Decoding Brand Modi

The Secret of Survival for 10 years

India Today Conclave, Mumbai 2023

Beloved Modi-ji has been the PM for 9 years and 4+ months, but INDIA TODAY would like us to believe he’s been in power for 10 years. It’s a minor trickery, somewhat counter-parallel to Bata selling shoes for Rs.999.95. In a discussion anchored by Rahul Kanwal (a proud Modi bhakt) and another journalist, a group of marketing / advertising big cheeses laboured  hard for 33 minutes to prove the invincibility of “Brand Modi”. 

In the normal course, I wouldn’t have watched the video, but I did, because a friend sent the link with an intro that read: Sorry for sharing the video so early in the morning. Indian Today anchors are live examples of what described the media during the Emergency: “When asked to bend, they crawled.” In fact, I think it’s more than crawling now. Let me explain why I think so.

In one of his memoirs—I don’t recall which one—physicist Richard Feynman describes the difference between a scientist and a salesman: A scientist, even the most unspectacular one, would invariably mention the downsides of the theory proposed by them, and in what conditions the theory doesn’t work. But for a salesman, hiding the negative aspects of their product is de rigueur, a part of the job. The Indian mainstream media today is more salesmanship than journalism. And for the modern-day marketing executives, who often build a false narrative—sometimes a myth—about the product and call it  a brand, one cannot but feel a little pity. These smooth-talking, smart, and well-informed men spend their life inventing beautiful lies. 

Personally, I hadn’t heard the name of any of the INDIA TODAY panelists except Dilip Cherian, who spoke glowingly about Modi’s event management skills. Watching four of them waxing eloquent about Modiji was a learning experience for me. In the 33 minutes they talked, none of the essential issues concerning Modi and his prime-ministership was touched. If an intelligent being from another planet had watched the video, the poor fellow would imagine India had zero problem with the economy, her social harmony was perfect, her democracy was functioning beautifully with its pillars such as the judiciary, parliament, and media in good health. The conclave sidestepped all the critical issues in the context of which Modi should have been examined. 

Instead, the panelists said something that were both bizarre and startling: 

• Modi rules over the hearts of the people. Evidence: Survey by some unnamed US organisation which found Modi is the most popular national leader in the world with 76% approval rating. (Not a word about the methodology of the survey or the size / nature of the sample they used.)

• BJP doesn’t win elections by creating religious divides, but because of the development they have brought about. Proof: “Religion doesn’t fill stomachs.”

• The panelists talked eloquently about the comparability of Modi and Xi Jinping. They had no problem about the fact that Modi was a leader in a democracy and XI, of the biggest totalitarian state in history. Actually, by making the comparison, they let the cat out of the bag about their own concept of democracy.

• When asked about the weaknesses of the “Brand Modi”, the panelists struggled hard to find an answer. Their innocence was touching; perhaps they hadn’t noticed Modi’s proclivity to take decisions without consulting anyone, his disdain for democratic processes, his shameless hatred for Muslims and Christians, his abject failure to manage the economy of the country, ... his lies. In particular, the panelists seemed to have missed the following.

o The economic distress caused by demonetisation with zero prior study, and ignoring the opinion of RBI.

o Haphazard implementation of the GST by relying on a single IAS officer from—where else but—Gujarat, which caused more damage.

o the enormous suffering of the migrant workers when Modi announced a nation-wide lockdown at 4 hours’ notice, once again without any evidence of planning.

o The delay in introducing vaccines, countless documented instances of people dying because of lack of oxygen, and the bodies floating on the Ganga during the second wave of COVID.

o Muslims attacked and killed in every BJP ruled state with no legal action against the criminals.

o Systematic destruction of Muslims homes, again by BJP ruled states in complete and egregious violation of legal provisions.

During the discussion, Dilip Cherian said that Coca Cola, the most successful brand of the 20th century, contains 30% sugar, but the company doesn’t reveal the fact. (It’s not obliged to?) Similarly, Modi doesn’t have to acknowledge his weaknesses. It’s the brand that matters.

It does seem we have evolved from the idea of the media bending or crawling. From the idea that a leader must be measured against his/her performance. Modi is a brand around which an aura is to be created. Modi has to be marketed, like Coke, whether it’s poison or not. Just as capitalism is value neutral as long as there’s profit, in today’s India, anything that Modi does is fine, as long as he wins elections!

You have to decide if deserves to win the elections in 2024.

