The politics of seeing

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The "chappan ki chaati" or 56 inch chest as Narendra Modi likes to describe himself as campaigned like a whirlwind in the Gujarat assembly elections, addressing thousands of meetings and criss crossing the state in his rath. Apart from the rhetoric on Sohrabuddin and Afzal Guru, there was another constant in Modi's campaign speeches this time: the evils of the English-speaking Delhi based national media. Although there are many sections of the national press that are now approving of Modi, yet Gujarat's self-styled alpha male has deliberately targeted the media. In the ideology of Moditva, the English language media is Gujarat's Enemy Number One. The English language media exemplifies everything that the Gujarati must be programmed to resist: the press is the English-speaking Left-inclined upper class Nehru-style firangis who, ever since the neglect of Sardar Patel by the congress, have failed to give Gujarat its due. Modi's attack on the....