So, post Narendra Modi's elevation as the Campaign panel chief of the BJP, the media frenzy and obsession over this "polarising" leader has attained new,dizzying levels. Every presenter worth his salt and even the stray reporter has to add a thing or two about Modi on air, such is the mania. Now, naturally this is expected since the present UPA government headed by the diarchy of Sonia and Manmohan, with the balance of power largely tilted towards the former, has failed miserably on every single count of governance. Let me not get started on chronicling their endless scams and policy disasters, my paper and ink are limited. There is, and I emphasise, a genuine necessity felt for a viable alternative and Narendra Modi offers this hope. So the Establishment is on a witch-hunt to discredit the man himself, by this allegation or that. What infuriates them most is his absolute nonchalance to all this. Probably he believes in the adage- let barking dogs bark.
Modi bashing is alright, but when it comes from a reputed post like Chairperson of Prasar Bharti, the person has to be exposed. Sample this from Mrinal Pande on The Hindu - Rambogiri in the year of the flood.
The Hindu's morbid and pathological aversion to Modi is nothing new.So it offers free real-estate to random people like Mrinal to cry hoarse about this elaborate Houdini that Modi is trying to pull on the unsuspecting masses. The primary motivation for her tirade is this piece of yellow journalism from Times of India - http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=TOINEW&BaseHref=CAP/2013/06/23&PageLabel=3&EntityId=Ar00306&ViewMode=HTML
The source and truth about this article is quite questionable. http://anothercommonman.wordpress.com/2013/07/01/a-worlds-view-without-glasses-truth-about-modis-rambo-act-facts-myths-from-horses-mouth/ quotes someone involved in the making of it and says it was based on a casual conversation with a wonder-struck BJP leader. It was never Modi's claim that he did it. As usual, ToI, true to its style, spun an elaborate plot and portrayed Modi positioning himself as the panacea for all trouble, while in truth he was merely a concerned CM trying to ensure people from his state were rescued and returned safely. Such is their spin-doctoring. Now, this spin is what Mrinal bases her articles on. Now we know how Doordarshan cover news items.
The article is hearsay based on hearsay. I'm surprised a "reputed" newspaper gave it column space. Any sane editor would have seen red and refused such an unabashed personal attack. Oh, wait, there's nothing new in The Hindu seeing "Red". So lets move on.
By now his image-makers have ensured that whenever Narendra Modi enters the scene, his arrival is orchestrated in such a way as if six liveried buglers were heralding a king’s arrival. He makes straight for the head of the table, throwing curt nods and brief waves at those awaiting his arrival. He waits politely, occasionally smoothing his hair carefully or running a hand over his stubble while the master of ceremonies gushes over him before requesting him to take the mike. All this while the eyes in his unsmiling face dart ceaselessly across the room sizing up supporters and potential troublemakers from various enemy camps. He rises, lopes across to the podium and looks around as a classical singer does, inwardly humming thearoh and avroh of the raga he is going to perform. Then, he begins to speak and you realise what a remarkable gift he has for spin doctoring and dodging the real facts with disarming sincerity, while pouring scorn over his opponents.
Here, Mrinal esays her Freudian psychoanalytical skills that would make Wendy Doniger seem like a school kid. Such felicity to read Modi's mind and be right about it always. How does all this even matter, I fail to understand.Whether he combs his hair or shaves his beard, who gives two hoots? But Mrinal makes such irrelevant details as the lynchpin of her article. Will Mrinal and the organisation she heads care to expose the multiple failures and scams of the government. In a thriving democracy, Media is the watch-dog of the government. But they have forgotten the 'watch' part and continue to be what is left behind after that. She would have done yeoman service to the nation if similar skills had been used instead to crypto-analyse the silence of our Honourable Prime Minister. Or will she investigate the UPA chairperson and her mysterious foreign trips? But that is not part of her work-brief.
It is harder to fool people. That is what happened with the reported incident of Rambogiri. By now we have all heard Narendra Modi distance himself from the claims made on his behalf and snap at every public gathering about how it is the “midiah” that constantly spreads lies about him and his party. He also says he is convinced that the people of India are not buying this distorted picture of him and his efforts to lead his State and party.
Her bias and rabid hatred for Modi the man stands exposed when she cryptically taunts his lack of English background and sophistication when she says "midiah", making fun of his Indian accent. That one sentence would be enough to unveil her agenda. That of government sponsored propaganda. Surely she is US educated and carries a sophisticated accent, but by mocking Modi's accent she is caricaturing an entire class of Indians. It is this high-handed and arrogant approach that characterises everything in this government.
The bottomline is this. Congress is on borrowed time. The people have decided to have a Congress Mukth Bharat. It is only vested interets in media and cocktail-party circuits that want Congress Raj to continue. The work of somehow salvaging a win once again by hook or crook has been delegated to Sepoys of the Establishment like Mrinal. Perhaps. Two decades back people may have been fooled. Not anymore.
P.S.- What about the title? Well,pavlov's dog syndrome is a classical conditioning where an animal(dog) is trained to exhibit a certain response. The Congress government has trained the media to exhibit such responses and protect it at all costs and ferociously attack any challenger.
