Money power, creation of an alternative reality through technology, and its propagation through the media after emasculating it. The recent electoral surge of the right-wing in Indian society was thus broadly summed up by the participants at a national media workshop organised by the Janadhipathya Vedi here on Saturday.
Saba Naqvi, New Delhi-based political columnist, speaking on “Extreme right-wing movements: From Trump to Modi”, said that the 85% of the corporate donations and 96% of electoral bonds had gone to the BJP, making it financially powerful.
Mobile connectivity
“Another factor was technology on which all of this rode. Between the elections that took place a few months ago and the BJP’s coming [back] to power at the Centre, India became the country with the greatest mobile connectivity in the world,” she said. Everyone had around 2 GB free data a day. “Then, there was manufacturing of targeted material for these handsets by shadowy organisations to suit the BJP’s political interests,” Ms. Naqvi said. She claimed that there was also the projection of a strong leader who could fight against the enemies, who could protect the people.
News channels
Pointing out a study by the Broadcast Audience Research Council, Venkitesh Ramakrishnan, Chief of Bureau, Frontline magazine, New Delhi, claimed that though Prime Minister Narendra Modi had participated in 64 rallies and the then Congress president Rahul Gandhi in 65 rallies between April 2 and 28, Mr. Modi got more air time in mainstream English language and Hindi news channels. “Mr. Modi got 850 hours while Mr. Rahul and Ms. Priyanka Vadra-Gandhi put together got only 335 hours. Other smaller parties got less than 100 hours,” he said.
Mr. Ramakrishnan was talking on the “Media wars of the Sangh Parivar”. Damodar Prasad, academic, spoke on “Growth of technology and new social media”.
