Decoding the media's Priyanka mania

22

Tweet

In 1999, we experienced a 'television moment'. We were covering Sonia Gandhi's Amethi campaign when we happened to meet her daughter Priyanka. For the next several hours, Priyanka took us on a whirlwind tour across the constituency. There were fewer camera crews then, so there wasn't a mad scramble for sound bites. Priyanka was made for television: attractive, charming and spontaneous. She even had lunch with us under a banyan tree, spoke at length on her family legacy and clearly revelled in the public glare. It was probably her first ever TV interaction but she didn't miss a beat. We were, well, bowled over. Thirteen years later, little seems to have changed. She still offers an infectious smile, wears colourful designer khadi saris, relates to the crowd with great warmth and willingly speaks to the camera. The travelling media (now more a circus) still hangs onto her every....

Rushdie row takes one back to the politics of 1980s

22

Tweet

Is 2011-12, 1988-89 all over again? The near farce over Salman Rushdie's non-appearance in Jaipur, whether in person or even in a videolink, would suggest so. Rewind to the late 1980s. A beleaguered Rajiv Gandhi government, its image dented by the Bofors kickback accusations, chooses to ban Rushdie's 'Satanic Verses'. India, in fact, had the 'distinction' of becoming the first country in the world to ban the book, perhaps before anyone in the country had even read it. Worse, on the 24th of February 1989, barely 10 days after the infamous fatwa delivered against Rushdie by Ayatollah Khomeini, 12 people were killed in police firing in Bombay. The police claimed it was forced to open fire when a crowd of around 10,000 Muslims protesting outside the British Consulate began to turn violent. 1989 was also the year of the horrific Bhagalpur riots when more than a....

The 'Anna' factor in 2012 polls

10

Tweet

Irrespective of how one views the Anna Hazare movement, there is little doubt that the one feeling it invoked in the political class was one of fear: the fear of losing control over a system that they have presided over for decades. It is, therefore, no surprise that with the 74-year-old activist having retired hurt for now, many politicians have recovered their poise. It's almost as if a safety valve has been found to relieve politicians from the pressure cooker situation in which they found themselves throughout 2011. Elections provide the perfect outlet for politicians to express themselves in familiar terrain but is it really business as usual? As the campaign for the 2012 elections takes off in the ultimate political battleground of UP, there are straws in the wind to suggest that the Anna effect may well outlast its founder. Take the case of Mayawati. Over the last....

Media, a double-edged sword for Anna, Govt

46

Tweet

Those who live by the media often are slain by it. At the 2011 CNN-IBN Indian of the Year awards, Anna Hazare candidly admitted that it was the media which was responsible for his rise from a regional figure in Maharashtra into a national icon. "If your cameras had not followed me everywhere, who would know me?" was the activist's honest response. Today, the same media reports on Anna's flop show in Mumbai, on how an anti-corruption stir has become an anti-Congress agitation and how Anna's fasts amount to coercive blackmail. Last week, Mani Shankar Aiyar, the ruling class's last iconoclast, referred to Anna as a "Frankenstein monster", mirroring the views of several politicians who are convinced that Anna is a media creation threatening parliamentary democracy. But was the media hype really responsible for Anna's larger than life image? There is little doubt that over the last nine months,....

50 years of liberation: Is Goa losing its sheen?

7

Tweet

We Indians are very good at celebrating the ritual of anniversaries. Perhaps, we believe that an annual ceremonial occasion entitles us to have selective amnesia the rest of the year. So, on the 10th anniversary of Parliament attacks, pious homages were paid to the dead, so what if it took one of the widows six years to get a petrol pump allotted? Now, the nation prepares for another anniversary. This weekend marks 50 years since Goa was 'liberated' from the Portuguese, the culmination of a long and at times bloody struggle which has never quite received its due in our nationalist historiography. Like all grand anniversaries, this one too will be marked by pomp and spectacle. Goa's quaint capital Panjim will be brightly lit. Sonia Gandhi will address a public meeting. Music concerts and art exhibitions will be held. There will be fireworks along the beaches. Every effort....

