Skip to main content

How Narendra Modi honed his media "management" skills during his almost 13 years of rule in Gujarat

By RK Misra*
Humankind craves freedom, power demands servility.
The tussle between the two creates mental fissures and physical fragmentation. When creeping intolerance and crawling ambition intrude to usurp free mind spaces, the media, which seeks to protect the right to project the wrong, is a sitting duck target.
It, nevertheless, has its own defence mechanism, evolved over ages of dealing with both subtle and crass attacks on its own turf. Sometimes it works, sometimes it does not but the battle continues.
This is most glaringly manifested in the changes that have taken place in news coverage and governmental access to the media in the country’s capital, New Delhi. Narendra Modi’s advent on the scene as Prime Minister has marked a surgical departure in the manner of government news coverage.
In the past whenever governments changed at the Centre, including the BJP-led NDA government headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee, there were at best some recalibrations: If the BJP came to power, veterans of the beat were moved to centre-stage while the specialists covering the outgoing party were shifted to the sidelines.
Modi, however, has ensured a tectonic shift. Now it is not media, which is deciding how the government is to be covered. It is Modi who has laid the ground rules as to how it (media) shall cover the government.
The capital’s bloated population of know-alls who possessed the legendary reputation of worming their way into the most stubborn woodworks now find themselves reduced to peripheral players with access to news sources within the government severely restricted. The invisible line carefully etched by Prime Minister Modi is holding firm, keeping the ‘creepy crawlies’ out. Like it or not, that’s how most in the political power structure look at journalists – an avoidable nuisance.
Modi’s concentration of power in his own hands has ensured steamroller domination of governance by the Prime Minister’s Office. This has been further reinforced by the appointment of his old team of tried and tested officers from Gujarat in a variety of key positions in various ministries, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), Intelligence, CBI, even SPG .By last count there are around 40 officers – serving or retired – from Gujarat doing duty at the Centre. Modi’s control thus is complete.
In fact, immediately after he took over as the Prime Minister, there was a complete ban on mediapersons’ access to the PMO, leading to panic buttons being pressed in newspapers and TV channels. Correspondents covering the Chief Ministers Office (CMO) in Gujarat were moved to Delhi and even media managements from down South of India began scouring for scribes in Gujarat to cover the PMO and related power corridors in Delhi. Even today it is not uncommon to find the editorial top brass of national dailies in Delhi pestering, even bullying their Gujarat reporters for getting confirmation of Delhi-based stories which they themselves are unable to secure.
Matter-of-factly, Modi has succeeded much more in taming the media in Delhi than he did in Gujarat. Reporters marked out for their anti-government news coverage automatically find themselves left out in the cold both down the line and up the ladder. Those who are obliging are the ones who are doled out ‘news’ with religious regularity to enable them to score over their rivals. The era of ‘breaking’ scandals, is by enlarge over now. 
Official circulars have gone out that those within the system found ‘leaking’ to the media will face swift retribution and action under anti-secrecy laws even sedition charges! The example made out of some websites and journalists therein with charges of industrial espionage also put paid to curb the courage of many others.
Modi honed his media ‘management’ skills during his almost 13 years of rule in Gujarat. In Modi rule the emasculation of the Secretariat as a beat was complete and total. In fact, the ’beat’ had been replaced by the ‘brief’. The time-tested precedence was that the chief minister briefed the secretariat reporters after the weekly cabinet meetings on Wednesdays in his chamber. It was a friendly get together where the seniors exchanged views and pleasantries after the meeting over a cup of tea.
Modi first shifted venue to the conference hall and subsequently receded into ivory towers doing away with the practice. The weekly conference turned infrequent and the two cabinet ministers, Jaynarayan Vyas and Saurabh Patel, appointed official spokespersons of the cabinet only parroted what they were told to. No more no less.
An underlying feeling of fear ruled. Ministers would not speak, neither would bureaucrats unless mandated by Modi. Gujarat was all along an informal set up even in formal matters, as far as the media was concerned. Senior ministers and senior bureaucrats would refer to the chief minister by first name or at best ‘CMsaab’.
During Modi rule it was ‘honourable chief minister’ all the way, sometimes ten times in the course of a ten minute conversation .In the rare event that they parted with information, time and again it was rubbed in ’please do not quote me’. Everything was attributable only to the CM.
Pictures only of the CM in all publicity material, advertisements, even brochures, the ministers only accompanying, smaller portraits ran thereafter. Ministers never walked alongside their chief unless asked to, always two steps behind.
During the 2002 communal riots that followed the Godhra train carnage, Modi had found considerable support from the vernacular media, while the English media found itself labeled as the villain of the piece. Soon after, the Gujarati papers also fell out of favour.
With the 2002 Vidhan Sabha elections in mind, Modi embarked on his statewide ‘Gaurav yatra’ with a one-point agenda of establishing a direct rapport with the majority community. The strategy paid off and he won the state assembly elections single-handed and with a steamroller majority.
The victory was crucial in framing his future media strategy. He realized that the best way was to reach out straight to the masses, by-passing the established media. The state, for all of thirteen years as chief minister, projected only one face across all the medias nationwide, whipped and creamed with generous dollops of full-page advertisements and TV commercials nationwide.
Delhi now is just an immensely improved and vastly resourceful replay of Gujarat. The powerful tools of mass reach at his beck and call are being sharpened –Doordarshan, All India Radio, and a plethora of websites. All the criticism against the misuse of the official media by the previous government is best forgotten for those who hurled invectives-now in power-are much more straight faced and direct in doing so. But trust Modi to transform all and every to deliver precisely what he wants. Like in Gujarat so in Delhi, only one name towers over all.
Gujarat was the crucible of Modi’s media experiments. It is over to countrywide replication and fine-tuning now. A word of caution though: In solo performances when the show falls flat (Delhi, Bihar) you have no one but the sound recordist to blame. Not just yet though with bigger battles ahead. The fall guy, you know who. History is replete with instances!
---
*Senior Gandhinagar-based journalist. Blog: http://wordsmithsandnewsplumbers.blogspot.in/