08/10/2023

Photos courtesy commons.wikimedia.org

Left: By Prime Minister's Office (GODL-India), GODL-India

Right: By Ralf Roletschek - Own work, Public Domain

A postcard from the countryside: Homecoming

The tecoma, which had hardly any flowers when we left last month, is flowering, although the yellow bloom is yet to reach the fullness of spring. The same thing can be said about the pink bougainvillea. (Alas! I needed three attempts to get the spelling right!) The hibiscuses, which flower in all times, didn’t disappoint us either. The tiny beds of spinach and fenugreek too are doing well. And a few aubergines are ready to be plucked. On the whole, it was a happy homecoming: the spring is in the air.

The following day was perhaps the International Caterpillars' Day. In the morning, I saw more caterpillars together than what I had seen in the rest of my life. There were hundreds of them on the courtyard and on the roads near our house. Seemingly homeless, they were moving aimlessly in every direction. Was there a political strife in their habitation? Were they migrating? 

Our domestic help Gomathi Amma is exceedingly smart. Although we don’t have a common language, she understands everything we tell her and shapes out her ideas effectively in her limited Hindi and English vocabulary. She came as soon as she knew we had come. 

Gomathi Amma (who is some other Amma actually) is one of the countless women of our country who are treated harshly by life. Mother of a grown-up son and a daughter, she is a widow. But the passing of the abusive husband hasn’t given her freedom. Her father calls the shots in her life. Gomathi Amma supplements her income as a domestic help by tending her father’s 50 goats. She is naturally free-spirited. She is never absent, but comes to work anytime between 10 AM and 4 PM when she wishes. Her employer (my far better half) has accepted the arrangement because Gomathi Amma is great at work. 

Her son works in a factory and the daughter is married in Bengaluru to a man almost twice her age. The son doesn’t give Gomathi Amma any trouble, but the son-in-law does. The daughter is illtreated and beaten up. She wants to return home but cannot. Her mother is reconciled, but her grandfather won’t allow it. The old man, a factory worker and goat farmer, thinks it would be dishonourable for the family. (Indeed, there’s no dishonour in getting beaten by one’s own husband!) 

For Gomathi Amma, the new year didn’t begin on a happy note. Her son had an accident early in the morning of January 1. Karthik was going to a temple near Hosur with a friend. They were on a motorbike, with Karthik riding pillion. At four o’ clock when it was pitch dark, they crashed head-on with a bike from the other side at a sharp bend on the road. The biker on the other vehicle died on the spot. Karthik’s friend, who had a helmet but hadn’t strapped it up, was badly injured in the head. His helmet had flown some distance away upon the impact. Karthik, who had never had a helmet in life, had stitches on his face and a broken jaw. Gomathi Amma said Karthik had had “plastic surgery” and “clamps” have been fitted to fix his lower jaw. The words I have put within inverted commas, she said in English. For the jaw, she demonstrated it with her own. He cannot eat anything solid; it will take some time before he can. 

Gomathi Amma has already spent a lakh and thirty thousand on Kathik’s treatment. She borrowed most of it on interest, at 4% per month. (I have seen this everywhere, if the rate of interest is usurious, it is always given in months. The poor doesn’t think it is 48%.) But before leaving, she said, ‘I am not worried about my son. He will recover anyway. But I do not know what will happen to my daughter.’ 

I felt angry about Gomathi Amma’s son-in-law and son. Perhaps more about her son. How can he be so irresponsible that he doesn’t have a helmet although he has a bike? But later, on more tranquil reflection, the thought came to my mind: is Karthik really to blame? 

Or should we blame the complete lack of education that the country offers to her underprivileged, even in Tamil Nadu, the best managed state in India? Or, should we blame the state of the economy which has made motorbikes affordable but basic awareness impossible to achieve? What are our priorities, why are schools closed when shopping malls are open during the third wave of the pandemic?

08 January 2022

The Digital Divide

The graphic above is true and so sad! If anything shows our government’s complete indifference – if not disdain – for ordinary people, it is the COWIN app. Our rulers have made internet access almost a precondition for the life-saving vaccination against COVID-19. The poor in India don’t get anything easily, from ration card to medical aid. Now, a vast majority of them who don’t have internet access have an even bigger handicap vis-à-vis the vaccine.

However, India was not like this always. When I was a child, once a year, our whole family would visit a nearby corporation office for the small-pox vaccine to be administered with a bifurcated needle that would make two parallel punctures. It was open and free to all and the government advertised it widely to encourage people to get vaccinated. In fact, the efforts were much more than mere publicity. The University of Michigan Library website says:

“[In India in 1974] During a six-day period each month, health workers visited every one of the country’s 100 million households. Supervised by about fifty international advisors and an equal number of Indian officials, some thirty-three thousand district health personnel and more than 100,000 additional field workers conducted house-to-house searches in a total of 575,721 villages and 2,641 cities.”

