Opinion Tele Scope: Seen and heard, again and again
News TV is relishing Rahul Gandhi’s return and his face-off with the government in Parliament.
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So many ministers on the same subject suggests that Rahul’s parliamentary intervention had indeed rattled the government.
Now we know the meaning of making up for lost time. In the last two months, we have not seen him in flesh and blood — although a photograph of his face was often plastered on the TV screen, rather like that of people in the “Missing” column of newspapers. Now we have not only seen him but we have heard from him again, and again, and again. The “holiday”, “leave”, “vipassana”, as the BJP’s Shaina N.C. mockingly called it, of Rahul Gandhi is over.
On what was billed as “Super Sunday” by English news channels, Narendra Modi and Rahul Gandhi faced off for the first time since last year’s general election campaign. The news channels relished the contest, dividing their time — and the TV screen — between the two equally. Zee News, for one, was unimpressed by the return of the native. It said that the 20-minute speech by Gandhi to farmers at a rally had nothing new. Maybe not, but that didn’t stop TV news from focusing on the old Rahul. His speech was telecast several times through Sunday and by attaching RaGa to NaMo, they had elevated the Congress vice president to the same status as the PM. Wonder how Modi will take this: he has enjoyed complete dominance of the political space and airwaves in the last 11 months, barring the Arvind Kejriwal-Delhi interlude.
Monday brought him no relief. While he was absent from Parliament (so was Sonia Gandhi), Rahulji rose to speak during the debate on the agrarian crisis in the country. Twenty-four hours, even Zee Business would concede, is a long time in politics. Long enough for Gandhi to change. It was an assertive, acerbic and composed Gandhi who spoke his mind — albeit with a little help from his friends (thank you John, Paul, George and Ringo). He stared at the treasury benches, he entwined his fingers, he paused for effect, he smiled and was relaxed enough to laugh at the prime minister’s new clothes: “yeh suit-boot ki sarkar” became the catchphrase of the day across news channels. All news channels other than DD News led with the reinvented Gandhi in bulletins and discussions — some, like News 24 and India TV, ran lengthy excerpts of his speech at evening primetime. DD News showed a brief glimpse of Gandhi in a report on the proceedings in Parliament. It began a report with quotes from ministers Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Venkaiah Naidu and Nitin Gadkari — plus snippets from an interview with Agriculture Minister Birender Singh to be telecast later. So many ministers on the same subject suggests Gandhi’s parliamentary intervention indeed rattled the government.
Certainly, IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad was riled by Rahul when on Wednesday, the Gandhi family scion spoke once more. That made it three times in four days. In Parliament, he delivered a brief tongue-in-cheek homily on US President Barack Obama’s fulsome praise of PM Modi — so what if it had obscure references to the former president of the USSR, Mikhail Gorbachev — and scolded the government on selling out to corporate India on net neutrality. Prasad, almost apoplectic, then rose to the occasion in righteous indignation.
Salt was rubbed into his wounds when Gandhi spoke on the issue to the media outside Parliament. Gandhi had made quite a comeback after 57 days — “Rahul 2.0” was now the subject of every debate ( NDTV 24×7).
Gandhi may have rattled the government, but India TV was more concerned with Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Pakistan. In the Times Now tradition of sabre-rattling, it showed us the extravagant welcome Xi received at Islamabad airport and then explained the economic corridor between the two countries that should ring alarm bells (“khhatre ki ghanti”) in India. In case that didn’t cause you an anxiety attack, the report claimed that there were 3,000-4,000 Chinese security personnel in PoK already. India was entrapped in “Cheen ka jaal” — oh dear, SOS Spiderman.
On Monday, News 24 covered the suicide of Priya Bedi. There was an unnecessary reenactment of an argument between her husband Kamal and her, followed by a psychiatrist/ counsellor saying that she probably did not have the support of her family in difficult times. Perhaps the counsellor and the channel would like to work with Delhi Police on solving the case?
The last and lasting image of Wednesday was not Rahul Gandhi, but a farmer from Rajasthan who committed suicide at the AAP’s rally in Delhi. All afternoon we were staring at a tree overhung with leaves and the body of Gajendra Singh. Suddenly, everyone else was irrelevant.
shailaja.bajpai@expressindia.com
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