New Delhi: With the fifth phase of the general election tucked into bed, anticipation for May 23 is building.
This week, the media space was also dominated by news unrelated to the elections, from Cyclone Fani hitting India’s eastern coast to the Supreme Court’s in-house committee finding “no substance” in the allegations of sexual harassment against Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi.
The Election Commission also continued to sit in the middle of a storm as accusations flew from the left on how its bias towards the incumbent BJP government has been on display, and why the right was defending every clean chit handed out to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The right-wing media bought into an edited clip of Priyanka Gandhi talking to children while on the campaign trail and took the opportunity to chip away at her image, so much so that several ‘chowkidars’ on social media declared that Priyanka should never be allowed near children.
Priyanka Gandhi’s ‘negative campaign’
“Priyanka has joined hands with her brother on the path to self-destruction”, writes Akriti Tyagi in an opinion piece for rightlog.in that attempts to describe why she believes Priyanka Gandhi’s “election campaign has been a huge blunder, one might even say the worst in Indian history”.
The reasons for this include “her lack of candidature arising from insecurity” and of “using children in propaganda against PM Modi” – here, Tyagi cites a video of Gandhi allegedly egging children on to hurl abuses at the prime minister that has already proven to have been ‘mischievously edited‘.
Under Rahul Gandhi’s substandard leadership, the party is facing its lowest since formation. Distraught at the thought of not producing a Prime Minister from this generation of the Gandhi family, Congress had suddenly realised that Rahul Gandhi isn’t the sole heir for the seat. Priyanka Gandhi was the Congress ‘fresh face’.
Her appointment had one major goal to accomplish – to include Congress in the UP mahagathbandhan and devising a favourable seat sharing system. However, the mahagathbandan was clear on its stance and irrespective of the Priyanka’s ‘fabled charms’, they had categorically refused to let Congress in.
According to Tyagi, the Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party eventually did not field candidates in Amethi and Rae Bareli “out of pity” for the Congress.
With regard to Priyanka announcing her possible candidature from Varanasi to battle Modi, Tyagi says the Congress realised her “political career would be over before it began… so the party grew fearful and decided not to contest her”.
Been seen as an alternative to Rahul Gandhi, she was way too important for the party to be fielded from a constituency where the chances of her being the 2nd runner up are quite high.
After proving herself to be a complete failure in terms of alliance and candidature, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra moved to campaign mode.
While travelling the length and breadth of Uttar Pradesh, according to Tyagi, Priyanka has been “indulging in ad hominem attacks against Smriti Irani, PM Modi, and other BJP leaders”. Here, Tyagi brings up the video mentioned earlier that several senior BJP leaders had shared on social media. The video, of which a clipped version was circulated, does not show how Priyanka asked the children shouting off-colour slogans to not do so and to only shout the “good ones”.
Such is the extent of the negativity that a complaint has been forwarded by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights… The NCPCR had earlier directed that none of the political parties will use children for the purposes of the election campaign. Not only has Priyanka Gandhi violated this direction, but the actual content of the video is what will make people shudder.
Criticising Priyanka’s choice of candidates, Tyagi complains that instead of choosing candidates who have the “calibre” to be elected, “Priyanka has chosen them on the basis of their ability to cut a BJP candidate’s votes”.
After her fruitless performance in all the spheres of an election campaign, it has been proven that her fanfare was a big hoax… The negativity of her campaign points to the fact that Nehru-Gandhi dynasty has run out of ideas. Her appointment has been much ado about nothing. The grand old party’s ‘brahmastra’ seems to have fizzled out and the citizens are left wondering, is this it?
Also read: #RightSideUp: The Modi Factor; Crying Wolf in BJP’s India
An open letter to The Economist
In an open letter to The Economist, published in the RSS’s Organiser this week, over its recent “biased” article on the general elections in India titled ‘Under Narendra Modi, India’s ruling party poses a threat to democracy‘, Jagdish Sewhani, an Indian living in New York, breaks down why he believes “that a strong India under Prime Minister Modi is a guarantor of global peace and stability”.
Calling The Economist article “a completely prejudiced piece without data and facts to prove” he said it “did not go well with its readers”.
Sewhani opens his letter by talking about how he has been closely following the state of affairs in India for years.
He then offers his report card of the last five years under the Narendra Modi-led BJP government.
