On an average day, Indian liberals manage to find fault with something or the other about when PM Modi wakes up, what he eats for breakfast, what clothes he wears and so on. It allows them to carry on their lives with a very peculiar sense of victimhood. Why does Narendra Modi live like he is a successful person? More precisely, how dare he act like his father was rich?
But each time the Prime Minister goes abroad, something very special seems to happen to his detractors. Forever on the margins of sanity, this is one thing that drives them over the edge. Have you ever wondered why?
The origins of this complex are multi-layered. At a basic level, they are unhappy about losing some of the privileges that used to come with being unelected members of India’s ruling class. In the UPA era, these people would fly for free on the Prime Minister’s official jet. You can find some of these old pictures still floating around on the internet. The unelected power elites striking crazy poses, backslapping each other and generally having a great time at the expense of the common Indian. But if you think about it, it wasn’t really about the wining and dining, though I am sure they enjoyed that too. It was about exclusivity.
Not any more. If they want to fly to America, they will have to buy a ticket, go to the airport, go through security like anyone else and step on a commercial flight. How middle class…
Nowadays, when the Indian Prime Minister goes overseas, these people only get to see him board the plane. When he reaches his destination, they again see the images on TV. Sometimes, the Prime Minister will share a pic or two from on board the aircraft. It is all they will get to see, just like everyone else. No more on board exclusive access, no cultivating contacts and no currying favors. The days of a journalist picking up the phone to fix cabinet portfolios are well and truly over. Of course they are angry.
But there are deeper reasons for their unhappiness. The sight of world leaders welcoming PM Modi, with all the rights and privileges of the Prime Minister of India, is too much for them to bear. It reminds them of two back to back general election elections, in which they not only lost, but failed to make the grade to become an official opposition. At one point, Nehru used to have these privileges, which he then passed on to his daughter. In turn, she passed them on to her son and then his wife, who bestowed them on a placeholder for ten years. But now, Modi has all of that.
For decades, especially during the Nehruvian era till 1991, overseas travel used to be a status symbol. The children of the power elites couldn’t possibly make it in the hypercompetitive Indian education system. So there used to be this pipeline from elite boarding schools in India to colleges in Europe & America. The dynasty itself uses this pipeline even today. Historically speaking, they have all flunked out of college in the West. But the point is that they failed in the West, not at some college in India. As the alma mater of one of these later powerful college dropouts notes on its website, they made lots of ‘friends’ during their stay at the institution. That was the whole point. Not education, but status and contacts.
Where else are you going to come across a Nobel Laureate in economics, who takes one look at your last name and says that you would make an excellent future Prime Minister of India?
But Modi does not owe his rise to his last name, to his contacts, nor to a failed half-hearted attempt at a foreign college education. That’s why when he goes abroad, the old elites go crazy. During the UPA years, one of their favorite refrains was that Modi couldn’t get a US visa. That is why 65 MPs wrote to the President of the United States, begging him to deny Modi a visa. By the way, any updates on that?
This brings me to one of the favorite refrains of media liberals. Why does PM Modi not do a press conference?
Good question. With elected officials, we need as much accountability and transparency as possible. But could you pinpoint exactly what makes a press conference so special? What is a press conference? If PM Modi held a press conference tomorrow, could you go and ask him anything that is on your mind?
Not exactly. Because, you probably don’t have a press identification card. And so, if you really want answers, you could approach one of the members of the media. And if they take pity on you, maybe they will ask the Prime Minister! In other words, you are dependent on a group of people who see themselves as nobles.
These nobles feel like they should be close to power. These nobles believe that elected officials should be specially answerable to them. They are really angry because the PM is not sitting down in a room and answering their questions. It doesn’t matter that the government runs a Press Information Bureau for them. It’s not enough special treatment. They need more. The Prime Minister himself must present himself in their court. Because they are above the Prime Minister and also the people. Their concerns are automatically the concerns of the people.
This reminds me. The year is 2021. You no longer need these nobles as a class. If you have concerns, you can raise them on the internet in an instant, using social media. Now it is true that there are literally over a billion people out there and your specific concern is not likely to be addressed this way. If that is the problem, how is a press conference the solution? How is it better if some unelected nobles get to ask questions instead of you?
And finally, have you noticed that Sonia Gandhi does not have a social media handle? Isn’t it odd? She is President of the Indian National Congress. Crores of people live in states run by her party. Should they not have a chance to address her directly? What about the people of her own constituency? What about people in general? As president of India’s main opposition party, doesn’t she want to listen to their concerns so that she can raise them with the Central Government?
You know the answer already. You know that the Congress cannot the bear the thought of common people speaking directly to Sonia Gandhi. Even if it’s just an appearance, a social media handle run by her office staff.
This is what liberal privilege is. For ten years, Sonia Gandhi was at the helm of this country and she never did a press conference. Nobody ever asked, either. She is perhaps the only politician in a major democracy today who is not on social media, but nobody notices. Our minds have been conditioned to believe that nobody should ever question Sonia Gandhi.
From press conferences to junkets on the PM’s official plane, it was all about catering to a class of nobles. They don’t have that any more. They are angry.
