Bad ideas

Seriously, who writes Modi’s blogs?

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While I would promptly concur with any sane person who thinks that this is the least of our worries, I have to return to a suspicion I expressed in an earlier post – at least one of the writers of blog posts attributed to ‘Narendra Modi’ is someone based in the USA who basically lifts American political idiom wholesale, regardless of its relevance to the Indian situation. The posts sound absurd, or should, to any reasonably aware person, but the Indian media seems to lack even one such person in its ranks. Hence the brain-dead way in which these blogs are reported, with much enthusiasm and empathy for the PM.

The first one I noticed was a blog post reported at the end of polling, in which ‘Narendra Modi’ said :

Lets place people over politics, hope over despair, healing over hurting, inclusion over exclusion and development over divisiveness. It is natural for the spirit of bipartisanship to get temporarily lost in the midst of an election campaign but now is the time to resurrect it.

We’ll come to those phrases I have emphasized in a minute, but first, the term ‘bipartisanship’ rang oddly in my ears. This is what bipartisan means:

representing, characterized by, or including members from two parties or factions

That’s the US party system, not India. For example, Reagan is said to have had a “bipartisan spirit”, reaching across the aisle to Democrats. Or take this essay ‘What is “bipartisanship” ‘? in The Economist in a section titled Democracy in America, which discusses this term in its specific context.

In India it would have to be multipartisan, for there are not just two parties. And there never has been a “spirit of multipartisanship” in Indian politics, where there are still real differences between parties, unlike the US, where the Republicans and the Democrats pretty much mirror each other.

And of course, “placing people over politics” was seen as Obama’s message, and “Hope over Despair” was the centre-piece of his 2008 campaign.

I thought okay, some ghost writer plagiarized tired cliches from American politics to represent the voice of  the “first Prime Minister of India born after Independence”.  Do I care?

And then I found this one, reported yesterday, in practically every newspaper. This headline is from The Economic Times:

Narendra Modi on first month in office: No honeymoon period for my government.

I went and read the actual blog, in which this widely quoted para appears:

Every new Government has something that friends in the media like to call a ‘honeymoon period.’ Previous governments had the luxury of extending this ‘honeymoon period’ upto a hundred days and even beyond. Not unexpectedly I don’t have any such luxury.

Again I had a feeling of deja vu and confusion. Deja vu because I was watching the reruns of West Wing quite religiously, and I began to feel I had slipped into one of its scripts; and confused because no government in India has ever had a honeymoon period nor does it expect one – most governments hit the ground running. As the Congress spokesperson indignantly pointed out in response to the blog, in 2004, within days of the UPA government forming government, the BJP-led opposition made such a furore after the Presidential Address that Manmohan Singh had to literally place his Motion of Thanks on the table, being prevented from actually delivering it. 

Nor has the Congress or any other party when in Opposition, given one moment of quiet for a new government to think a half-way complete thought.

As any reasonably awake person in India knows, there is no respite from the shor-gul that is politics is in India – and personally, I’m okay with that.

So where does this term and the expectation come from? From there only – the US.

Take this from the Oxford Guide to the United States Government:

The Presidential ‘honeymoon’ is the short period after a President is inaugurated when the opposition party refrains from attack, Congress is inclined to support some of the President’s initiatives, and the President receives high public approval ratings. Within a month or two partisan attacks generally resume and the honeymoon period ends.

And this, from an article titled ‘How long will Modi’s US honeymoon last?’ in The American Bazar:

Presidents — or for that matter, most incoming officeholders — are routinely given a honeymoon period at the beginning of their first term by the American public, the media and even the opposition. During this phase, which can last from several months to a year or so, people tend to refrain from criticizing newly elected leader unless criticism is absolutely warranted.

Certainly not something expected by any Indian party taking power.  Nor could Modi have expected it, being an Indian politician par excellence.

But by all means let our ultra nationalist Prime Minister restrict his nationalism to beating minorities in India over the head with. When it comes to the crunch, the USA may be a waning power, but we need to kiss a**.  After all, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

43 thoughts on “Seriously, who writes Modi’s blogs?”

  1. Awesome!! Good one…

    Unfortunately, majority of the country has bcum blind and dumb…in d hope of so called development..

    God save the country!!!

