By the Editor: Siddharth Sehgal
Sometimes you can tell a lot about a politician by looking at them, observing their decisions, and especially public behavior which also includes how they interact with media around them.
Take PM Modi for example, you will hardly find PM Modi in the same dress at different events. The man has a taste for neatly tailored kurta-pajamas and from the look of it, these garments look expensive. I am sure he must have a huge wardrobe, for a man in his 70s, he appears enthusiastic, energetic brimming with confidence, and always ready to hold the center stage. In fact, his political program looks like a hybrid between a WWE match and an expensive Indian wedding. Grand entrance, cameras, TV channels, crowds, the more the better, and all sorts of extravagant paraphernalia are usually the theme of his rallies and public events. But, this also brings a doubt in the mind that maybe he is all about the show? The aura he portrays does not match the ground reality; the extravagance looks more like cheap stunts these days. I sometimes try to think if he is aware or not about the economic distress or petrol prices or inflation because. Maybe he knows but does not care about it, who knows?
Despite having a media that heaps praise day and night, he somehow shows a strict aversion to questions. I haven’t seen him taking questions in a press conference and more often than not the government is seen to be shying away from the questions on difficult issues in the parliament and the public? For a man who claims he has a chest of fifty-six inches, answering questions should be easy but all we get is a deafening silence and words that ring hollow.
Does he know that he has a minister in his government whose son, who is in jail, is suspected to be involved in the gruesome murder of farmers in Lakhimpur? Does he realize the moral question it raises of public conduct? Does he know about the jobs which will be lost due to the privatization of national banks and how it will affect the interests of our country? Does he know that China is standing at our borders with bayonets pointing at us and yet the government is sort of looking clueless in this whole affair? If farm laws were in the interest of farmers then why were they rescinded? What was the compulsion behind this decision? Why are we having this extravaganza of public events at the time of the elections, who is paying for all this? The list is endless and answers are few.
It’s looking more like a personality cult and many in the Indian, predominantly Hindu, middle-class who voted for him earlier have started to feel that way. It seems that there is a huge disconnect between those who govern and those who are governed in our country. A disconnect not going away any time soon.