A few nights ago a couple of friends and I were having dinner at a
restaurant. One of them is a top professional from the Pharma industry and the
other is an economy expert. One was a visitor to Gujarat, so the chat inevitably
veered around to Narendra Modi at some point. It was the usual set of questions
visitors to Gujarat have about Modi, the “Will he, won’t he?” types. No, not if
he will win Gujarat but if he will pitch for Delhi in 2014 or anytime general
elections are held, as a PM candidate. And whether he will able to tame or win
over the Delhi Establishment. Since there were news channels on with their
usual debates on TV at the restaurant, the other question was how certain
channels that were doing badly financially were still around. Answer to the
second question is simpler; if the channels are part of the “establishment” in
a ‘Banana republic’ it’s not
a problem.
So what about the “establishment”?
“… It includes leading politicians, senior civil servants, the most important
financiers and industrialists, governors of the BBC, and the Royal Court… The term in this sense was coined by the
British journalist Henry Fairlie, who in September 1955 in the London magazine
The Spectator defined that network of prominent, well-connected people as
"the Establishment", explaining: "By the 'Establishment', I do
not only mean the centres of official power—though they are certainly part of
it—but rather the whole matrix of official and social relations within which
power is exercised”. That sums it up quite neatly, doesn’t it? But do replace
the BBC with India’s Doordarshan and most of the private TV channels and the
Royal Court with the Indian ‘Royal Court’ and the picture is complete. Now does
it explain how loss-making TV channels survive? If most political funding is
from “anonymous donors” and if so much black money goes into electioneering is
it any different in the media? Corrupt crooks in the Politico-Media complex are not about to produce receipts for
“paid news”.
Then, creating this Establishment requires years of brand building. There
are many tiny corners in this vast country of ours where people, young and old,
still believe Indira Gandhi was the daughter of Mahatma Gandhi. Who’s gonna
complain about that, eh? That guy who said “What’s in a name..” would have
stabbed himself in the back, twice, and then run his own truck over himself,
again twice. Ever observed the credits of a modern-day, hi-tech Hollywood
movie? It takes anywhere between 500 and 1000 people to make one of those plus
a dozen odd companies that provide the effects, marketing, distribution. Then
it’s released in over 3000 screens at a time. The same goes for creating the “establishment”.
In fact it takes lakhs of people. One of the key features of building the establishment
is in using the magic name and like the movie ‘Terminator’ protect and
propagate the brand. Find success and create a trilogy. The credits for an “establishment”
movie might run like this (2:24 mins):
That’s just a small part of all the schemes and projects in the Nehru-Gandhi
brand name and scrolling at high-speed. If I were to include all the 450 schemes that A. Surya Prakash has listed and
scrolled it at normal speed, it would take at least 30 minutes to read all the
credits. (And he says those 450 are only in the last 18 years). Those 450 brand-builders are quite a handful and can "Terminate" any challenge to power. Also, Surya
Prakash’s list doesn’t include Mahatma Gandhi since he doesn’t belong to the “family”.
But hey, the “Gandhi” brand name is what it is and has the same effect on the
ground. So instead of a trilogy it could have been a Septology. Mahatma Gandhi à
Nehru à
Indira Gandhi à
Rajiv Gandhi à
Sanjay Gandhi à
Sonia Gandhi à
Rahul Gandhi. Oh, and there’s Priyanka Vadra
in the wings who can any day turn into Priyanka
Gandhi if and when required. If trilogy is about a series of 3, septology
is a series of 7.
What does Sanjay Gandhi have? Not much, but there’s a prominent
National Park in Borivali, Mumbai named after him? What about Sonia Gandhi? Ha!
You’ll be surprised. Since there was nothing else possible, Padma Shri horticulturist
Haji Kaleemullah Khan has named a ‘mango variety’ after Sonia Gandhi. Haha! Sounds fair for the ‘Mango Man’, doesn’t
it? What about Rahul Gandhi? He is too busy to bother about these things so the
Congress UP branch decided to name his birthday as “Farmers’ Rights Day”. If you thought that is all, you just
got lucky. You see RG is fond of eating at various homes and places. So this Canteen in M.S.University in
Baroda named all the dishes after RG and each dish is accompanied by a nice picture
of him. So you could order RahulGandhi-Samosas,
RahulGandhi-Rotis or just RahulGandhi-Coffee. And you will be
served!
We can ignore the light-hearted menu at the RG canteen. We can also
grant the projects in the name of Mahatma Gandhi, given that he is now an international
icon. There are streets and monuments to his name across the world. A report in
2008 mentioned there’s a campaign to rename 185 streets in 39 countries after the Mahatma. Not much to
read in that but in India The Gandhi Septology also forms a great part of the “establishment”.
That’s the challenge for any non-Congress or non-Gandhi family person to seek
high offices. We can even accept a few monuments and projects in the name of
Nehru-Gandhi but surely 450 is an excess that is too glaring. Does the MSM
protest or complain?
This “establishment” includes govt schemes and projects, organisations
funded by the govt. They also include NGOs and individuals, educational
institutions, many govt titles (Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna?), think-tanks, many
media beneficiaries and wannabe beneficiaries. Most of them receive public land
and money one way or another. Collectively they could directly or indirectly
employ a million people or more. Would they want to let go of what they have
been enjoying under this Septology? So apart from official govt and political
propaganda these million plus people also spread the good word. In a brilliant
article Minhaz Merchant exposes how “How black economy subverts India’s politics” and how the officially declared “funds” can hardly cover
election expenses for any party.
Well, my answer to the friend who asked the question was that many
media channels also survive on such funds. Think about another one: Does
Reliance really expect to earn money from an investment in TV-18 group? Does it
expect to earn money from any media group? With investments like 1500 or 2000
crores, which is peanuts for Reliance, what do they really aim to earn? Your
guess is as good as mine. These 450 Nehru-Gandhi schemes and projects are
mostly moderate to heavy advertisers. Even at a measly 5 ads per annum to each
friendly media house that would be 2250 ads. Even at a heavily discounted rate,
of say Rs.20000/- per ad, you do the math for each media outlet. Then add to
that all the anniversaries of those who feed the “establishment”, it’s quite a
feast. Isn’t it? Suddenly there’s a Motilal
Nehru ad, in colour. Sure, celebrate his birth anniversary but why an ad?
Also add those individuals and groups who aren’t part of the govt but operate
NGOs and other feeder organisations. All
of this with your money! Why would they want to kill this goose? Motilal
Nehru? That just made it Octalogy, didn’t
it?