Unparliamentary flip flops mar FDI debate

29

Tweet

"Many said that Kentucky (KFC) will drive the dhabas out of the market. The dhabas have driven out Kentucky. The Indian sherbet is still there despite Coca Cola and Pepsi. Don't underestimate India." That was former NDA finance minister Jaswant Singh in 2004 when he supported FDI in retail. "Fifty per cent of our population, comprising of small traders, street-vendors and the self-employed, sustain themselves through retail businesses. The UPA government wants to deprive them of livelihood by allowing FDI in multi-brand retail." This was another former NDA finance minister Yashwant Sinha last week while protesting against FDI in multibrand retail. What has really changed between 2004 and 2011 for two former finance ministers of the NDA to adopt such contrarian positions? Frankly little, except the fact that in 2004 the NDA under Vajpayee was an alliance in power, now the NDA is a coalition in....

Dravid, the cricketer of substance

57

Tweet

For eight months now the Indian cricket fan has waited with breathless anticipation for the ultimate cricket icon, Sachin Tendulkar, to score his 100th international hundred. All this while, one man has stayed under the radar, doing what he has done with quiet efficiency for several years now. In this season of hype and noise, of made-for-TV fasts and high-pitched spectacles, Rahul Dravid has reaffirmed one's faith in old fashioned values of solidity and integrity. The 38-year-old Bangalorean, in the autumn of a glorious cricketing career, has shown that true class doesn't need a megaphone for self-promotion but only needs an unswerving commitment to one's profession. In the process, Dravid has provided an inspiration to the silent majority who prefer their heroes to be performers rather than showmen. To be in the limelight and yet stay out of it can't be easy and yet Dravid has handled the....

Formula 1, undercurrents many

22

Tweet

Two of the country's biggest sports events in the last 12 months mirror two Indias. The Commonwealth Games last October were organised by an older India of the cosy neta-babu nexus. The Formula One Grand Prix was staged by a newer India through a happy marriage of local private entrepreneurship and global business. The Commonwealth Games, blighted by a string of corruption allegations, are seen to have dented India's image. Formula One, on the other hand, is seen to have only confirmed India Inc's arrival on the world stage. So has the newer India of corporate and showbiz power scored over an older India of political and bureaucratic largesse? Well, yes, and no. There is little doubt that the Formula one event was a spectacular success in terms of event management. Barring the stray dog who wandered on the race track, and a rock concert that never was,....

Maya & Ambedkar: Incongruous? May be not

20

Tweet

At a time when Mayawati's Dalit memorials have sparked off a raging debate, it might be instructive to consider what the original Dalit icon, Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, would have done in a similar situation. What is almost certain is that, unlike the UP chief minister, he would not have ordered the construction of his own statues. A fierce rationalist, Ambedkar disliked all forms of political idol worship. "In politics, hero worship is a sure road to degradation and eventual dictatorship," he said in a seminal speech before the Constituent Assembly in 1949. Sixty two years later, there is little doubt that Mayawati has emerged as the great dictator of Uttar Pradesh, someone who controls India's most populous state with an iron fist - which is why she can insist on having her own life-size statue alongside those of Ambedkar, Phule, Shahu and Kanshi Ram. Which is also why she....

Pranab holds a poorly led UPA together

15

Tweet

Conventional wisdom has it that there are two power centres in the UPA; in reality, there have been three. As chairperson of the UPA, Sonia Gandhi is the supreme leader but without the responsibility of day-to-day governance. That task was left to the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, in 2004 who as head of the Union Cabinet was meant to be a CEO-like figure entrusted with policy execution. But there has always been a third power centre - less visible perhaps, but no less important. Pranab Mukherjee has always been much more than just a senior minister in the UPA. He has been the Chief Operating Officer, responsible for managing the multiple challenges posed by coalition politics. For the last seven years, Mr Mukherjee has been the 'go to' person for almost every critical policy or political decision taken by the UPA. At one time, he headed as many....