Clearly, a much poorer India had wiser and better educated leadership that invested scarce resources into public health programmes thanks to which India has been able to kill to demons: small pox and polio. The second graphic has captured our past beautifully.

But today, we have a government run by idiots with phoney degrees and charlatans who promote unscientific, so-called ayurvedic cures so that fellow crooks can make a quick buck even in the middle of a devastating pandemic. More importantly, the government invested nothing except on the 3^rd stage clinical trial of the vaccine developed by the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) and Bharat Biotech. Even Covaxin, the vaccine jointly developed by ICMR, they didn’t license to other manufacturers. Contrarily, the Russian Sputnik-V vaccine is going to be manufactured by six companies in India. Why did the government restrict production of Covaxin to only a small Hyderabad-based private company? If you know the answer, please tell me. Questions galore. Why do the owners of the biggest vaccine manufacturer Serum Institute of India have to run away to England when they should try to augment their manufacturing capacity to help millions of Indians?

Since the middle of 2020 the USA (even under a madman president) and Europe have been investing heavily into private companies for researching vaccines; many governments bought millions of doses of vaccine much before they were tested or produced. But our government ignored warnings from the scientific community about an impending second wave and didn't pre-book a single dose of the vaccine. What were they doing with the thousands of crores reportedly received in the completely opaque PM Care Fund if they didn’t utilise it for vaccines?

Our government has messed up every aspect of the problem whether making digital access a priority or the pricing of the vaccine or the age-group to which it should be given first. It has come out with a series of seemingly random decisions which has helped none. But these acts of stupidity pale into insignificance when you consider that in the humongous machinery called government and its adjuncts like the Niti Ayog, there was nobody to compare the number of vaccines required and the available production capacity in the country. Did they actually forget to do this when they were gleefully celebrating their stupidity as late as in March 2021? Can anything be more bizarre?

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I belong to the privileged minority that has much better access to scarce resources. I personally have access to most of the ladders shown in this graphic. Therefore, anything I write on ordinary people not getting the COVID-19 vaccination would amount to hypocrisy. I accept the charge, but that doesn’t alter facts. We have a bunch of moronic rulers who are destroying the country.

The PM must resign. If ever a national government was needed with the best talents available in the country, it is now.

 18 May 2021

 

The Ganga is a carrier of corpses

 In the Wire yesterday, Deepal Trivedi wrote: 

“A poet from Gujarat once hailed as “the next big icon of Gujarati poetry” by right-leaning litterateurs in the state, has become the latest target of the BJP IT cell’s troll army for a powerful poem she has written on the sufferings of Indians as the Union government grossly mismanages the second wave of the pandemic. …

 

“The 14-line poem was promptly translated into at least six languages, becoming the voice of all Indians who are saddened by the tragedies wrought by the pandemic and angered by the government’s aloofness and mismanagement of the situation.”

I am sharing with you my Bangla translation of the poem from English, followed by the English version by Salil Tripathi, Hindi by Ilyas Sheikh, and finally, the original in Gujarati.

Courtesy: The Wire, from where I have sourced the original and two translations, and also the picture of the poet.

