Arvind Kejriwal has chosen his targets for the general election, promising to field candidates against “India’s most corrupt”. But is this a hit list or a suicide note? Kejriwal, who appears to have mothballed his Mufflerman identity until next winter, harvested a fine crop of eyeballs with his announcement yesterday. Since it is almost impossible to win against India’s most powerful politicians, does he plan to continue winning airtime by embarrassing them. Kumar Vishwas has got good mileage in Amethi by rebuilding the Dalit home that had hosted Rahul Gandhi before the last election. But seriously, can the ploy be repeated in 163 constituencies?
But for once, the reluctant Rahul Gandhi was ahead in the eyeballs game, delivering the interview of the decade. But right through the hour and a half of Frankly Speaking, Arnab Goswami had to keep pleading, “Please be frank with me, Mr Gandhi.” Sadistic jokes began to run immediately on social media, parodying catchwords like women, youth and empowerment that Gandhi had dropped like chaff to evade Goswami’s questions.
Arnab: “We have a lot of ground to cover; let’s be specific.” Rahul: “The real question is, what am I doing sitting here?” Arnab: “Why are you protecting Ashok Chavan?” Rahul: “Ashok Kumar, er, Ashok Chauhan, er… Now, about NREGA…” Arnab: “Narendra Modi derides you as the Shahzada.” Rahul: “Gujarat happened because he concentrates power, while I am against the system.” Amul’s artists: “Najawab interview? Time now for maska!”
Was this stupid or clever? Rahul Gandhi projected himself as a man who would not be deflected from his core political project (he cited the example of Arjuna) by a journalist trying to distract him with peripheral issues. Such as Chavan, or Virbhadra Singh, or the fear of losing to Narendra Modi. Though he kept grasping at lifelines like women, the youth, decentralisation and inner-party democracy, maybe Gandhi did better than Modi. He stayed the course. Modi had stalked off the sets of Karan Thapar’s Devil’s Advocate in 2007, when he was questioned too closely about 2002, growling that he cared about Gujarat and not his image. Which may have been true at the time. Designer kurta-dom happened a little later.
But viewers suffered some whiplash when Rahul Gandhi said that he was sure that the government had tried to contain the riots in 1984, but he had been a child at the time, of course. Unfortunately, all of us were not children, and it is impossible to forget the innocence that was lost in those days of cool-headed madness. That gave Goswami a chance to run with the ball, analysing his own show for two days nonstop on his very own Newshour. And his channel ran damning statements by president Zail Singh’s press secretary Tarlochan Singh and former police chief Ved Marwah, and Sikh protests followed. The whole controversy, which began with Goswami asking Gandhi if he would apologise for 1984, was trumpery. Because Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had preemptively apologised in 2005.
Rahul Gandhi was more confident on home turf. India’s women want to live life 12 cylinders full, he roared at the Congress and helter skelter, Veerappa Moily appeared to make it possible. Meanwhile, even more startling roars were emanating from Brigade Parade Ground in Kolkata, where Mamata Banerjee launched the campaign of the Trinamool Congress with a “Dilli chalo” call to a crowd that the party claimed to be 10-lakh strong; Times Now put it at a conservative
4 lakh. Maybe AAP is upping the ante with its relentless grandstanding, drawing out competitive weirdness elsewhere. Because the idea of a federal front floated by Banerjee is currently impractical. And the suggestion that she can become prime minister on her own is absolutely bizarre.
On Zee’s quick news yesterday morning, the first eight slots were cornered by AAP. The enduring images of the preceding days were Sikh men with bicycle tyres around their necks, demanding that the CBI examine Rahul Gandhi. Somewhere out there, Narendra Modi, who has had his airtime supply severely curtailed by the stunts of Arvind Kejriwal, is laughing. And finding solace in the fact that he isn’t Kejriwal’s only target. From its vantage position in Delhi, the nerve centre of the Indian press, AAP is cutting in on everyone’s media real estate.
pratik.kanjilal@expressindia.com
