The Megalomaniac Emperor and his Toady Media

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Apparently, our prime minister, whose sycophants boast over his unmeasured 56” chest size and a macho image, has a habit of giving a meek response on each of the crucial issues while turning into a demagogue on non-important ones, or those issues that are potent to bring him votes by polarising the majority Hindu community. In the past three and half years of his rule, Narendra Modi continuously endorsed the widely-held perception that not only he is a mediaphobic person but he’s also a megalomaniac man, who lacks self-confidence when it comes to testing intellect garnered through the numerous radicalisation programmes of the RSS that he attended in the Shakhas all his young life. His few selective scripted TV interviews, especially the last two with the lapdog TV channels of the BJP and the RSS, the Zee News and Times Now channel, proves this fact beyond doubt.

Most of the large corporate-controlled media organisations have already prostrated in front of the Modi regime. They are a partner in the Modi regime’s single-track agenda of dividing the Indian people on the basis of religion to ensure a smooth neo-colonisation of India by the US-led imperialist bloc and its lackeys like Zionist Israel or fascist Japan. Still, many of these media outlets wear a sham “neutral” mask and refuse to strip completely before the powers, to carry on teasing through their voluptuous seduction. However, unapologetic RSS trumpets like Republic TV, Zee News and Times Now do not even have that transparent shimmering satin covering their naked self.

These unofficially-official organs of the Hindutva camp love to strip and expose their grotesque bodies before the people and they yell their insidious propaganda incessantly to build up mass opinion in favour of the RSS-led Hindutva camp quite recklessly. See the example of a shameless rabble-rouser like the Brahminical fascist PR agent of the BJP, Jagrati Shukla, who calls upon the people to carry weapons and kill Muslims or the TV anchors of Aaj Tak like Rohit Sardana and Sweta Singh, who are spreading communal vitriol against the Muslim community on social media with such impunity that even a corrupt Sangh Pracharak will feel insecure about his job. What allows them to audaciously show to the nation where their loyalty lies? It’s the fat pay packs that are dispatched from the Nagpur-based headquarters of the Hindutva fascist camp that makes these creatures dance to the saffron snake charmer’s tune. Lackeys come for a price, sometimes a hefty amount and the RSS is capable of paying that money.

The cunning prime minister selected Zee News and Times Now for his much-publicised PR stunt called – “exclusive interview” soon after the visit of the Zionist terrorist Benjamin Netanyahu, his close ally, came to an end. What these sycophant TV anchors, who wear Hindutva in their sleeves and try to outdo Arnab Goswami in the game of being the loudest Grey Hound, asked Narendra Modi were actually the answers with a question mark at the end. In a sheer polite voice and with extreme respect towards their pay-master, they asked Narendra Modi some of the hardest questions on earth — why the opposition isn’t satisfied with the prime minister’s policies when the US-owned IMF and the World Bank supports him on them? How could Narendra Modi work so hard and so selflessly? What does Narendra Modi think when he finds the country progressing so fast under his rule? Such emotional questions! Such tough interrogation!

Possibly after watching such fidelity exhibited by those toady media lapdogs, Narendra Modi would have broken down in tears, if there weren’t people to control him. The emotionally charged emperor could have thrown some of his excessive jewellery at these lackeys if he was wearing any during the interview; though, the perks and benefits received by these toady Eminence Grises are more than what expensive jewellery would have fetched them. Seleucus, the times have changed, yet the country has so much to captivate!

The issue isn’t about the mainstream media’s unapologetic stooping before the Hindutva fascist regime led by Narendra Modi, it’s more about how this stooping and lackeyism is labelled as “nationalism” and these have metabolised as the “mainstream” in the trade of journalism. It’s more about the blurring of the difference between journalism and corporate PR management. Forget critical analysis of the government’s or the ruling party’s policies and actions, the lackeys of the regime running the yellow journalism show have reached the lowest nadir that they will blame the opposition for all failures of the Modi government. The klaxon-mouthed boisterous TV anchors will demand from the opposition a clarification on why the prices of commodities aren’t falling, why law and order situation is deteriorating and why army men are still dying at the border!

Following the same trend of yellow journalism, RSS toady PR agents like Sudhir Chaudhary, Navika Kumar and Rahul Shivshankar (wonder why unapologetic Hindutva fanatics like Jagrati Shukla or Sweta Singh were not given “exclusive” bytes) were trying to boost the self-confidence of the man who wears different hats at the same time. The personal aggrandizement of Narendra Modi did walk a few miles North, thanks to the platform provided by these Hindutva thugs to him. Their efforts to show that the country is making progress under Modi’s rule and despite the hurdles created by the opposition found some takers in the hardcore Hindutva-supporter community. For the rest of the people, the 90 per cent of the population, whom the prime minister is advising taking up pakoda-selling business after stealing the original idea from West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s famous “Telebhaja Shilpo” rhetoric, the Modi government is a disaster. A disaster that squeezes out the last penny they have saved.

No wonder we will never see the corporate media mustering the courage to directly ask Narendra Modi what’s his stake in Adani and Ambani’s business growth? They will never dare to ask Narendra Modi that how 1 per cent of the population now owns 73 per cent of the country’s total wealth, up from 43 per cent at the beginning of this decade? They will never have the guts to ask the fascist ringleader and riot monger whether he still gets nightmares of Naroda Patia? Does that phone call from Ehsan Jafri still bothers him when he sleeps? No one can ask Narendra Modi what gave him the right to destroy the economy using the gimmicks like demonetisation and GST implementation? No high-salaried news anchor enjoying the status of celebrity can dare to ask the prime minister why he is selling the country to foreign corporations and Indian comprador capitalists in piecemeal?

Until a country can have a media that can throw questions that are fire volleys at the ruling clique and its ringleader, democracy will remain in an absolutely elusive state. It can be discussed, ritualistically, however, it can’t be realised to upgrade the living standard of the poor and the downtrodden masses. The people won’t be allowed to gain economic independence and feed themselves a square meal a day while living with utmost dignity in such a political setup. By not allowing the press to accompany him during his endless foreign tours and by avoiding press conferences, Narendra Modi has denied democracy its rightful place and has shown that it’s not only that he lacks confidence and is a megalomaniac who fears to lose his status, he is also a tyrant who believes only in one-sided dialogue and expects the people to follow his sermons unconditionally.

In the 21st century India, it’s imperative to purge the country of the fascist menace that has gripped it and turned all institutions of the country into mere trumpets of the regime. The survival of the poor and the outcome of their struggle to achieve economic independence and social equality depends on the downfall of this vitriol-driven Hindutva fascist regime of Narendra Modi. As the corporate media and its toady agents can’t take on the regime and its monster tyrant, the responsibility lies with the people’s media — the people’s press — to take over the charge and fill the void created after the demise of critical journalism in the mainstream press. It’s only the critical and revolutionary journalism that will awaken people to a better tomorrow, sans fascism, poverty, violence and hatred.