*

শববাহিনী গঙ্গা / পারুল খাক্কার  >>>

সারি সারি শবদেহ বলে, খুসী থাকো, কোন কিছু ভাববেনা কেউ।

এ রামরাজ্যে রাজা, মানুষের দেহ নিয়ে বয়ে যায় গঙ্গার ঢেউ।

হে রাজন, জঙ্গলের কাঠ সব ছাই, শ্মশানে তিলমাত্র স্থান নেই

আর্তকে সাহায্য করার লোক নেই, শববাহকের অভাবও একান্তই

শোক করার জন্যই বা আছে কে? আমরা তবুও বেঁচে থাকি

ভাষাহীন নিষ্প্রাণ অবসন্নতা একমাত্র রয়ে যায় বাকী।

 যমদূতেরা নগরীর ঘরে ঘরে, তারা নৃত্য করে মহা উল্লাসে

এ রামরাজ্যে রাজা, সারি সারি শবদেহ গঙ্গায় ভাসে।

হে রাজন, শ্মশানের চিমনিটাকে কাঁপিয়ে দিয়েছে জীবানুর ঝড়,

ভাঙ্গবে অনেক শাঁখা আরো, ভালোবাসা, উত্তোলিত বক্ষপিঞ্জর।

 ঘাতকের তরবারি; প্রজ্জ্বলিত জনপদে পরিশ্রমী নৃপতি বীনা বাজায়

তোমার রামরাজ্যে রাজা, গঙ্গায় সারি সারি শবদেহ ভেসে যায়

ঝকঝকে পোষাক তোমার, মৃদু হাস্যময় তোমার চিবুক

অবশেষে মানুষ দেখেছে তোমার নির্মম, ভয়াবহ মুখ।

 কোন কিন্তু নয় আর, বাইরে এসো, উচ্চকন্ঠে বল বারবার,

“উলঙ্গ রাজা তুমি নির্বোধ! চুপ করে থাকবো না আর।“

বিদ্ধস্ত জনপদ, চিতার আগুন মেঘবর্ত্ম ছুঁয়ে ফেলে প্রায়

 

তুমি কি দেখ না রাজা, গঙ্গায় সারি সারি লাশ বয়ে যায়?

 

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English Translation by Salil Tripathi >>>

 

Don’t worry, be happy, in one voice speak the corpses
O King, in your Ram-Rajya, we see bodies flow in the Ganges

O King, the woods are ashes,
No spots remain at crematoria,
O King, there are no carers,
Nor any pall-bearers,
No mourners left
And we are bereft
With our wordless dirges of dysphoria

Libitina enters every home where she dances and then prances,
O King, in your Ram-Rajya, our bodies flow in the Ganges

O King, the melting chimney quivers, the virus has us shaken
O King, our bangles shatter, our heaving chest lies broken

The city burns as he fiddles, Billa-Ranga thrust their lances,
O King, in your Ram-Rajya, I see bodies flow in the Ganges

O King, your attire sparkles as you shine and glow and blaze
O King, this entire city has at last seen your real face

Show your guts, no ifs and buts,
Come out and shout and say it loud,
“The naked King is lame and weak”
Show me you are no longer meek,
Flames rise high and reach the sky, the furious city rages;
O King, in your Ram-Rajya, do you see bodies flow in the Ganges?

 

*

 

Hindi translation by Ilyas Sheikh >>>

 

एक साथ सब मुर्दे बोले ‘सब कुछ चंगा-चंगा’
साहेब तुम्हारे रामराज में शव-वाहिनी गंगा

ख़त्म हुए शमशान तुम्हारे, ख़त्म काष्ठ की बोरी
थके हमारे कंधे सारे, आँखें रह गई कोरी
दर-दर जाकर यमदूत खेले
मौत का नाच बेढंगा
साहेब तुम्हारे रामराज में शव-वाहिनी गंगा

नित लगातार जलती चिताएँ
राहत माँगे पलभर
नित लगातार टूटे चूड़ियाँ
कुटती छाति घर घर
देख लपटों को फ़िडल बजाते वाह रे ‘बिल्ला-रंगा’
साहेब तुम्हारे रामराज में शव-वाहिनी गंगा

साहेब तुम्हारे दिव्य वस्त्र, दैदीप्य तुम्हारी ज्योति
काश असलियत लोग समझते, हो तुम पत्थर, ना मोती
हो हिम्मत तो आके बोलो
‘मेरा साहेब नंगा’
साहेब तुम्हारे रामराज में शव-वाहिनी गंगा

 

The original in Gujarati >>>

 

એક અવાજે મડદાં બોલ્યાં ‘સબ કુછ ચંગા-ચંગા’
રાજ, તમારા રામરાજ્યમાં શબવાહિની ગંગા.
રાજ, તમારા મસાણ ખૂટયા, ખૂટયા લક્કડભારા,
રાજ, અમારા ડાઘૂ ખૂટયા, ખૂટયા રોવણહારા,
ઘરેઘરે જઈ જમડાંટોળી કરતી નાચ કઢંગા
રાજ, તમારા રામરાજ્યમાં શબવાહિની ગંગા.
રાજ, તમારી ધગધગ ધૂણતી ચીમની પોરો માંગે,
રાજ, અમારી ચૂડલી ફૂટે, ધડધડ છાતી ભાંગે
બળતું જોઈ ફીડલ વગાડે ‘વાહ રે બિલ્લા-રંગા’!
રાજ, તમારા રામરાજ્યમાં શબવાહિની ગંગા.
રાજ, તમારા દિવ્ય વસ્ત્ર ને દિવ્ય તમારી જ્યોતિ
રાજ, તમોને અસલી રૂપે આખી નગરી જોતી
હોય મરદ તે આવી બોલો  ‘રાજા મેરા નંગા’
રાજ, તમારા રામરાજ્યમાં શબવાહિની ગંગા.