Comments

TRENDING

Insider plot to kill Deendayal Upadhyay? What RSS pracharak Balraj Madhok said

By Shamsul Islam*  Balraj Madhok's died on May 2, 2016 ending an era of old guards of Hindutva politics. A senior RSS pracharak till his death was paid handsome tributes by the RSS leaders including PM Modi, himself a senior pracharak, for being a "stalwart leader of Jan Sangh. Balraj Madhok ji's ideological commitment was strong and clarity of thought immense. He was selflessly devoted to the nation and society. I had the good fortune of interacting with Balraj Madhok ji on many occasions". The RSS also issued a formal condolence message signed by the Supremo Mohan Bhagwat on behalf of all swayamsevaks, referring to his contribution of commitment to nation and society. He was a leading RSS pracharak on whom his organization relied for initiating prominent Hindutva projects. But today nobody in the RSS-BJP top hierarchy remembers/talks about Madhok as he was an insider chronicler of the immense degeneration which was spreading as an epidemic in the high echelons of th

Central pollution watchdog sees red in Union ministry labelling waste to energy green

By Chythenyen Devika Kulasekaran*  “Destructors”, “incinerators” and “waste-to-energy (WTE) incineration” all mean the same thing – indiscriminate burning of garbage! Having a history of about one and a half centuries, WTE incinerators have seen several reboots over the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. 

First-of-its-kind? 'Eco-friendly, low cost' sewage treatment system installed in Gujarat

Counterview Desk Following the installation of the Unconventional Decentralized Multi-Stage Reactor (UDMSR) for sewage treatment, a note on what is claimed to be the  first-of-its-kind technology said, the treated sewage from this system “can be directly utilized for agricultural purposes”, even as proving to be a “saviour in the times of water crisis.”

A Hindu alternative to Valentine's Day? 'Shiv-Parvati was first love marriage in Universe'

By Rajiv Shah*   The other day, I was searching on Google a quote on Maha Shivratri which I wanted to send to someone, a confirmed Shiv Bhakt, quite close to me -- with an underlying message to act positively instead of being negative. On top of the search, I chanced upon an article in, imagine!, a Nashik Corporation site which offered me something very unusual. 

Indo-Bangla border: Farmers facing 'illegal obstacles' in harvesting, transporting yields

  Counterview Desk  In a representation to the chairperson, National Human Rights Commission, human rights defender Kirity Roy, who is secretary, Banglar Manabadhikar Suraksha Mancha (MASUM), has said that Border Security Force (BSF) personnel are creating "illegal obstacles" for farmers seeking to harvest their ripened yields and transport them to the market in village Jhaukuthi of Cooch Behar district.

Wasteland, a colonial legacy, being used to 'give away' vast tracts to Ratnagiri refinery

By Fouziya Tehzeeb* William D’Souza, a 55-year old farmer from Kuthethur, Mangalore, was busy mixing cattle feed when we arrived at his doorsteps. Around 25 km from the bustling city of Mangalore, Kuthethur is a lush green village with thick vegetation. On the way to William’s house the idyllic view gets blocked by the flares and smoke arising from the Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited (MRPL).

'Flawed' argument: Gandhi had minimal role, naval mutinies alone led to Independence

Counterview Desk Reacting to a Counterview  story , "Rewiring history? Bose, not Gandhi, was real Father of Nation: British PM Attlee 'cited'" (January 26, 2016), an avid reader has forwarded  reaction  in the form of a  link , which carries the article "Did Atlee say Gandhi had minimal role in Independence? #FactCheck", published in the site satyagrahis.in. The satyagraha.in article seeks to debunk the view, reported in the Counterview story, taken by retired army officer GD Bakshi in his book, “Bose: An Indian Samurai”, which claims that Gandhiji had a minimal role to play in India's freedom struggle, and that it was Netaji who played the crucial role. We reproduce the satyagraha.in article here. Text: Nowadays it is said by many MK Gandhi critics that Clement Atlee made a statement in which he said Gandhi has ‘minimal’ role in India's independence and gave credit to naval mutinies and with this statement, they concluded the whole freedom struggle.

CAA disregards India's inclusive plural ethos, 'betrays' ideals of freedom struggle: PUCL

Counterview Desk    "Outraged" at the move of the Central government to implement the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 (CAA 2019) weeks before the election, the top rights group, People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), has demanded that the law be repealed. 

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Our Representative Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

Sections of BSF, BGB personnel 'directly or indirectly' involved in cross border smuggling

By Kirity Roy*  The Border Security Force (BSF) of India and the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) of Bangladesh met for 54th Director General level meeting at Dhaka, Bangladesh, on 5th to 9th March, 2024 to discuss on minimizing killings at border area, illegal intrusion, trafficking of drugs and other narcotics, smuggling of arms and ammunitions and other crimes at bordering areas. Further, the summit had an agenda to discuss on overall development in 150 yards area at both sides of the border and design an activity plan for the same.