A Grateful Nation watches a Roman circus
Bharat Bhushan on the birthday gala to refurbish 'Brand Modi' The birthday celebrations of Prime Minister Narendra Modi have metamorphosed into a three-week project of “Service and Dedication” from the single week of “Seva saptah” followed until last year. They will showcase a grateful nation thanking the prime minister for his service. The events projected as entirely voluntary have, however, been planned down to the last detail.
It has not yet gone as
far as the birthday celebrations of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong-il in North Korea,
where citizens must begin the day with offering flower bouquets at their
“shrines” and statues and workplaces organise group activities, hold
spot-competitions, art performances and screening of revolutionary films,
lectures, and oath-taking. Non-participants are designated as “ideologically
sick” and even black-listed. Kim Jong-un though has not as yet declared his
birthday a national holiday and celebrations are not public.
Dear Leader Dreams of Sushi: A life serving Kim Jong-il and his heir
While Prime Minister
Modi’s birthday celebrations are not forced on reluctant citizens, the line
between the State and the ruling party is significantly blurred by presenting
government schemes paid for by the national exchequer as his gifts to the
nation. In the next 21 days, 14 crore bags containing 5 kg free food-grain for
the poor will be distributed. Each bag carries a picture of Prime Minister Modi
and thanks him personally. BJP units
in various states will give voters at booth levels 5 crore “Thank you Modiji”
postcards to send to the prime minister for welfare schemes for the poor.
Rivers will be cleaned, using public funds, at 71 designated spots to mark his
turning 71. An astounding 2.5 crore vaccinations were carried out on his
birthday and videos will have vaccinated citizens expressing their gratitude to
him.
Eminent persons from
the fields of art, culture, literature and sports will hold seminars at
district and state levels to discuss his life and work and write in his praise
in the media. Children orphaned by Covid-19 will be registered for benefits
under the PM-CARES scheme. An ongoing auction of mementos received by the prime
minister will contribute towards cleaning the Ganga.
This is in addition to
lighting 71,000 lamps on his birthday and cutting a 71 kg laddoo in Varanasi, a
71-kg Jalebi in Surat and a 71-feet long syringe shaped cake in blue
(ostensibly the colour of the vaccine) in Bhopal with “Thanks Modi ji for the
Namo Tikka (vaccine)” written on it. This is of another order from the usual celebrations
on previous birthdays, involving blood donation camps, free health check-ups,
issuing ration cards and food-distribution, etc.
How can we understand
the purpose of this Roman circus beyond the frame of sycophancy? It is being
enacted at a moment when Prime Minister Modi’s public approval has plummeted
and a series of state assembly elections have to be won by his party in the
coming year. The electoral debacle in West Bengal notwithstanding, the
prevailing belief in the BJP is
that all elections, in the states and the Centre, are won because of the PM’s
charismatic personality. That belief must be reinforced as life gets tougher
for the common folk.
The pandemic has
devastated their lives--millions have joined the ranks of the unemployed,
household incomes have fallen, family debt has risen and the much publicised
free-food grain scheme is inadequate for an average family’s needs. The
manufacturing sector has lost about one crore jobs permanently and new jobs are
only in the low paying gig economy. The unemployment rate is still above
pre-pandemic levels. The economy is weaker than it was before the pandemic,
despite improvement in quarterly growth numbers.
The rural economy is
in shambles. A Reuters survey showed in June that in rural areas there was a
steep decline in nutrient rich food items (like milk, lentils and cooking oil)
after the pandemic. The doubling of expenditure on essentials pushed families deeper
into debt while slashing dispensable income levels. Economists worry that
rising debt and low incomes in rural areas will hold back economic recovery and
dent private savings and investment.
It is not surprising
that Prime Minister Modi’s public approval has plummeted: rating from 66% a
year ago to 24%, according to one survey. Brand building through public
genuflection might help reverse this trend.
Assembly polls are due
in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Goa and Manipur in February-March, in Himachal
Pradesh in November and Gujarat in December. There might also be polls for the
Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir in between. The BJP can
live down not winning West Bengal but not UP or Gujarat. UP not only sends the
largest number of MPs (80) to Parliament, it is one of the states representing
the BJP’s core support base in the Hindi-belt. Gujarat is the prime minister’s
home state which launched his entry into national politics. His extraordinary
decision to sack all incumbent ministers in Gujarat along with the chief
minister shows his determination to battle anti-incumbency in the state.
A disinclination to be weighed down by bad governance was also demonstrated in his ruthless reshuffle of the Union Cabinet in July this year. High profile ministers were not only dropped unceremoniously but also made to vacate their official residences post haste. Moulding Prime Minister Modi like Xi Jinping, as the irreplaceable fount of all political and social wisdom, will also help to boost the fortunes of the small coterie of leaders close to him. They have a major stake in projecting him as the inevitable and invincible leader of the party and the nation.
Lastly, the logistics
of organising various birthday events is a clever way of mobilising the party
organisation and involving party workers from the booth level upwards. Each
performance will reaffirm their link with the leader of the party. Like an army
exercise in peacetime, it will test the efficacy of the party organisation and
identify weaknesses. Those whose celebrations are not up to scratch will not go
unnoticed. The objective of strengthening the vote base and party workers to
confront elections amidst mounting public disapproval is also served by the
prolonged birthday gala.
https://www.business-standard.
Bharat Bhushan: It suits the RSS to allow BJP to encourage defections from other parties
Naxalites
should lay down their arms and challenge the ruling class to abide by the
Constitution
Some information for Israelis (and the rest of us)
Swati Chaturvedi: It Was BJP Who Made It Mamata vs
Modi. Too Far
Anand K. Sahay: The idea behind capturing power in
any kind of way: fair or foul
YANN PHILIPPIN - Sale of French Rafale jet
fighters to India: how a state scandal was buried
Anne
Michel and Simon Piel - Rafale case: Fresh moves towards a corruption
investigation
Bharat
Bhushan - Scania Scandal: Need to step up to the challenge
Society of the Spectacle / 'इमेज' - 'Image': A Poem on Deaths in the Age of Covid
Modi says Congress committed 'sin' of partition //
The Non-politics of the RSS
The Supreme
Court, Gandhi and the RSS
Colloquium:
The Disappearing Present: Reflections on Ideology - October 16, 2020
The Broken Middle - on the
30th anniversary of 1984
Alexandre Koyré The
Political Function of the Modern Lie
The emperor's masks:
'apolitical' RSS calls the shots in Modi sarkar
