The election results have proved once again that in today's globalised world, media propaganda works, issues don't. Our lives are now decided by what the media dictates. An influential editor admitted that it was an election of "non-issues"; to seasoned onlookers like me, it was nothing more than soapbox advertisement for Sonia Gandhi and her children. It worked!
Glories now on Manmohan Singh, the "best prime minister" in post-Non-Alignment India, for his "efficient handling" of the country's affairs. But Manmohan—however erudite—couldn't have been prime minister five years ago had Sonia not been denied the top position. He was a "compromise", perhaps because Rahul Gandhi was "too young". The kingmakers will gradually throw him away—politely, of course—and crown the new prince. We'll say, "Long Live India! Long Live Crown Prince Rahul!" Democracy and dynasty, together? We'll revisit that question in 2014. For now, the media wants us to be happy.
The new-generation Indian PR-journalism, its projection of Rahul as the next prime minister (eerily reminiscent of the rise of his father) and complete suppression of issues did it for the Congress. Western commentators with little grassroots experience of Indian politics cheer. They'll keep branding India the next rising sun in the East!
But the dark truth is, India and her 80 per cent unfortunates will remain hungry and poor; terrorism, pollution, overpopulation, diseases, environmental destruction and corruption will thrive; the rich will get richer. Female infanticide and dowry deaths will continue. Women will walk miles to fetch water. Kids will drop out of school. 'Untouchables' and minorities will be denied basic rights. Repression of dissent will remain unchecked. Of course, there will be more cricket matches, fashion catwalks and Bollywood blitzes. There will be more near-zero-medal Olympics. Bless my motherland and her soul.
And we don't need the BJP or the Left any more—Congress will play the roles they play. It will peddle fake Hindutva in the north and the west, fake socialism in the east and south, and fake isolationism in places nobody talks about. Note that countless, "liberal" Congress candidates ceremonially went to temples to receive blessings to win their seats. Many received special advice from astrologers and fortune-tellers. Who needs the conservatives?
Was the Congress ever a secular party when it comes to religion or caste? We know how the Congress used the Muslim League in Kerala, Dalits in Karnataka, Orissa and Andhra, 'untouchables' in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Bihar (remember Jagjivan Ram), and played the Christian or anti-Bengali card in the Northeast for decades to sustain power (and trash its allies later on). The Congress showed how to use black money in Indian politics, and how to buy dissidents from rival groups. The Youth Congress and Sanjay Gandhi came into the limelight in the 1970s through flexing of muscle. Has it really changed? Can Rahul Gandhi change it? Does he know history in the first place?
The only thing that has changed in India is that, with serious endorsement from a failed system that decimated the US economy, the new-generation "Americanised" India is now avidly jingoistic, anti-poor, anti-social spending, and rabidly pro-wealth; the only difference between the US and India is that while here, the US does have some minimum safeguards against total moral disintegration of the powerful elite, India does not. That's scary. There's something else to worry about. The Congress and BJP both knowingly chose nearly a hundred criminals to be MPs representing a million people each: that's to represent a total of 100 million people. What does it tell us in terms of their judgement, vision and action plan? Wasn't Sonia, Rahul or Manmohan part of the selection process?
If this election were about substantive issues—issues big-name journalists suppressed—we'd talk about the failure of the Manmohan government to protect Indians from terrorism and war. But it didn't happen. The media didn't challenge Rahul and Priyanka on these critical questions. Instead, it glorified their celebrity status and projected them as vote-getters without scrutinising them.
Some are comparing the rise of Rahul with that of Barack Obama. But here in the US, for nearly two years, media put Obama under the lens and examined him inside out to examine his competence to be president. When will we learn to do that? If not in election times, when? Jai Ho, Incredible India! Long live her new kings and queens.
(The writer is a rights and media activist in New York and author of In the Belly of the Beast: Hindu Supremacist RSS and BJP of India—An Insider's Story.)
