NARENDRA MODI VS RAHUL GANDHI
War of words – allegations and
counter-allegations, politics over even apolitical themes, claims and
counter-claims – the free-floating, unrestricted flow of verbal juggernaut is
frying up the atmosphere, is ratcheting up the theatrics.
In the series, on a day like
this, in the run up to the polls, they both started speaking almost at the same
time, but soon, it was Narendra Modi all over, on almost channels of the
airwaves, and so in millions of the homes across the country, and so on the
countless channels of the social media platforms – the story of two speeches –
delivered same day, almost same time – one in Delhi, the other in Patna – on
October 27.
For sometime now, Narendra Modi
has been the hottest, the most covered, the most talked about, and the most
written about one. Rahul Gandhi did receive attention whenever he spoke on
public platforms, but he could never match the scale Modi would achieve, rally
after rally.
And when it came to the parallels
on a day of parallel presence, we found how skewed it had become.
Even if we do no go into the
reasons, if we do not dissect the ‘what, why and how’ of Narendra Modi Vs Rahul
Gandhi on campaigning parameters and communication management practices, we can
see easily certain trends well evolved (and clearly visible) by now – of crowds
in rallies and of media presence multiplying the presence of the crowds
elsewhere - trends that would be giving nightmares to the Congress party
strategists – trends that can also harm the Modi-party by injecting a sense of
complacency much before it is the time to up the throttle for that final
‘finality’.
Though, in recent times, Rahul,
too, has upped his pitch, putting his aggression more on display with each
passing rally, he simply fails to match the Narendra Modi blitzkrieg.
Modi’s rallies are witnessing
full houses with crowd spilling over in each rally while Rahul’s rallies fail
to produce sense of massive (even sizeable) gatherings even if the camera tries
to show us so.
What could be the better testimony
to it than October 27? In spite of the serial blasts, Narendra Modi’s rally in
Patna saw hundreds of thousands coming to listen to him while Rahul had to wait
before he began to speak as there were not enough of people.
When it comes to media, it’s
Narendra Modi is all over. Rahul does get wide coverage and attention but, on a
day, when both were speaking together, it was only Narendra Modi – almost all
the TV channels were showing Modi live while Rahul was not even in the side
window.
And that tells us the base
approach by the media outfits in this Narendra Modi Vs Rahul Gandhi duel. Modi
has become the prized catch for them in race to earn more eyeballs while Rahul
is the routine editorial stuff. For them, Modi is the ultimate ‘eyeball stuff’
of the moment.
Modi’s media appeal can also be
gauged from the fact that, though the serial blasts in Patna killed 5 and live
bombs were recovered from the venue of Modi’s rally, Gandhi Maidan in Patna,
the main news discourse of the day was Modi, the major elements discussed on
the day were ‘what Modi said’. Rahul’s speech did not get much attention apart
from the routine editorial planning elements.
The Congress party strategists
should be worried. (Yes, but, the Bhartiya Janta Party thinkers should not get
complacent.)
Narendra Modi Vs Rahul Gandhi –
it is going to be even more interesting to watch as the Lok Sabha polls near,
as the resultant chaos spreads even more.
©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com/
