The Politics of Creating an Alternative!

Noam Chomsky co-authored a book called “Manufacturing Consent” in 1988 based on US media’s propensity of being used as a propaganda tool for the political corporate interests. He argued that news focus by the media houses was based on market forces, to be on the good side of the existing regime, pandering to advertisers (the government & corporates being the biggest clients), using government and corporate sources to reduce cost of acquiring privileged information (which will be cut off if the media houses are not favourable) and creating fear in the media (to keep other competing priority issues from reaching mainstream).

Sadly over the last 5 years, something to this effect has been happening with increasing effect in India as well. It has presumably been there for a long time due to the so called “Lutyen’s media” gaining prominence among government circles in the 80s and 90s. With the advent of social media and improved internet access to a large population of India, there has been a democratization of news media. However, 2014 represents a watershed year for the Indian media with regards to political discourse in the country. IT cells of various parties (pioneered by the BJP IT cell of course) gained increasing influence in the social media narrative among people. News anchors had to choose sides instead of being a medium to give the audience an unbiased viewpoint. The success of a loud mouthed Arnab Goswami shouting at placeholders on his show gave rise to other wannabe clones (or clowns) across all news channels. Arnab and gang (dubbed the “Godi Media” by Ravish Kumar) bent over backwards to broadcast government propaganda. When they were asked to bend, they crawled! The BJP IT cell beat every other party or it’s IT cell to spread hatred across the internet.

The BJP propaganda machine led by Modi used a then relatively new technique to win the elections in 2014. The technique was to polarize people with very shallow political views and help them find the echo chambers where their insecurities could find a voice. The corruption and vote-bank appeasement politics of the UPA government made it easier for them. The optics of a BJP government promising change and a blood shot of the Hindutva ideology made many regular looking people into right wing Hindu nationalists almost overnight.

Once the current government was in power, every law it tweaked or any rule it changed was hailed as a revolutionary step for India which then gave way to false propaganda messages and fake news generation- again liberally shared on social media. Anything said against the government invited a series of trolls shouting them down telling them indirectly that speaking against the current government is akin being a traitor to the nation. Not just Modi’s fans but all sides of the political spectrum are victims of this conspiracy. We have all been conned by social media. You probably don’t believe what I am saying but maybe The Oatmeal can convince you: You’re not going to believe what I’m about to tell you — The Oatmeal

In the last 5 years we’ve been sold a narrative that politics in India is to be spoken in a binary. There are those who support BJP (or NDA) and there is everyone else. Anyone who question the government sponsored narrative is branded as a communist, pseudo-secular, urban-naxal, or anti-national. The media lead by the Godi Media gang is cahoots with the government propaganda and calls contentious Indian citizens “anti-nationals” without shame.

In my conversations with my friends, family and colleagues, when I point out that the serious deficiencies in the governance of the present regime as well as present day issues, I’m brushed off saying Congress was corrupt for 60years and no one said anything then. Whataboutery starts about Nehru, MK Gandhi, Indira Gandhi — what they did and didn’t do and ends with how RaGa is a buffoon and not fit to be a leader. However none of them could be bothered about the present state of the country. RaGa being a bad candidate does not automatically make NaMo a great candidate. Every government should be questioned and accounted for in a democracy.

It is not like Modi and BJP have been above board that they need to be celebrated so much. There is plenty of corruption to go around since the last 5 years and I won’t even mention Rafale issue here. It is just that we have to depend on non-mainstream media to provide us information.

1. Demonetization which was effected with a narrow aim of winning the UP assembly elections. It ruined the economy and even destroyed millions of jobs in the informal sector overnight. The optics was looking good in 2016 but not so now that it doesn’t even find mention in their election speeches in 2019.
2. Electoral Bonds which was passed as a part of the finance bill to provide unlimited funding to political parties without declaring who has provided the funding. Crony capitalism is back with Adani and Ambani pulling their purse strings now. The government expects people to believe that large business houses will give large donations to political without the recipient knowing it is them who has funded the party! (illogical much?)
3. Altering GDP calculations to show the current regime in good light compared to the previous one. Arun Shourie- a qualified economist — not a Lawyer-Blogger like our current finance minister- has a scathing report on this.
4. Withholding data unfavourable to the government. Ask Raghuram Rajan.
5. Trying surveillance of citizens using Aadhar by trying to link every service with Aadhar (which they opposed tooth and nail while in opposition)
6. Implementing GST in a such a complex manner without giving the system enough time to adapt to the new system. (Again appropriating the work started by the earlier government as their own idea)
7. Openly encouraging cow-related lynchings and rapes by staying silent over the issue or sometimes their MPs garlanding and rewarding the perpetrators.
8. The cabinet ministers and their kin getting rich without doing anything worthwhile — Jay Shah, Sonali Jaitley, Seema Goyal anyone?
9. Setting up a namesake healthcare scheme called “Ayushman Bharat” intended to spend tax payer money on private insurance companies. They have ruined the existing state government schemes in several states including Karnataka.
10. Unemployment is at an all-time high, government employees have not got salaries for several months and economy is in shambles.

