Rip Van Winkle in PMO wakes up

Metro India News | Hyderabad 

Rip Van Winkles in the PMO, BJP and RSS – not necessarily in that order, though, have woken up and are walking the extra mile to build bridges with Gen -Z with an eye on the 2029 ballot since they constitute the bulk of the electorate- one out of four voters is going to be a youth, according to some projections.  History tells that Rip Van Winkle was “one of those happy mortals, of foolish, well-oiled dispositions, who take the world easy, eat white bread or brown, which ever can be got with least thought or trouble”.

Will history repeat in India?

 The couple of videos, reels and Instagram posts offer room for some optimism though this rollout has Sarkari stamp and thus has the potential to put off, if not everyone, at least, most of the targeted audience. Whoever is following the graph of Narendra Modi, even if they, like Rahul Gandhi and his ilk, see him as a usurper, and are allergic to his very name, will concede that he is an astute politician with his ears to the ground. As a political communicator, he has no challenger either from within or outside.

A narrative should have been set in motion simultaneously that question paper leaks are not a new phenomenon and that government would come to grips with the issue once for all. This did not happen.  The education minister of the day, Dharmendra Pradhan, who is a second-generation BJP-wala, should have moved upfront by refurbishing his own credentials as a one-time crusader against paper leak in his home state of Odisha. He simply retreated into a shell expecting the Modi magic wand to bail him out. 

The Chair’s response to the demand generally depends on the Government, which has to face the Opposition ire. During the week-long ruckus in Parliament, opposition adjournment motions were rejected and the very announcement increased the decibel level of protests. Having covered both Houses of Parliament and three state legislatures, I can say that such rejection is a tactical blunder.

Narendra Modi ‘s failure was compounded by the failure of the Delhi Police to engage with the Media on the very Day Force was used. The narrative slipped out of their hands notwithstanding the eagerness of the Deep Throats two days later to tell a ‘story’.  The Nadda initiative should have been accompanied by an overdrive on the Social Media/digital platforms. There was no such effort. The best place to reduce the intensity of a brewing political crisis is the floor of Parliament.

General public may not know that Parliament does not have a Question Hour(QH) when the session has an extended sitting. The proceedings begin with Zero Hour on such days. Institutionalising the Zero Hour – euphemism for allowing members to raise issues of their concern without notice to the government – as the first item of the agenda will deprive the Opposition of a talking point. The QH can be shifted to the post-lunch sitting if not towards the end of the sitting itself. 

The Modis and the Shahs of the day will do well to revisit the 1963 episode of missing Moi-e-Muqqadas (a relic traditionally believed to be a hair strand of the Prophet) at the Hazratbal Shrine, Srinagar.  And take a leaf out of the political instincts displayed by Lal Bahadur Shastri, to win over the Aam Admi and to silence critics and rumour mills of the day.

-Malladi Rama Rao

(The writer is a Delhi-based veteran journalist and commentator; this article first appeared on the Website of Deccan Council)