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    1. The problem with left is they like court, election only if result is their busniess as usual. Sorry, country has moved on after 60 years. We do not celebrate poverty anymore.

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  3. Good exposure. It is not at all a surprise. modi being so busy running a govt he hardly can find time to write a blog. Moreover, his knowledge of English is a common knowledge.
    By the way will the writer please let’s know the name of Modi’s blog?

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  4. Many good points however —-

    “Good artists copy, great artists steal. And we have always been shameless about stealing great ideas.”Steve Jobs-
    Originally from PICASSO ,however what is meant is, It is ok to take Bits + Pieces and put it in place and sometimes Improve –

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    1. But when it is ‘bits + pieces’ put together to make no sense at all? That’s how it is in this case, as I have shown.

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  5. I was just watching an Indian “indie” rapper’s video which was a complete copy of Eminem’s Without Me. We all know about Bollywood’s infatuation with shameless stealing. Now the PM’s blog is also copied! Ummmm…. when are we gonna start calling the country United States of India?

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  7. @ Nivedita Menon, The first link is to a News Report attributed to PTI published in Live Mint date-lined May 12 2014 which well before the declaration of Election results where #Modi speaks about reviving “bipartisanship”. In the Indian context it is not about two parties but about two coalitions i.e. UPA & NDA. The less we talk about Frank Islam’s article, the better.

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    1. One point you are missing, BJP led alliance demand and presume two party system. They even club communists and Aam Aadmi Party as “Congress allied”.
      BJP assume political success not by replacing congress but to sideline all other parties and views.

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    2. Avinashk1975 – the Live Mint piece is quoting from this blog post by Modi:
      http://www.narendramodi.in/a-victory-for-the-people-a-victory-for-india-and-the-triumph-of-the-ballot/
      The post is dated May 12, 2014, after the close of polling and 4 days before counting is to begin. The tone of absolute confidence in his own victory is striking, and the blog is written in the tone of a gracious victor to his vanquished opponent. Where did this confidence come from? How was Modi so sure of victory? I will leave my question hanging in the air.
      Second – you may want to interpret the two parties as two alliances, so as to somehow make sense of an otherwise incongruous reference – i salute your loyalty to the victor.
      ‘Modi’ is not ‘speaking of’ anything, it is written in a blog post supposedly by him. And the verb ‘resurrect’ is even more revealing than ‘bipartisanship’ – if Modi were trying to say that now that I have won, I want everyone to cooperate with me, which is something that has never happened before, that’s one thing. What is ‘resurrecting’ bipartisanship? In what era of Indian history did UPA and NDA work cordially together?
      Third – the substance of Frank Islam’s article is not at issue, I used that article to demonstrate the clearly American provenance of the notion of a honeymoon for a new government. I dont care of the USA loves Modi or not.

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      1. ‘Resurrect’. Considering what we know of the person and party in question, I wonder how the word ended up in the blog in spite of its religious connotations.

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  11. >>> I dont care of the USA loves Modi or not >> so far as a modern State (Country) is concerned, there are no permanent friends or permanent enemies but only permanent interests. Even Indian Diplomats fails to understand this. Congress Govt signed the dubious Indo-US Nuclear Deal with the same country that sent their Seventh Fleet to Bay of Bengal to participate in India-Pak War in 1971. Is there anything more ironical? .

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    1. You do know that the Modi government has endorsed the Indo-US Nuclear deal that the BJP opposed vehemently during the UPA regime? Talk of permanent interests.

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  12. The examples you have used are very common examples and do not in any way justify that blogs are being manged by someone in US. “Honeymoon” terminology is very much used in corporate world when someone joins an industry/company and uses it as an excuse to get away when asked about new systems and policies. If you would have watched pre polls and post polls discussions on various news channels, many spokes person from BJP used “bipartisan” model as it has always been considered fight between the two big giants, BJP & Congress.

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    1. The ‘many channels’ you speak of are precisely the mindless mob in the media I am criticizing in my post, who just pick up whatever is fed to them without using the tiniest part of their brain, if any.

