Kejriwal’s Face Wins in Face Off
The political underdog’s bark is usually worse than the bite. Arvind Kejriwal, adept at playing the role, has, this time, got a big bite off the power pie after the Supreme Court handed him control over Delhi government officials. The 104-page judgement is a well-argued document granting Kejriwal a prime position after eight years of strife with the Centre.
He had been using advertising largesse to laminate himself and his government using media space. In his testy tussle with Lt Governor Vinay Kumar Saxena, the habitual martyr’s PR exercise had been crippled. Now the SC has categorically classified that the Government of National Capital Delhi (GNCD) will have total control over all services barring law and order and land issues. Kejriwal had been trudging along as CM, looking over his shoulder each time he wrote a word on a file.
He was initially a media creation, and Saxena’s block on self-promotion was hurting him. Kejriwal is the alpha and omega of AAP, just like Modi is for the BJP. Before Saxena, hardly a day passed without daily full page newspaper ads sporting life size photos of Kejriwal in Delhi and chosen cities.
TV channels were raking in the moolah, showing 2 to 3 minutes of sponsored features showcasing AK’s idea of good governance, modern school education and a robust healthcare system. Massive hoardings and bus backs bore his pictures all over Delhi. For every single hoarding of Modi, Kejriwal put up two of himself. Before the last Assembly elections, the BJP couldn’t find hoarding space at strategic locations because AAP had booked most of them in advance.
Saxena had pressed the brakes on this publicity binge. The Delhi government spent almost Rs 1.5 crore a day in the print and electronic media showing Kejriwal’s beaming visage. AAP used crores to advertise in some southern and eastern states where it didn’t exist. The ad binge was an effort to project Kejriwal as the potential alternative to Modi. In March, Saxena held back approval of the Delhi government’s annual budget because the Union government felt that spending Rs 550 crore for publicity was excessive in a Rs 78,000 crore budget. Even the Information and Publicity department, which reports to the CM or deputy CM, was ordered to recover Rs 163 crore from AAP.
Now, after the Supreme Court order, expect Kejriwal to be back in the media with a vengeance. Since Delhi is a revenue surplus state, his face will be plastered on every wall, at airports, on TV and on thousands of websites nationwide. His political sponsors are elated at the prospect of positioning the AAP supremo’s pictures next to Modi’s using the combined revenue of over Rs 1,500 crore from Punjab and Delhi. And the money-starved media houses will be smiling all the way to the bank.
Bihar weathervane’s excess baggage
Personality cults are the steroids of politics. As Arvind Kejriwal looks forward to regaining nationwide visibility through a new well-funded media blitz, power hopper and Bihar’s Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is chasing the mirage of opposition unity by crisscrossing the country with deputy Tejashwi Yadav in tow.
Despite a clash of personalities and ideologies, coupled with the fear of ED and CBI raids, Kumar hopes to get Opposition leaders together to fight the BJP and its powerful general, Narendra Modi.
Of course, the subtitles mean Kumar will be the helmsman. He flew from Kolkata to Mumbai via Lucknow and Bhubaneswar. Since Nitish’s political career spans over 45 years as Union Minister and six-time chief minister, almost everyone gave him an audience.
With his numerous previous flip-flops, he has lost much of the credibility he once enjoyed. But people judge him by the company he keeps. Most Opposition leaders were uncomfortable with Yadav Jr’s presence in the confabulations since he doesn’t have enough experience in dealing with senior CMs and titans like Sharad Pawar. His own party is ridden with factions, and the entire Yadav clan is under investigation.
One Opposition leader is believed to have conveyed to Nitish that Tejashwi acquiring a prominent place in the firmament of concord could collapse coadunation even before it is taken seriously by leaders who can effectively challenge Modified BJP. Yet Nitish hasn’t given up and is planning a big Opposition Summit in Patna, which he claims would remind people of the rally hosted by Jayprakash Narayan in 1974 that spelt the beginning of the end for Indira Gandhi then. The difference: none of the leaders on JP’s stage was tainted or tamed by her regime.
Let MPs pay for Bipartisan TRPs
Sansad TV is in the news for the wrong reasons. It is being blamed for blacking out the Opposition when speaking against the government or the PM. It can’t be blamed for functional infirmities since it operates within a tightly controlled framework. Still, it has adopted innovative adventurism in content creation and generation, along with better visuals and GFX. To counter the combative and agenda-driven talk shows hosted by privately owned TV channels daily, it chose prominent civil servants, netas and thought leaders to host shows on special subjects from history and culture to political matters.
To reflect Parliamentary plurality, it selected individuals from non-BJP parties to anchor the shows with a special look and feel. A Congress MP was asked to present the show, “To the Point”, in which credible personalities from various fields would talk about their experiences. A Shiv Sena Rajya Sabha MP was asked to bring “Meri Kahani” onstage to showcase the difficulties women MPs face in their political and personal life.
Bibek Debroy, an economist of repute and a prolific and authoritative author on Indian heritage and epics, expounded on India’s glorious heritage on his show “Ithihasaa.” Another economist, Dr Sanjeev Sanyal, has been hosting “Economic Sutra” to speak about India’s economic strides. Former diplomat Vikas Swaroop, the author of Slumdog Millionaire, dissected international affairs with an Indian angle on his “Diplomatic Dispatch”.
With over seven million YouTube subscribers, Sansad TV guarantees huge exposure. All its shows have rich content, which commercially motivated channels lack. However, these shows are running into problems. Both Tharoor and Chaturvedi left in protest, while others aren’t sure about an uninterrupted continuity of their shows since the channel hasn’t been allocated enough funds. They may have found sources from the Ministries they belong to. Perhaps, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to deduct money from the salaries of MPs for disrupting House proceedings and spend it on bipartisan words of televised wisdom.
POWER&POLITICS
PRABHU CHAWLA