India: Image-building and Images
A few weeks back, 272 “eminent citizens” wrote an open letter accusing Rahul Gandhi and his team of “tarnishing” the Election Commission of India. Just a day before that letter appeared in the media, Narendra Modi gave away the Ramnath Goenka awards to some journalists and he spoke with his characteristic rhetoric about the importance of honesty and bravery in journalism. A day after Modi’s exhortation on journalistic honesty and bravery, the office of the Kashmir Times was raided by Modi’s government for the newspaper’s honest and brave reporting on human rights violations in the state by the government machinery. Books banned in Kashmir Irony suffered a million deaths in India after 2014. The “eminent citizens” who wrote the chargesheet against Rahul Gandhi are all Modi’s sycophants who enjoy certain privileges provided by the government. They are retired judges, bureaucrats, diplomats and former armed forces officers. They will be rewarded again for their slavish loyalty ...
