has been the subject of a great number of media hit jobs has been Narendra Modi.
To say that the Prime Minister of India has had a troubled relationship with media in the past would be a massive understatement. All of us remember the massive media trial Narendra Modi had to endure since 2002. And it was quite nice to see Narendra Modi verbally slap Rajdeep Sardesai during his Prime Ministerial campaign.
One of the recent non-issues that was blown massively out of proportions for all the wrong reasons was Narendra Modi’s supposed insulting remarks on Kerala during one of his speeches. Modi actually said the Infant Mortality Rate among the Tribals in Kerala was worse than that in Somalia. Somehow, the comment was twisted beyond all recognition and the end product of all the synthetic treatment it received was a totally new comment hardly recognizable from the original remark that was made. The twisted reportage and the massive propaganda that ensued from known quarters transformed the comment to make it seem Modi had said Kerala is as bad as Somalia. Well, it would have been nice if someone from the Liberal camp had made an effort to clear the air and say, “Well, that’s not what Narendra Modi said. He did not equate Kerala with Somalia. He just said there’s something morbidly wrong with Kerala which needs an immediate fix. That’s not insulting Kerala, is it?” Even a whisper of sanity would have been music to the ears but as Voltaire once said, “Common Sense is not so common.”
Amidst the hullabaloo, the main point that Narendra Modi raised has conveniently passed into oblivion. The main issue that the Prime Minister raised was the Infant Mortality Rate among Tribals in Kerala is insanely high and the state government has been thoroughly incompetent at tackling the menace. Instead of focusing on the issue, the people who claim a monopoly over Intelligent Life instead trended #PoMoneModi for quite a while. The trend gathered enough momentum and attracted enough attention to find a mention in leading newspapers which cloak their agenda under the garb of neutrality. The Liberal Brigade which claims monopoly over the fight for Human Rights could not care less about the existential threat that Tribals in Kerala face, instead they did not hesitate for a moment to twist the issue and run a campaign to embarrass the Prime Minister for it.
In a very similar tone, media outlets published an article with the headline, “Railways send bill of 4 crores to Latur for ‘Water Trains’ as requested.” The headline subtly sends off the signal that the Railway Ministry somehow was making the people Latur pay for the water that was sent. The headlines elicited a prompt reply from the authorities concerned that the bill was sent to the State Government as was already agreed upon. One could have imagined the full implications of the outrage that was already halfway in the making had the authorities not issued a swift clarification.
All these misleading headlines, the intense propaganda that is being employed by the media outlets and certain popular political handles on Twitter is hallmark of their deliberate agenda of defaming the Narendra Modi government. Worse is the significant percentage of gullible people who are falling prey to such insidious propaganda to defame the Indian Right-wing.
Recently, a bunch of people, a dozen by popular estimates, performed a ‘havan’ for Donald Trump praying for his win in the American General Elections to be held later this year. The amount of coverage it received is bewildering and perhaps slightly amusing. The manner in which the obsessive behavior of a dozen individuals was projected as the general behavior of the entire Indian Right-wing was distasteful and should have been embarrassing for those who made the claim. One wonders if it was a propaganda tool designed specifically for the purpose of defaming the Right-wing considering the amount of coverage that it received and the conclusions that were drawn.
At the end of the day, if people from both ends of the spectrum could put aside their political affiliations while addressing critical issues, it would be very welcome. The #PoMoneModi Twitter trend did absolutely nothing for the Tribals in Kerala who continue to suffer from the menace of morbidly high Infant Mortality Rate and only served to take attention away from the crucial issue that Narendra Modi raised. The Tribal children and their parents who lost their lives care neither about your political affiliations or which Political party is in power. The only thing that the parents do care about is someone, anyone helping out with their situation. And if you could for a moment set aside your petty political fights to address the issue that was raised instead of seeing it as another opportunity to score political victories that would be great.
Similar is the case with the Drought crisis that has gripped significant regions of the nation. Without ever taking the time out to compliment the NDA government which has attempted to tackle the issue with great sincerity and dedication, the media and the Liberal Brigade did sure find the time to malign the government’s image even where they did the best they could.
There are some issues which demand that people from all ends of the political spectrum come together to find a workable solution to the danger they pose. Such issue shouldn’t be played politics over but the opposition seems to have lost control of its moral compass altogether and all it seeks is opportunities to malign the Right-wing government at the Center.