Prohibition can be politically embarrassing, as Narendra Modi demonstrated on Thursday in his rally at Sasaram, Bihar, in the course of a long and convoluted attack on Meira Kumar. The line of argument was hard to follow on account of Modi’s rhetorical questions in triplicate, in diminuendo, such as, “Madamji! Madamji? Madamji…” But the drift was that while the “mothers of Sasaram” loathed drunkenness, in Delhi, where Kumar represents them, the government had ignored the directives of the Supreme Court and let surplus grain rot rather than give it to the poor. And then, to add insult to injury, it had given the grain cheap to liquor barons.
Sounds like an urban legend because unlike in Scotland and the US, where grain is a common source of alcohol, almost all of the paradoxically named Indian Made Foreign Liquor is based on rectified spirit distilled from molasses. And sugarcane is not a politically potent crop, except when the sugar lobby flexes its muscle. But if you come from a state with a history of prohibition, where alcohol is regarded as a problem and not a source of revenue, you may be a bit hazy about its origins.
Thursday was Modi’s Day Out, with a campaign speech at Gaya, following the stop at Sasaram. For several hours, he dominated TV wall to wall, because parties thoughtfully provide free live feeds from the campaign trail. The video always shows the crowd to best advantage and on the audio track, it roars reliably at every iteration of “Madamji!” Some channels like NDTV clearly indicate the provenance of the tape, but others like to pretend that it’s manna from heaven.
The difference becomes obvious when something goes wrong, like the mini-riot in Gaya when Modi’s flock blundered into the press enclosure and had to be lathi-charged. Amidst the rain of footwear, brickbats and water bottles that followed, NDTV’s studio lost contact with its correspondent and its video became low-resolution, as if it was shot with a cellphone. Perhaps, both reporter and camera were momentarily kaput, but channels which use party feeds on the quiet saw no interruption of service. No one would dream of pushing around the party’s crew.
Colour stories like the series being done by Abhigyan Prakash offer a pleasant contrast to canned campaign trail footage. Intriguingly, his programme Newspoint has a “grooming partner”, a prominent slimming company. It also featured a groom, a tonga driver named Rumani who is youn-ger than the horse he tends. There is a law against being driven about by a 12-year-old in a tonga that’s a mobile interview location, but Prakash was preoccupied with weightier matters like the Muslim vote.
IBN7 set out to disparage the Congress manifesto but fell foul of academic realism in the form of the unreasonably rational YK Alagh. With rhetorical disdain, Sanjay Pugalia asked where the money for this “mai-baap manifesto” would come from. Unfortunately for him, Alagh was the first respondent. Flatly, he said that proposed increases in VAT and service tax could bridge the gap. In alarm, Pugalia turned to party spokespeople and representatives of business interests, who tried to take the pain away.
Elsewhere, far away from such high-minded discussions, TV news continued its mad career. There is little time for real electoral issues when so much is out there: AK49 taking a holy dip, Didi promising roti, kapda aur makaan (really, in 2014?) and the life of Rakhi Sawant flashing before our eyes as she stands for election, promising roads smoother than Katrina’s waist. But will they be as smooth as Modi’s roads, or his rhetoric about food and drink? Or will this unpredictable election be rough on all players?
pratik.kanjilal@expressindia.com
