Motormouths Muddy A Major Modi Move !

 BY R.K.MISRA

A tongue is best behind the teeth with the mouth closed, for vocal extravagance  can reduce  the sublime to the ridiculous. Moreso when heads of nations are engaged in delicate statecraft across the seas.

Thus it was that maudlin motormouths at home , ‘shooting’ out of turn, turned an aha moment into an avoidable embarrassment during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s US visit recently. The high profile visit from June 21 to 23, for which the Indian establishment had laboured long and hard, had gone off without a hitch. Initially, it was averse to the Indian Prime Minister fielding questions from the media but relented after US officials made it clear that this was a standard part of the state visits. Thereupon, it was decided that he would take one question each from the foreign and the Indian press.

The joint press conference by US President Joe Biden and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June 22 saw the Indian journalist from the PTI ask a question on climate change and a Wall Street Journal(WSJ) correspondent on human rights violations and religious discrimination in India.

The Indian Prime Minister’s reply to the WSJ reporter’s question was detailed and by the book. Extracts of it read”, democracy is in our spirit and we live it, it’s in our Constitution. There is no question of discrimination on the grounds of caste or religion. India believes in moving forward with everybody, with trust and with everybody’s efforts”.

Without going into  merits and demerits of issues at stake ,a  question was asked as is the right of a reporter and was comprehensively answered by the Indian Prime Minister. The exchange was complete and the matter stood closed.. that is until the social media stalwarts  and motormouths nearer home got to work  muddying the waters. This unsavoury aftermath definitely detracted from the takeaways from an immensely important diplomatic foray for India and its Prime Minister.

The WSJ White House correspondent Sabrina Siddiqui was subjected to heavy trolling within India. BJP’s IT cell chief Amit Malviya termed her questions as motivated. The trollers included some top politicians. The American national’s religious identity and background was alluded to distract from her journalistic credentials and label her a Pakistani. One is wont to ask these worthies, where would  such labelling leave millions of American citizens of Indian descent ? Indian agents?

Expectedly the rebuke was swift. On June 26, the White House condemned it.” We’re aware of the reports of that harassment. It’s unacceptable, and we absolutely condemn any harassment of journalists anywhere under any circumstances” White House ,National Security Council(NSC) Coordinator for Strategic Communications,  John Kirby responded to a question by NBC News reporter Kelly O’Donnel, seeking his reaction to the “ intense online harassment” of Siddiqui including by  politicians who “have close associations with the pro-Modi government”. Jean Pierre, the White House spokesperson has  also gone on record to state “we certainly condemn any efforts of intimidation or harassment of any journalist that is just trying to do their job”.

On June 27, the White House Correspondents Association(WHCA) president Tamara Keith issued a statement of condemnation . ”Siddiqui represented the White House press corps incredibly well and asked the questions many of us had at the top of our lists. Unfortunately since then she has been subjected to intense online harassment, including from people with ties to the prime minister’s political party, questioning her motives, her religion and her heritage. This is unacceptable .The WHCA stands by her and the questions she chose to ask, the statement read.

On June 28, Eileen O’Reilly, president of the National Press Club and Gil Klein, president of the National Press Club Journalism Institute joined in to support the swift condemnation issued against these acts by WHCA, the Wall Street Journal, the South Asian Journalists Association and numerous other media organisations . ”People who believe it is acceptable to target journalists with harassment or trolling are, at minimum, the worst kind of bully. We stand with Sabrina and all journalists like her  as they do their jobs, the premier world media body noted.

Clearly motormouths and fawning foghorns have ended up denting a superb Modi image enhancer through sheer guileless inaptitude. It was not for nothing that the PM had in April 2018 warned his party motormouths to exercise restraint but alas in vain. And to add insult to injury comes the needless comment on former US president Obama. Though the initiating gentleman seemed to be clearly shooting above his ‘pay grade’ when wading into international affairs being helmed by the Prime Minister himself, numerous other worthies in governance  dived- in, as if on cue. Barrack Hussain Obama, was the first African-American President of the United states who served  from 2009 to 2017. Those who seek to cast aspersions, flaunting religion-based attributes to him merely for his comments, need to remember that Obama was the first US President to be the chief guest at the 2015 Republic day parade on Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s express request.

It is time to pause and ponder whether the entire unfolding narrative inadvertently ended up proving what we were vigorously at work  denying.

Punching at the mirror only gives us bloody knuckles !

Published in editions dated July 4,2023

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