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| Kochi edition 9 Oct 2021 |
These days my mornings invariably
mock me with the images of Modi and Yogi on the front pages of my newspapers.
Gasconade about the progress of Uttar Pradesh under the BJP. Day after day.
About women’s safety and children’s health and public hygiene and clean
governance and… The Yogi government spent Rs 160.31 crore on television
advertisements alone in the financial year of 2020-2021. The print media ads
are extra.
Why on earth
does the UP government advertise itself in Kerala and that too in local
language newspapers? I understand that the same propaganda takes place in other
languages too. Gasconade is a language by itself, I know.
The Modi
government spends much more, naturally. National level gasconade has to be one
up on local levels. In his first term as PM, Modi spent over Rs 5000 crore on
gassing. I haven’t managed to get the figures for his second term yet. The
graph below will help you to project the figures.
Modi and Yogi
are India’s own post-truth leaders just as much as Trump was America’s. Trump
promised to “make America great again” while Modi and Yogi are spending huge
sums of their respective revenues on showing how they are making India/UP
great. The facts may be absolutely the opposite. That doesn’t matter.
Post-truth leaders as well as their followers have little to do with facts. In
fact, post-truth leadership does not just disregard facts but holds facts in contempt.
Dreams run
post-truth leadership. An effective post-truth leader invites people to a
parallel world that has little to do with factual reality. Slogans are enough
here. Hollow promises are powerful. What really sustain post-truth leadership
are the emotions of the followers. Emotions seldom need truths. They create
their own truths.
When Donald
Trump tweeted a video with a title, ‘Muslim migrant beats up Dutch boy on
crutches,’ it was taken up by hundreds of thousands of fans and supporters. The
video was real but the perpetrator was neither Muslim nor a migrant. Before the
facts were unearthed by sensible people, the harm was done.
Trump was a post-truth
leader. America threw him out eventually.
Indians,
however, seems to be happy with gasconade with its dreams and promises. Of
course, some good things happen too. But such good happenings don’t really
matter as much as the grandiosity of the dreams and promises.
What if all
the crores spent on gasconade were used for keeping petroleum prices and
cooking gas prices under check? What if the money was spent on building better
hospitals and schools and other such necessary establishments or infrastructure?
No, in post-truth leadership gasconade plays a gigantic role.
A charismatic
leader creates visions which promise a viable and better alternative reality. A
post-truth leader creates emotional hallucinations with gasconade.
PS. This blog is participating in The Blogchatter’s #MyFriendAlexa
campaign.
We are heading to a massive catastrophe.
ReplyDeleteHuge nations have a way of returning to sanity. Let's hope for something better than a catastrophe though with the present leaders the hope seems a bit misplaced.
DeleteHari OM
ReplyDeleteA word that could apply as much to Boris Johnson and even to Scott Morrison. The whole world seems to be under delusion at the moment. There will be a correction...eventually. YAM xx
I too believe the correction is inevitable.
Delete'A charismatic leader creates visions which promise a viable and better alternative reality. A post-truth leader creates emotional hallucinations with gasconade.'
ReplyDeleteSuch compelling words
Thank you.
DeleteThe said lines particularly struck me as well...
DeleteHappy to hear that.
DeleteA thought proviking post.
ReplyDeleteThings we thought impossible or unbelievable earlier are actually happening today. Every day we hear of something that churns our insides - sad state of affairs.
ReplyDeleteI don't know whether to laugh or cry reading your post. Dunno where we are headed...#MyFriendAlexa #TinasPicks
ReplyDelete