Backstage Actors in the Elections

H. Srikanth

The long and tedious electioneering process has finally ended. What initially appeared to be a one-sided game has turned out to be a one-to-one battle where the two rival party alliances are evenly placed.

 The BJP’s slogan “Chaar Sau Paar” has few takers today, but many opinion polls aired on the corporate media channels predict the NDA’s victory. However, many social media channels and leading satta bazars in the country foresee tough competition between NDA and INDI Alliances.

In the LS elections just concluded, the star campaigner and the NDA’s face visible everywhere remained that of our PM, Narendra Modi. At 74, he campaigned in almost all parts of India, taking on his shoulders the responsibility of ensuring the victory of his party. Other BJP leaders, barring Amit Shah and J.P. Nadda, confined themselves mostly to particular states. 

In contrast, the leaders of INDI Alliance-Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Tejaswini Yadav, Akhilesh Yadav and Arvind Khejriwal — stole the show with their energetic presence. Voters saw them addressing joint public meetings and rallies in different states.

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While Modi tried to distract the attention of the people raising emotive issues intending to divide the voters on communal lines, the opposition leaders kept on harping on the issues of unemployment, price-rise and growing authoritarianism.

They were partly successful in creating a counter narrative of the need for communal amity and brotherhood. In the absence of any wave in favor of any political party or leader, local issues appear to be the determining factors in the election outcome. 

While political leaders of different parties took the central stage and received much of the public and media attention, we should not forget several known and little known individuals from a variety of fields who played important role as backstage actors in the election campaign. These actors include social activists, intellectuals, lawyers, journalists, and artists.

Not that they all had the same ideas or views. Look at some intellectuals. Claiming that economic indicators in India in 2024 were better than what it was in 2019, the economist, Surjit Bhalla, batted for Modi government and predicted that BJP would get around 330 seats. In different interviews that he gave to the news channels, Prashant Kishor, the political analyst, stated that it is impossible to get over 400 seats.

At the same time, he also asserted that as there is no anti-Modi wave, it is not impossible for BJP to retain its present tally of 303 and secure a few more additional seats. Some, like Pradeep Gupta, argued that Modi’s ration scheme is so popular that the women who are benefiting from the scheme will ensure the victory of Modi. 

Contradicting these narratives which view the immanence of the Modi’s third term, intellectuals like Parakala Prabhakar and Yogendra Yadav argued that in the absence of any wave favoring Modi, it is impossible for the BJP to retain its dominance in the northern states and make any inroads into the eastern and southern states. Hence, in their view, the BJP will get less than the majority mark this time, opening the possibility for the INDI Alliance. 

Social media channels, which have propagated the views of the likes of Parakala and Yadav, have boosted the confidence of the opposition parties and the voters supporting them.

The lawyer activists like Prashant Bhushan, Kapil Sibal, Abhishekh Manu Singhvi, etc., also played a very important role in influencing the Supreme Court on the electoral bond and thus giving a weapon to the opposition to hit on the ruling regime.

These lawyers also indicted the inaction of the Election Commission and created public awareness as how one could prevent administrative rigging. They played a key role in securing an interim bail for Arvind Khejriwal.

Media persons are another section which remained active during this period, coming out in support of Modi or against him. The journalists-cum-TV anchors like Arnab Goswami, Chitra Tripathy, Rubika Liaquat, Shiv Aroor, Sudhir Chaudhary, Rajat Sharma, etc., who are associated with leading corporate media channels take pro-Modi stand and during this election period they did everything possible to vilify the opposition and project Modi as the only reliable choice for the Indian voters.

 Barring exceptions like Rajdeep Sardesai, we don’t find many dissenting voices in the corporate media. In this situation, YouTube emerged as a social media platform providing an alternative source of data and information. Earlier, the BJP exercised control over social media channels through its IT cell.

But during the electioneering, the social media channels supporting the INDI Alliance multiplied and became very active.

Dissenting journalists like Ravish Kumar, Ajit Anjum, Abhissar Sharma, Arfa Khanum Sherwani, etc., played a decisive role in exposing the ruling regime and came out in support of the opposition leaders. Karan Thapar’s spat with Prashant Kishor on the election prediction attracted the national attention.

The online channels like The Wire and the Newslaundry became the platforms for critical journalists around the country to put forward alternative viewpoints.

Youtubers like Dhruv Rathee and Akash Banerjee, who made videos on different social themes, openly took a stand against the ruling BJP and used their platforms to debunk the claims of the government and expose the authoritarian tendencies of Modi’s regime.

The news channels owned by some of these journalists and youtube activists have thousands and lakhs of faithful subscribers. Such alternative news portals and channels became popular in many other regional languages as well. They took on the might of the organized corporate 24/7 news channels. 

The other group that needs a special mention is that of artists. On the eve of elections, all political parties spend a lot of money to engage professional singers, dancers and theatre artists and bring out with video songs and performances in praise of their leaders. Party IT cells are used to propagate their politics through songs and political memes.

But the elections witnessed spontaneous participation of artists who educated and entertained the masses through their creative interventions in the form of songs, spoofs, memes, mimicry and other art forms. Dhruv Rathee used AI tools to come out with political songs in different languages. Neha Singh Rathore’s Bhojpuri songs became instant hits in the Hindi belt.

Paranjoy Guha Thakurtha came out with the song, ‘Saheb’, in different languages critiquing Modi politics. Garima, a woman mimicry artist, who effortlessly imitate Kangana Ranaut, Nirmala Seetha Raman and Smriti Irani, won the hearts of many with her subtle humour and creative content. 

Shyam Rangeela, another famous mimicry artist who shot to fame with his imitation of Modi and Rahul Gandhi, hit the news by trying to contest against Narendra Modi in the Varanasi parliamentary seat. One can identify such artists in different states. These creative persons took advantage of AI and the Internet to share their political views and influence the public opinion.

One good thing that the elections did is to remove the fear factor. Although the people were discontent with the government policies, they were so scared of expressing the same in the public out of fear of punitive action by the state agencies. But the elections created an enabling political environment to discuss and debate on different public forums and platforms. Many came out openly to express their support for leaders and parties that they like.

Public streets, universities, TV studios, social media platforms like facebook, twitter (now X) and whatsApp became the platforms for expression of political views and preferences.

Democracy can take deep roots and is able to survive only when the people have access to facts and can make informed and rational judgments. Who finally wins the elections and forms the government at the center is a different question. 

Visionary leaders and responsible political parties are no doubt needed. But we cannot afford to rely on them all the time.

The masses have the role to play. Indian democracy survives all kinds of turbulences and challenges, as long as the country reproduces the citizens who refuse to bend their knees in front of the powerful, hold their heads high, learn to think logically, and dare to speak the truth.  

H. Srikanth is the Professor of the Political Science Department, NEHU   

Images from different sources (This article first published in The Shillong Times)

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