At the start of November, during the buildup for the Gujarat elections, @CW_dynastycrook, had written an article where he predicted that the Indian media will repeat eight hilarious tropes during the elections.
Now that the campaigning for the Gujarat elections has ended, which also means the conclusion of a section of media’s ‘pseudo campaigning’, we decided to revisit @CW_dynastycrook’s predictions to check how accurate they were.
In what reaffirms @CW_dynastycrook’s sharp vision, and Indian media’s ability to act in an inane and intellectually bankrupt manner, we found that all, yes all of his predictions have come true.
Here are the eight predictions and corresponding ‘implementation’ by the media:
(1) The Patels are angry:
Here it was predicted that in every election, the media finds one Hindu caste that is supposed to be angry with Modi. Such a strategy seems to be in line with dividing Hindus on caste lines which is the mainstay of the “Idea of India” approach to electoral politics.
Publications like TheWire, Quint and The Telegraph obliged:
(2) Modi is dividing the people by religion:
This prediction explored that sooner or later, the PM would make a tough remark against opponents which would become the election’s highlight. Something like the “Shamshan-Kabristan” remark which the PM made during the UP elections.
An IANS post and a DailyO post proved us right.
(3) Modi is nervous and/or desperate:
It predicted that PM Modi like he always does, would give the state elections everything he has. This means sweating it out, holding rallies trying to convert every opportunity into a victory. But the liberals would deliberately mock the PM by claiming that these efforts of his, show his nervousness and desperation.
The articles at Point 2 partly touch on this, plus we had pieces like this:
(4) Rahul is becoming a youth icon along with other young leaders:
After giving the example of Rahul Gandhi being flanked by the young “leaders” Hardik, Alpesh and Jignesh, in Gujarat, the article argued that liberals would choose all their “youth icons” from among the children of the old establishment or among those who claim to represent caste votebanks.
Media’s predictable action:
Welcome leftist website Scroll, which came up with an article called, “Rahul Gandhi’s ascent to Congress chief may be made easier by young leaders in regional parties”. The Week too decided to take a similar route and argued in its article that the congress party has polarised anti-BJP forces by bringing, young leaders like Hardik Patel, Jignesh Mevani and Alpesh Thakore on board.
(5) My Gujarati stockbroker says BJP will lose:
This point covered the notorious habit of the liberals to predict electoral results based on what their maids, cooks and drivers feel.
Like they say, old habits die hard. The associate editor of The Print tweeted out how her taxi driver predicted that the Congress would form the government in Gujarat. Well spotted by Ankur Singh.
The gentleman driving my taxi in Gujarat says he is a BJP voter & will continue to vote for it, but thinks Cong will form govt. Asked why, he says “Facebook aur social media pe ab wohi dikhte hai, Modiji nahi”. Clearly, social media does hold sway #ThePrintInGujarat
— Ruhi Tewari (@RuhiTewari) November 16, 2017
(6) BJP must win ‘X’ number of seats for it to qualify as a ‘real’ victory:
This notorious practice of claiming that the BJP needs to bag an inordinately high number of seats (which are well above the majority mark) to truly be declared the winner, might be one of the liberal ways to try and save face after a defeat.
Possibly predicting a BJP victory, TMC MP and former quiz master Derek O’Brien kick started the trend by coming up with this statement:
‘BJP needs to add to its 2014 vote share of 59% in Gujarat to be considered as winners,’ says #TMC MP @quizderek#InsideParliamentpic.twitter.com/rQIYIra5nx
— CNBC-TV18 News (@CNBCTV18News) November 23, 2017
The Hindu too obliged via an editorial:
Today, in their editorial, @the_hindu tells us that anything above 115/182 is a victory. Else, Modi lost. pic.twitter.com/j6ategp1JA
— S. Sudhir Kumar (@ssudhirkumar) December 13, 2017
(7) Rahul is a winner for effort:
As per the modern liberal thinking, participation prizes are a very important element in the electoral process as a result Rahul Gandhi and the Congress are already declared as winners even before the electoral process has even begun.
To fulfil this prediction, controversial journalist Sagarika Ghose decided to step in by tweeting this out:
(8) Bonus fact : EVMs are rigged, ‘First Past The Post’ is a bad system:
It was predicted that such EVM malfunctioning allegations surface would after a heavy defeat, which might be considered a classic case of shooting the messenger.
We got this prediction slightly wrong as the media and politicians decided to spread these allegations even before the conclusion of the first phase of voting. Within hours of the start of voting, we reported how Twitter users accused NDTV of spreading panic about malfunctioning EVMs.
Sagarika Ghose again decided to help up out by spreading allegations that EVMs were being hacked via Bluetooth.
Finally….
One hopes that the 100% accuracy achieved by @CW_dynastycrook’s prediction, makes the media realise the monotonous and stale nature of its narrative peddling.