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      1. Lovely piece Nivy, keep them coming! What is even more shocking than the mindless mob in the media who just spin out the matter spun to them by the khaki brigade, are young correspondents in at least one of the English channels that gives us the fire and brimstone, who give the impression of being the rank and file of the ruling party. That is frightening…

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  15. Nivedita – not sure what was the point of the first observation and how does it really matter – not that I agree with your conclusions but having a US based author for your blogs in no way hurts your credentials as an effective Prime Ministerial candidate (and now the Prime Minister)
    While I’m tempted to concur that the theme of election “Hope” might be resemble the 2008 election campaign of Obama but that is no offense and as suspected might be the handywork of some NAMO’s US based backroom social media machinery…. Let’s be clear Hope as a moot point of election campaign is not a US patented subject. Adolf Hitler’s ascendancy can be traced to building bridges with promises of Hope of German supremacy in times of despair (remember Germany still reeling under the blow of the first war with its confidence shattered). Hope as an election campaign is the product of the times which precede the change of regimes.
    Your other point of contention seems to be the use of the term “bipartisanship”. As already highlighted by others, this election was fought as one man v/s the Others (clearly bipartisan). Having myriad of regional parties in no way takes away from the fact the you had only two principal ideologies in this election (those for Modi and those against him – everything else pales in comparison). It is not new in our Democracy. Before the rise of BJP, we had two factions Congress and Anti-Congress. Soon after BJP’s ascension to power in 1990s we had BJP vs “The Secular Forces”. We need to look at bipartisanship in a larger context where you have the ruling coalition and the opposition parties. It basically refers to consensus building and that is nothing new in Indian political system.

    Coming to the main issue of your article – “Honeymoon Period”. Well I dont want to point out how our endearing our Media is to Mr.Modi but one thing is for certain – No previous government was judged every minute it was in power from the moment it was sworn in. I can’t recollect a single instance in the last 10 years when the UPA regime’s performance was compared to its manifesto forget about within one month of being sworn in. I agree with you that every government hits the ground running but I’m not too sure if the Mr. Modi’s was aksing for sabbatical after a long hard fought election. I guess it was simply alluding to the different benchmarks being used to measure the performance of successive governments. While 10 years were conveniently forgotten, one month has been made the yardstick of “Ache Din” – nothing short of bigotry

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  16. Good catch, Nivedita, but I do not see the point. Maybe Modi has someone sitting in U.S writing his blog for him (or at least someone who has apparently bought into the U.S political semantics wholesale even if he is sitting in Kurnool or wherever). You are nitpicking about things like “bipartisanship” and “honeymoon period” because you believe that these are not terms relevant to the Indian context? Seriously? First, a case can be made that bi-partisanship is not necessarily about two-parties at all -it is a figure of speech denoting that the victor and the vanquished (two parties, see) can (or should) work together. Any time when someone starts using a dictionary in an argument, I start wondering. Second, the grand conclusion you seem to be drawing here is something about nationalism (last line). Wow. What a stretch. So, if Modi uses American ghost-writers who use American metaphors (however inappropriately) he is somehow not nationalistic?

    The post begins with “Seriously”. The same though comes to mind after reading the post – Seriously? We are that desperate to lash out against a man whose politics we find abhorrent. Seriously? Surely we can do better.

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    1. Vinayakaraman, certainly I can ‘do better’, and I have – you could check out what else I have written (and done). Start with my last couple of posts on Kafila! This just happens to be the most fun I had writing something – the idiocy of this situation in which the PM of the world’s largest democracy has some person semi-literate in Indian politics to write ‘his’ blogs, who plagiarizes on a large scale from American political idiom, regardless of its relevance for India – and for these blogs to be discussed reverentially by a bought-out media as if every word has been typed out by the PM’s Own Fingers.
      And even better, now to have Modi supporters as well as those who claim to find his politics ‘abhorrent’, coming in so desperately to defend every phrase, and to say this ridiculous language is fine, so what if he uses a ghost writer etc.
      Is it being conceded that ‘Modi’s blogs’ are not in fact written by him? And does that matter even a little bit in the larger scheme of things?
      And of course, you choose to ignore my opening sentence that I fully concur with any sane person who says we have bigger things to worry about with this government – worries I have clearly laid out over the last year in several posts.

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      1. Nivedita: No one is “desperately” trying to defend “every phrase”. You are the one who appears to be hung up on “every phrase”. To wave dictionaries and to parse every single utterance as if it were important seems more desperate to me.