I could go on and on but those who really want to know will find it if they are critically looking for it. To me it seems to me like those who are supporting BJP despite all the above just seem to prefer the BJP’s version of corruption compared to the Congress’s version- basically a form of corruption least inconvenient to them. So these supporters can justify toxic hindutva politics- to quote one of the supposedly moderate right wingers on Quora- “(because) Vajpayee was unsuccessful in getting re-elected with a positive ‘Shining India’ campaign” (paraphrasing of course). So even if this BJP stands for development or growth, is India’s growth of any use if the price for it is marginalizing the poorest and discriminated part of society?

The common refrain is, “what is the alternative? We don’t want a joker like Rahul Gandhi as PM. I know Modi is not a saint but he is best we have now. “. That may very well be a good point but why is our political enlightenment restricted between two personalities NaMo and RaGa? Why aren’t we cultivating an alternative type of politics? This NaMo Vs RaGa showdown suits the current regime. By making it a sort of pseudo- presidential election, this takes the public’s attention away from individual candidates standing for the elections. The public is so enamoured by this narrative that they do not question what the MP from their constituency has done for them nor do they ask what the new candidates will do for their constituency. How will we have politicians like Yogendra Yadav, Jignesh Mewani, Atishi Marlena or Kanaiya Kumar talk about real issues that plague our country while its citizens debate on who among two personalities will look better in the PM chair? The alternative politicians I have mentioned have brought a refreshing brand of politics that I wish my country is mature enough to take in someday.

The problem I see is that Indians in general have a poor sense of what politics means. The people in India who call themselves right wingers are not unlike Salman Khan fans or Sachin Tendulkar fans. They don’t really have any political ideology. They don’t have patience for nuance nor the intelligence to understand data. They like Narendra Modi because of the larger than life image that has been created showing him to be a decisive leader not afraid of taking decisions. Whatever their hero does is good for the nation by default. No need to cross check whether whatever comes out of his mouth is actually true. Anyone who says he’s lying is wrong because they see who is making the argument rather than what is the argument. Most of these people are mostly upper caste hindus who have hidden their bigoted feelings for other religions and backward castes all bottled up till now. They now feel comfortable spewing filth over social media. Either that or they have been living such a closeted elite life that they are not able to notice the corruption and hate that BJP is spreading in the country. Many of those today that we see waving the flag of overt nationalism, nauseating jingoism and blind hatred to contrarian opinion have been casteists, misogynists and religious bigots all their lives. But now they can say what they want while the government feeds into that!

Even for writing this, I might be labelled with a lot of the precious monikers going around for those who are anti-establishment today. Just today, I was branded an anarchist in my family group and asked form my own party if I have an issue with both big parties in India. Thankfully I was not asked to go to Pakistan.

I’m a surgeon and I do alright for myself. I’m a responsible citizen and I pay my taxes honestly. I do my work ethically with utmost dedication and I expect the same basic thing from everyone else in the country. I was not directly affected by demonetization nor GST and my tender for Rafale offsets didn’t get rejected by the government in favour of Ambani’s. Though an atheist, I’m identified as a Hindu in the community. I don’t face any discrimination nor do I fear for my life from religious outfits. It is easy for me to ignore what is going on and get on with my daily life. But if I don’t question the leaders of my country, I’m failing in my duty as an Indian.

I have a lot of optimism about my country and its citizens. I think we give the average voter far less respect when we talk about elections in the country. Those who are spreading hate and bigotry on the internet cannot put food on the plate of the poor person struggling to make ends meet. The one person-one vote was and still is a brilliant idea and their voices in the form of votes is the true barometer of any government’s success in a democracy.

So my appeal to all my fellow citizens is that do not be taken in by the hate and rhetoric spread by these political parties. Let us not speak the language of politicians and political parties. Let us not hero-worship nor denigrate individual personalities in politics. Let us raise the narrative to real issues that plague our country- Healthcare, education, employment, economy, women, empowerment, corruption, foreign policy, science, technology, etc and not be blinded by irrelevant issues like Temples, Mosques, statues, minority-majority fears, cows, ayurveda etc. Let us make way for an alternative form of politics to emerge from the personality based and fear mongering politics that we are experiencing presently.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10155855242856924&set=a.422614591923&type=3&theater

Let us inculcate an alternative brand of politics which is inclusive as well as visionary!

I’m still hopeful…..