chetak wrote:Rudradev wrote:Did I say Modi has to do the interviews?
I said the PMO has to do what it must to control the narrative, just as the White House and nearly any govt in the world who understands how important the information space is. Otherwise if it cedes the entire narrative space to the BIFs, it is hardly blameless for the consequences.
That is separate and apart from the fact that BIF journos and propaganda outlets exist. Of course they do. All the more reason why GOI should fight for its own damn turf instead of just letting people bellyache about media unfairness on Twitter.
Modi has to permit.
To permit,
he had to provide data, background and let them glimpse his thought process and that of his team, for "in depth" human interest reportage.
When Modi trusting Indians don't know Modi's mind why should the inimical goras have access to it and to what end
Why does Modi himself have to do any such thing?
Other govts-- even the Chinese-- have entire departments dedicated completely to designing and distributing the specific messages, information, spin, and other narrative-building machinery necessary to stay ahead of the discourse. In an age of internet, smartphones, and 24X7 cable news this is more vital than at any time previously. At both a national and an international level.
Modi's personal state of mind has absolutely nothing to do with it. What matters is packaging the right messaging and presenting it in the right way as "Modi/GOI's state of mind". Zero effort is spent on doing that. Press releases, website updates, and Tweets all come out at one and the same time. All of them rely on the same desultory baboo-speak of the Rajiv Gandhi era. Is this supposed to be a media strategy?
India, ironically, has a whole I&B Ministry that is *supposed* to be responsible for this kind of thing. The I&B Minister is one Anurag Thakur (ever heard of/from him?) Before that, it was your favourite Prakash Javadekar.
The kind of people appointed give a clear idea how important Modi/GOI think the job is. What would it cost them to make someone remotely media-savvy, like Smriti Irani or Meenakshi Lekhi, the I&B Minister and let that person take care of things?
and yes, they all want only Modi to do the interviews, be accessible to them 24X7 on their speed dial because that is what "they say is democracy"
white journo privilege talking down to lower caste brown skin PM
They can want whatever they want.
There is a huge, yawning gulf between:
A) Giving foreign journos and BIF RNI journos whatever they want
and
B ) Ceding 100% of the entire information-warfare space to the BIFs by doing next to nothing.
This is the swamp that Modi has kept at bay and, BTW, the India narrative has always been controlled by the BIF for over 70 odd years now, no matter who the PM was
It has always been controlled by the BIF... therefore we should quietly accept that it will be forever controlled by the BIF, because the present GOI would rather rely on aam junta supporters on Twitter/Whatsapp/Facebook to do what is needed. If after 7 years as PM Modi is just "keeping the swamp at bay" rather than draining it and replacing it with usable real-estate, that smacks of complacency.
The issue is very simple. Let us say you are a sedentary office-going guy who doesn't have much time for physical activity. When is the right time to start exercising? Is it after you get physically attacked by goondas? Is it after some disaster strikes and you have to run as fast as you can with your children/belongings in your arms?
Today the GOI has become complacent because the opposition is useless. Rahul Gandhi, Kejriwal, Laloo, etc reek so obviously of feces that not all the Chanel No. 5 applied by RNI and foreign media can mask the stench. So GOI feels like it will never have to worry, no matter what the BIF media says.
Mark my words-- this WILL not be the case forever. At some point there will be a serious political challenge to Modi/BJP. And the entire media machinery whose narrative currently markets the Rahul Gandhis of the world will converge upon that political challenge with guns out and blazing. The usual ragtag army of aam junta Social Media warriors will have NO chance of fighting back at that point, with the Social Media platforms themselves getting taken over by overtly hostile ideological actors.
That is when a large and muscular professional institution dedicated to specialist information-management, funded and developed by resources only available to the GOI, will be a matter of life and death for BJP and indeed our entire civilization. So far, not even the basic foundation for any such thing has been established. And it will take years, if not decades, to build one.
I am not someone who criticizes Modi lightly on this that & the other. In fact, I often come out to defend him from the "Modi is doing nothing for Hindoooooos" type of pointless caterwauling. But I see this total lack of information management as a critical vulnerability.
The very fact that ordinary citizens like me have to come out and do the information-warfare pushback, be it on Demonetization, GST, Article 370, Balakot, CAA, or the Pandemic Response is living, physical proof of this vulnerability.