        Modi may not be the author of his own blogs (surely they you’ve heard of speechwriters – another American failing) – so what? All I am saying is that this is too trivial a matter – he is accountable for the content of his blog, surely, but does he have to write every blog post and type it himself? As for ignoring your opening sentence, I am not sure why you would say something is unimportant and then write a long post about it.

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    2. Vinayakaraman, I always suspected my compatriots seriously lacked any sense of irony and sarcasm – not to speak of sense of humour. Your comment not only convinces me that my suspicion has been correct all the while, it also shows that compatriots like you cannot help taking themselves too bloody seriously. You do spend a lot of effort to prove that terms like ‘bipartisanship’ and ‘honeymoon period’ can be made to make sense in the Indian context. Kudos! Mao once said of his pro-Russian adversaries that for them, even a Russian fart is fragrant:)

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      1. I did not realize that this was a humorous piece. The author’s defensive reaction makes that much clear to me (not that she claimed this was a humorous piece though she apparently had great fun writing about it). If we are going to pick on things like “bipartisanship” and “honeymoon” period, it does dilute the more important things we might have to say. I am not sure what irony or sarcasm I missed; maybe that is precisely my problem. Also, I am not quite sure who is taking him/herself too seriously, but you seem to know it all. Good for you (to use an American expression) !!

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    1. Avinash,

      The suspicion those days was that it was Salim Javed who were writing Rajiv’s speech, a charge which they denied.

      Regards

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  18. But the term honeymoon period was used for AAP’s government in Delhi by media also and probably it was there that it got introduced in India. The bipartisan term was used to probably signify difference in opinions.

    Your conclusion about influence of US policies on modi might be true but I don’t see how these two instances corroborate it.

    P.S: I am no Modi Fan.

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  19. Oh dear Vinayakraman, you must be crushed under the burden of “more important things” which you find “diluted” by this frivolous crap trap about “honeymoon period” etc. No wonder you keep coming and venting as if there is nothing more important than responding to it. And by the way, sarcasm, irony and humour are three separate words and they do not mean the same thing. That you did not find any of those here is your singular achievement. Thankfully there are others who have commented who seem to have not missed some of these – that nullifies my suspicion about my compatriots but is a definite relief:)

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  20. The troll army is out in strength, I see, responding with endless energy to my ‘pointless’, ‘trivial’, ‘humourless’ piece, which they should have killed with their bored silence about it.
    I, on the other hand, have neither the energy nor the time to keep responding to the babblings of a lot whose combined comprehension powers don’t seem to add up to that of one average adult.
    First, nowhere is there any implication in my piece that Modi should write his own blogs and speeches. Everyone knows – it is a fact hardly worth mentioning – that many political leaders from Obama downwards in the global hierarchy, have people paid to write their speeches, their jokes and so on. My point was that one of the people thus employed by Modi has no clue of the Indian political scene or Indian political vocabulary, and keeps picking images and analogies from the US that are totally out of synch with our scenario. And even plagiarizes Obama’s (ghost-writer’s) phrases in toto.
    Second – while the trolls have, by the end of it all, painted themselves into a corner, hastily conceding that the man does not write his own speeches, but so what, neither did Rajiv Gandhi – MY point was that the media seems to take everything attributed to him quite literally as written physically by him.
    Anyhow, if the trolls really think there are more serious things to write about, they should go ahead and do it, not waste my time bouncing back with more and more comments, each more idiotic than the last.

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    1. Nivy, you are going to get gray hair responding to all these clowns…somebody is writing their stuff for them too…

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  22. Nice homework, but still i would say that out of lakhs of followers of his blog a large no. of them must be aware that Modi do not write his blog but still they follow it. The matter here is not about whome he copies, rather its about how effectively his messages have been delivered.

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  24. Not everyone supports Narendra Modi for his rhetoric or his literary skills. For many he is an icon of a meaningful change from dynastic predominance that has been plaguing Indian politics for years. This segment welcomes his evident shift from right wing Hinduist poltics to middle-of-the-road pro-development stance. It is irrelevant if his blogs are written by semi-literates inspired by American speechwriters as these are ‘reverently’ discussed and debated by only a few who do no better than airing their erudite opinions on everything under the sun. Nivedita’s excellent observations notwithstanding, what matters for India’s one billion plus is whether and how he is delivering the goods in time.

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  26. Pingback: Modi, Barack and a once sovereign nation | Kafila

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