The BJP Press Statement That Could Have Been - 1

@techrsr brought up an interesting point the other day about the BJP not having the locus of control of the Indian media with them. Now, I'm not sure how much of an electoral impact having the locus of control of Indian media will have, but it is a well-established fact that BJP is simply clueless (after all these days, yes) in handling the barrage of anti-BJP media outlets that dot the (sorry) Indian media landscape. In a sense, this is both funny & intriguing, considering one of their top-most leaders (supposedly?) has excellent contacts with most top media outlets. But that's a discussion for another day. Coming back, given this well-entrenched hostility, it becomes absolutely imperative for the BJP to tackle them strategically, *consistently*. As laymen-supporters of the BJP, apart from the occasional display of savvy, we are mostly left licking our self-inflicted wounds.
In light of the recent "Clarification" (an obvious euphemism for "Sorry [Hehe] for peddling lies" [Yes, I can almost see the sardonic grin on the editors' faces while printing out this joke of a clarification, which, by the way, is neither sincere nor well-intentioned nor truly apologetic]) issued by the Times of India group with respect to the "Modi rescues 15000" controversy, the handling of the issue by the BJP left a lot to be desired. Consider this - the clarification itself is neatly tucked into a corner of one of the deepest parts of the printed edition (Page 9 in the Mumbai & Chennai editions, Page 10 in the Bangalore edition, to name a few), so it is quite unlikely that this is going to be read by as many people as those who would've bought into the "self-orchestrated propaganda by the BJP" story, which, anyway, was the main aim of the ToI piece in the first place.
And dear BJP supporters, for how long can we keep taking cover under the "No publicity is bad publicity" logic? There is a point at which the actual "publicity" part of the publicity (good or bad) plateaus and in Modi's case, this point has long since been reached. Again, I don't know about the net impact (electoral or otherwise, but basically, to me, it is only the "electoral" bit that matters...at least for the next one year) of the "15000" ToI scandal, but here's what the BJP could have done immediately after the issue blew up which, I am sure, would have garnered them much more sympathy than what they will most likely receive now. A simple press release on the lines of -

"This in reference to the article "Modi lands in Uttarakhand, flies out with 15,000 Gujaratis" published in the Times of India. The BJP would like to categorically state that this is a totally baseless number that is being quoted and no BJP representative has been contacted in this regard. We would further like to add that Shri Narendra Modi was indeed instrumental in part of the relief work that is being carried out in Uttarakhand, however his relief efforts were not restricted to people of any particular community, region or language. Furthermore, at a time of grave crisis like this, what matters is that all effort possible be rendered to the needy across political and ideological differences and not one-upmanship based on numbers. Publishing such an article with unsubstantiated data amounts to rumour-mongering. Instead of helping focus on the relief work being carried out by all parties, this is a grossly irresponsible act of journalism by one of the country's oldest journalistic institutions. We strongly condemn this rather mischievous attempt to insinuate controversy and demand an apology by Times of India in the front page of ALL their editions, with all the clarifications stated above, failing which, we will be forced to take legal action against them."

Alas, that was not to be. With such an insincere and delayed "Clarification" by ToI, when the whole issue is more or less out of public memory, has the damage been done?
Your guess is as good as mine.

Prologue: Going by recent happenings, one can't help but begin to wonder if Shekhar Gupta was indeed right when he said that instead of setting the agenda, the BJP is walking right into Congress' trap. One of the impressive aspects about Narendra Modi so far has been his ability to set the terms of the discourse and decide the agenda. If recent events are any indication, this ability appears to be waning. It is too early to conclude, but a course correction is definitely in order.

An Open Letter to a friend

Dear friend,
Over the past 1.5 years or so, you have acted like a wave. You come close to the shore and just when one would think you're coming in, you go right back. Kind of like that epic scene in Anbe Sivam - "Chennaiya thaakkoon, Chennaiya thaakkoon apdeenu solluvaanga, aana varusha varusham Orissa'va thaandi Andhra varikkum vandhuttu apdiye thirumbi poidum."
I can remember at least 3 instances during the same period when you have permuted the words - "open mind", "accept", "unbiased point of view", "listened to both sides", etc but would end up at the same conclusion - that of Namo's purported guilt. Then you would tweet the occasional 2-3 articles about development in Gujarat riding with a [standard] disclaimer/question wondering if it was exaggerated. Then the same tone of "all this is ok...but...".

Much as I have respect for you and your rationality, I must say that when it comes to Namo, your sense of objectivity seems to be minimal at best. I can see you trying hard to take off those blinkers and view him in different light (and I credit you for that), but there seems to be some part of you that is absolutely preventing you from doing it.

All this while, I hoped/assumed all you were waiting for was the court's judgement on the issue. However, despite an overwhelming clean chit to him, your stance has barely shifted. If any, it (viewing him guilty) just seems to have strengthened.

I also hope you are cognizant of the fact that I have not once brought up any of the other riots or even mentioned "1984", even in passing.
The riots were ABSOLUTELY unjustified, there is no second question about it. Could Modi have handled the riots better - maybe, maybe not. But I think we do not have the authority to decide that. NGO's might, and I too thought they were authentic & exposed the actual situation until Teesta Setalvad came into the picture. I think it has been proved beyond doubt that she is funded, in part or whole, by vested interests with the chief aim of maligning Narendra Modi. The actual aim of "Justice for the victims" was just a bystander in her pick-up truck which has long passed its actual destination and route.

