Muscle-flexing the media – the Modi way

BY RK MISRA

Critics are like eunuchs in a harem: they know how it’s done, they’ve seen it done everyday  but only they’re unable to do it themselves. Journalists too are now in such a situation, thanks to the Modi era in Indian politics.

This  scenario has never been so acute  as it is today, moreso in the country’s capital. Delhi’s boastfully bloated population of  know-all ,cats whiskers who possessed the legendary reputation of  worming their way into prized  woodworks and  spilling out  the gore and the goey along with the gut, find themselves having been barred access from all sides. The invisible’ hit-laxmanrekha’ lines carefully etched by Prime Minister  Modi is holding firm, keeping the ‘creepy crawlies’ out. Like it or not, that’s how most in the political power structure look at journalists-an unavoidable nuisance.

As in politics, so in the media. Delhi has for long carried the reputation of  being a mercenary, no-holds barred news arena where countless principal combatants meet their waterloo, ground to dust past their fading bylines and jading careers every other day.

Like the god-fearing jain, political descendents of  previous orders went  around sprinkling info sugar-dust at anthills, hoping to keep themselves  out of harm’s way, while  friends  and foes alike  bore the brunt of the news stings. Modi’s advent on the scene as Prime Minister has marked a surgical departure in the manner of government news coverage. In the past whenever governments changed at the centre, including  the BJP- led NDA government headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee, there were at best some recalibrations. If the BJP came to power, veterans of the beat were moved to centrestage, while the specialists of the outgoing coverage were shifted to the sidelines. Modi, however, has ensured a tectonic shift. It is not media which is deciding how the government is to be covered. It is  Modi who is laying down the ground rules as to how it(media) shall cover the government.

Ample proof of  this was available when news publications and television channels from across the country, and even those down South began scouring for  scribes in Gujarat to cover the PMO and related power corridors in Delhi. They bemoaned that their present guys were unable to breakthrough. They are still at it, looking for the right ones. The established visual networks proved smarter as they immediately post-elections elevated and  shifted their Gujarat bureau heads to the country’s capital. Even today It is not uncommon to find the editorial top brass of national dailies in Delhi pestering, even bullying, their lowly Gujarat reporters for getting  confirmation of  delhi- based stories which they themselves have abysmally failed to do. 

For journalists in Gujarat, who covered Modi’s governance as chief minister for over 12 years and endured the sanctimonius, sniggering of their Delhi based bosses, it is time to sitback and enjoy their squirming  discomfort. For most of them(in Gujarat), it is like a re-run of the same film being made on a grander scale and  a larger national screen.

Contrary to expectations, Modi has succeeded much  more in taming the media in Delhi than he did in Gujarat. True, he turned the news pyramid upside down in his home state. Like everywhere else, so in Gujarat, the most important beat covered by the veterans is the state Secretariat while crime and courts are generally left to the  young scribes. By the time Modi left Gujarat, the secretariat had almost become a ‘redundant beat’ as no bureaucrat or minister would speak a word other than what was ordained. The weekly chief minister’s Wednesday media meet was done away with, and ditto was the approach of the cabinet ministers- spokespersons- who came instead, always in pairs, rarely singly  and never ever exceeded their brief.

 News leaks whether by bureaucrats, ministers or party leaders led to a trackdown with serious consequences. Seasoned bureaucrats avoided being seen talking to reporters and a minister, faced with a grim situation, lost control of his bladder movement, that too in a cabinet meeting.

During the 2002 communal riots that followed the Godhra train carnage, Modi had found considerable support from the vernacular media while the English media found itself labeled as the villain of the piece. Soon after, the Gujarati papers also fell out of Modi’s favour. In the  meantime, Modi embarked on his statewide  Gaurav Yatra with a one- point agenda of establishing a direct rapport with the majority community, mindless of the disconnect  it would cause with the minority(in any case they would not vote him).The strategy paid off and Modi won the 2002 Assembly elections with a massive majority. He never looked back thereafter, though the tiger changed his stripes in the interregnum to become the king of the jungle responsible for the welfare of all his subjects.

Modi’s Gaurav Yatra and the stunning results achieved in the 2002 Assembly  polls were crucial in framing  his future  media strategy. He realized  that the best way was to  reach out straight to the masses, by-passing the established media. It’s peaked hostility had also failed to dent the 2002 results. On the contrary, the results proved  the media’s virtual irrelevance. Modi realized early in his official career that the more you wallop it, the more it follows you!

It was in pursuit of his ‘direct  rapport with the masses’ policy that he  set up an audio-visual unit within the government which produced regular CDs of the CMs programmes that were shown by local cable networks of the time in rural areas, towns and cities once in the afternoon-time  when womenfolk get free in the villages and once in the evening. A local sub-inspector was all that was required for compliance. The seven PM  news bulletin in local TV channels was preceded by a 15 minute spot of government news which had been brought over. High profile government functions were held with full page, nationwide advertising. The State, for all the twelve years under Modi, projected only one face across the media.

Thus it is, that Delhi is just an immensely improved, vastly more resourceful, more compliant  replay of Gujarat. Modi is sharpening the powerful tools of mass reach-out that are at his beck and call-the Doordarshan and All India Radio. Trust him to transform both, to deliver exactly what  he wants. His ministers and his bureaucrats have been forcefed the golden value of silence and most have learned it better than those of their ilk did in Mrs. Indira Gandhi’s time. Like in Gujarat, so in Delhi, only one name rises head and shoulders above the rest.

 Watch any news channel, read any newspaper including the economic and financial dailies , it is the same story. What Gujarat did yesterday, Delhi wants to do today and  tomorrow. And the best of them all keep coming back for inspiration to Modiland regularly!

http://www.orissapost.com/epaper/071014/p9.htm