The progress made by India in the last five years under Prime Minister Narendra Modi is unparalleled and historic. Facts speaks for itself. The op-ed published by you is a fiction, rather than based on facts. I firmly believe that by writing such a fictitious article and asking people of India to vote against Modi, is a direct interference in India’s election. I demand that The Economic must tender an apology and reveal under whose influence it has done so.
Sewhani then launches into his version of what the “facts” are. According to him, “India as per the latest figures from all major international financial institutions including the IMF and the World Bank under Prime Minister Narendra Modi has emerged as the world’s fastest growing economy”.
He asks The Economist to do its homework on the “remarkable improvement in the business environment”.
On The Economist‘s criticism of how freedom of press is being strangled in India under BJP rule and the “slanderous allegation” of Modi being “non-democratic and intolerant to criticism”, Sewhani makes a comparison and asks the publication to do a quick check on how many articles critical of Sonia Gandhi were written during the decade the Congress was in power.
I guess you can count them on your finger tips or at the most list them on a page. Sitting in New York, every day I can find at least a dozen news articles, op-eds and television shows in major Indian media outlets critical of the policies and views of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
On The Economist writing about how several major newsrooms say they are scared of publishing anti-Modi content, he writes:
Flatly wrong. They are writing and publishing what they believe in. By saying so, you are simply trying to demean the prestige and work ethics of these major Indian publications. I think, The Economist should be ashamed of this.
Sewhani then praises Modi’s foreign policy and says it is Modi who has made sure “Pakistan is as isolated as it is today” and that the world knows the “predatory economics” of China’s One Belt One Road project.
His guiding principle of foreign policy is “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam” or the world is one family. And he has persistently worked on this aspect, be it his steps on climate change, solar alliance, international yoga day or free satellites to third-world countries.
Look at the audacity at which you interfering in Indian elections. Are you an Indian publication? What is your interest in asking people of India to vote against BJP. You very well know that the BJP is coming to power… [People] will not be influenced by your blatant interference in Indian elections.
Also read: #RightSideUp: ‘In Defence of Pragya Thakur’; The Battle for India’s Soul
Why ‘Anil Ambani is right to take on Rahul Gandhi’s lies’
R. Jagannathan, the editorial director of Swarajya, makes a case for why Anil Ambani’s rather late rebuttal to Congress president Rahul Gandhi on his accusation over the Rafale deal has been a step in the right direction. On May 5, Ambani had called Congress’ stance on Rafale “calumny, disinformation, distortion, and malicious lies”.
The statement released by Ambani called Gandhi’s public statement “derogatory and defamatory”. While quoting Ambani’s statement, Jagannathan says that it cannot be seen as a “clean chit on cronyism – only he and any politician he may or may not have confabulated with will know the truth about this”. Instead, for him, it places emphasis on why India Inc needs to speak out “when politicians repeatedly abuse them for their own purposes”.
It takes a minimum of two parties to enable cronyism – a businessman and a politician – and cronyism actually peaked during the UPA regime, when scams like 2G, Coalgate and Commonwealth Games tumbled out of the closet. But Rahul Gandhi has shown no contrition on any of them, but feels free to tar the Narendra Modi regime with this brush of cronyism. It is probably a case of guilty conscience, where one abuses others in order to ease one’s own silence on scams that happened during one’s watch.
By “calling out Rahul Gandhi’s lies”, Jagannathan says, Anil Ambani “has struck a blow for India Inc”.
Perhaps he did it too late, but if India Inc does not speak out against calumny and political prejudice, it will effectively be acquiescing in this nonsense. And, one must emphasise, if you keep quiet when you are called a thief, it means you may indeed be a thief.
Rahul Gandhi, Swarajya‘s editorial director says, has not offered proof of any cronyism.
Regardless of whether you believe that Ambani got special favours in the Rafale offset contract, the fact is Rahul Gandhi has been repeatedly lying about Ambani, including the claim that Rs 30,000 crore was just gifted to him by Narendra Modi.
But such is the venom of Gandhi – he should be banned from using a name one associates with utter truthfulness – that he has continued making the same claim and calling Ambani a crony capitalist in a bid to tar Modi with that brush. Ambani is mere collateral damage.
Swarajya holds no brief whatsoever for Anil Ambani, who has seen many business failures for reasons of his own. But we do not believe that Rahul Gandhi, a failed politician so far, has any business calling India Inc names without proof.