With two speeches in two days, Indian mainstream media has really woken up and has declared the arrival of the next best thing to India, since sliced bread. Many neutral journalists were coming out of their rat-holes to declare the arrival of a messiah.
Having said that, credit must be given where its due. Media has doggedly tried to make any of his sighting, as a comeback of sorts for the last 7 years. Here is the snapshot of their propaganda. Don’t let the headline fool you – also check the dates.
In May 2009, Indian Media had as many as 5 pieces titled “Coming of Age of Rahul Gandhi”, from 5 different authors. Coincidence? Or well planned plug, with title suggested by some unnamed source (read Rahul Gandhi PR Team?).
Two such articles, were dated 5th May (on NDTV) and 8 May 2009 on BBC. What is so special about these dates? The 2009 Lok Sabha elections were conducted between 16 April 2009 and 13 May 2009. Both these “coming of age” pieces are right in the middle of the elections. Coincidence?
The other three pieces appeared on 17th May 2009. Yes, all on the same date:
The Hindu: May 17, 2009 – The coming of age of Rahul
The Economic Times: May 17, 2009 – Rahul Gandhi: A coming-of-age
Topnews.in: May 17 2009 – Rahul Gandhi comes of age
What is so special about 17 May 2009? The results to the Lok Sabha elections were declared on 16th May 2009. UPA got re-elected, and Indian media was quick to appropriate credit of this victory to the Prince.
But the media was not done. As Rahul’s charisma faded away, they kept peppering us with similar headlines, TV debates, right upto 2014.
Jan 05, 2010 – Rahul Gandhi: A coming of age
June 19, 2011 – Has Rahul Gandhi come of age? (A TV Debate)
Feb 6, 2012 – Has Rahul Gandhi come of age as a politician? – By Rajdeep Sardesai
Jan 17, 2014 – Has Rahul Gandhi come of age as a politician? – Another TV debate, again by Rajdeep Sardesai
Jan 27, 2014 – Has Rahul Gandhi come of age?
Why two stories of “Rahul Coming of Age” in 2014 you ask? 2014 General Elections Stupid! And we aren’t even looking for other articles, titled differently, just this cliched phrase of “coming of age”, used in Rahul Gandhi’s context year in year out. One can find numerous other articles with keywords like “comeback”, “mojo”, “return” and so on, associated with the Shehzaada.
So now do you understand why suddenly all of our neutral journalists tweeted high praise for a Lok Sabha MP, with no administrative track record, who has never done a job in his entire life, and who disappeared for 56 days, even as Parliament was in session? Last two days are just an extension of media’s lifelong endeavor of seeing him at 7RCR, so that they can enjoy free run with their propaganda.
