Modi’s maternal shield
It was the historic day of 16 May 2014. As trends of the Lok Sabha
election result became clear, Narendra Modi went to see his mother with
a crown of victory on his head, trailed by a battery of TV cameras. He
ate sweets from her hand and sought her blessings. Only then did he
return to Delhi to take oath as the prime minister.
As Modi trotted around the country, and the world, his mother
Heeraben often found a mention in his campaign speeches, and chats with
eminent people such as Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg. He has invoked her
struggle and sacrifice, many a time overcoming with emotion as he did
so. His mother, apparently, is the prime minister’s foremost emotional
support.
But is that about it?
Two years to the day he received his mother’s blessings on camera,
she was back in the frame. This time, Heeraben was at Modi’s official
residence. They went for a morning walk together, and discussed flowers
and birds. But even these private moments were duly captured on camera.
The pictures, it’s being said, oozed the prime minister’s love for
mother. Is that why they were taken?
Media circus
No amount of smartness can ever hide the real intent behind this
episode, the fact that intimate moments between a mother and son were
reduced to a press release. So, when these pictures were posted on
Twitter, people saw not only Modi and his mother, they also sensed the
photographer lurking behind them, and asked why he was there.
Nobody can claim Modi’s predecessors loved their parents and families
any less. It is also not the case that they were shy about being seen
with them in public. None, however, used them as shields, as photo-ops.
Why, indeed, would anybody want photographers and a contingent of public
relations people around when spending “quality time” with one’s family?
Unless, of course, the purpose is to use it as a tool to embellish one’s
political image.
We have seen many top leaders at public functions with their kin.
Sonia Gandhi often stood beside Rajiv Gandhi, as did the wives of
Manmohan Singh, K.R. Narayanan, Lal Krishna Advani and Hamid Ansari, to
name just a few. Modi is married but his wife Jashodaben leads a
separated, secluded life. Many people attribute the apparent lack of
sensitivity in his behaviour to the absence of a woman in his life. Modi
apparently makes up for this by having pictures taken with his mother.
Whenever Modi’s public image seems to take a hit or he is faced with
some crisis, he almost invariably uses a meeting with his mother or a
mention of her as a shield. She’s turned into a political Brahmastra, a
sanjeevani for him. She is used for political gain.
Modi is not the only one to do so. A whole lot of people belonging to
his ideological camp have been using the term “mother” for vested
interests. Sometimes, the mother is the cow, at other times it’s the
river Ganga or the country. To them, “mother” is a convenient shield to
hide their misdeeds and insensitivity.
There’s hardly any mother who doesn’t want to see her child succeed.
But many end up seeing their children wrecked by the injustices of an
unequal society and the apathy of the state. Innumerable mothers in this
country are wailing for their starving daughters and dying farmer sons.
A great many await the return of their children disappeared by the state
forces.
Such mothers and their children won’t be comforted by pictures of the
prime minister doting on his mother, however lovely they may be. They
desperately want the government to relieve their suffering, not offer
them empty rhetoric and candid photographs that are better kept in
private albums.
The writer is the Senior Assistant Editor at Catch, in addition to
being is a poet, singer, cook, painter, commentator, traveller and
photographer who has worked as reporter, producer and editor for
organizations including BBC, Outlook and Rajya Sabha TV
- CatchNews.com
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