This being the case, I think it would be best to rely on the court's verdict, especially considering the SIT for the main case (Gulberg Society) was headed by an extremely competent man of impeccable integrity (RK Raghavan).

You also try to judge NaMo based on how he would've handled riots. How many people do you *know* / have *proven* they can handle riots better than him? God forbid such a situation ever arise, but in a nation that is both tolerant as well as easily inflamed, have you ever thought how much worse the riots could've been if not for whatever control was brought about? Once again, I am not claiming that the riots that happened were a best-case scenario or even an acceptable-case scenario, but how could you so overwhelmingly confidently pronounce him guilty and start finding loopholes in the Indian Penal Code which assumes a man innocent till proven guilty?

I also see you bandying about words like "did he do ALL he could", "did he WANT the riots to happen", "did he ALLOW the riots to happen" - I hope you realize the extent to which you have brought in subjectivity here, as also uncertainty and intangibility to the bigger picture. Is it possible to get into his head and ascertain the truth? And certainly, you will have no strong answers to those questions - even if there are, you would be just as justified negating the naysayers as you can the yeasayers. Why - you know very well.

To conclude, I think the best thing for us is to, like all pointless-but-polite arguments, "agree to disagree" on Namo. You are strongly opinionated that Namo is guilty and nothing he does will ever convince you otherwise. Not a clean chit from any court. Not cogent arguments from rational, well-informed folks about his effort. Not gentle proddings from friends. Not passionate arguments from fellow twitterati. Heck, I doubt if even Teesta Setalvad can convince you otherwise (just kidding). :D

It's ok man, you have an opinion, live with it. Accept it. I have mine. I'm okay with it. In fact, I'm perfectly fine with yours too (though I must confess that it did break my heart a lot initially - my failure at coaxing you into Namo :P).

I've tried hard and long to weigh Namo on various scales. I ended up backing Narendra Modi. You ended up not. One of us is wrong. Maybe not. Time will tell. Maybe not. Until then, the best thing you could possibly do is stop trying hard to be "fair", "objective", "unbiased", etc. I know we all have heads, but we are not coins. You've tried hard enough. God (if you believe in One) will give you full marks for trying.
Amen.
:)

Meeting the Lion in its Den

A hurried post after almost an eternity, chiefly to not let go of the excitement.
Amma's friend is a part of popular news-reader of yesteryear, Varadarajan's drama troupe, which had gone to Gujarat for performing there. One (or more) of the members seem(s) to have been a Modi-fan and expressed interest in meeting the man. Somehow, someone seems to have got hold of the Chief Minister's Secretariat's office, just to give it a shot. When the person at the other end said he'd get back in 15 minutes, our folks got skeptical and thought it was as good as gone. When they were consoling each other with "Hey, at least we tried"s, about 10 minutes later, they got a call saying the CM would meet them for half an hour the same day at 12 Noon. This was the day or a day after he had returned from China.

Our folks, whose excitement knew no bounds, immediately bounded off to the CM's home at about 11:30 AM and were escorted to a room. Just as the clock struck 12, in walked Narendra Modi, with a cordial "Namaste" to all. He then proceeded to ask each person individually to introduce himself/herself and asked what their play was about. Then asked them if they had been to the newly renovated Akshardham temple. And casually, rattled out that there were about 5 lakh Tamilians in Surat, while they constituted the largest population (about 1 lakh) in Maninagar, his home constituency, where their Drama was staged. Our folks were quite amazed at how the man (cliché alert) had facts at his fingertips.

Then Modi saab spoke about the Biogas plants that were in operation in Gujarat and mischievously asked them if they needed some, seeing how power-deficient TN was.

The drama guys then enquired about his China visit to which he said it went pretty well. One thing that they said was evident was the amount of pride in his tone whenever he spoke about Gujarat - be it the Akshardham temple or the Biogas plants or the Metro (or BRTS, not sure).

One of them then quipped "How nice it would be if India had 28 Namo's", to which our man simply smiled (who's going to be the first one to comment "28 Namos? Yeah right, and commit mass murders & slaughtering of Muslims all over the country", come on guys).

When one of them told Namo that they had initially tried to get permission to meet him via Cho in Chennai, who had said he wasnt sure when Namo would return from China, Modi said "Aah, Cho saab...woh toh mere Guruji hain."
Inevitably, the question about Prime Minstership came up, and our man genially looked up and pointed both hands upwards. :-)
After 27 minutes, NaMo automatically got up and asked the folks assembled there if they wanted to take a photo, and after the customary photograph, bid them adieu.

Picture Courtesy: Dinamani

Man of the Moment

Too much has been said about the man already. Wouldn't want to add another long list of love-hate analogies, just an opinion that India, today, given the current scheme of things, needs a man like him. More than India, BJP. National level, well, hmmm, possible, but it'll take time. But hey, we're celebrating, and did I hear the pseudo-secularists crying?
:P
Modi Rocks! Jeet Gaya Gujarat! Chak De Gujarat, he he.