Measuring 'national news' through Jaishankar's barometer

Just the other day, while he was in the United States, Rahul Gandhi termed Prime Minister Narendra Modi a “specimen”, a satirical jab at the unusual nature of the Prime Minister who is sometimes known to refer to himself in third person as did Charles de Gaulle or for that matter Donald Trump or Julius Caesar.

Rahul also said Prime Minister Modi could probably teach God a thing or two about His Creation, which is neither here nor there but it works pretty well as a stand-up comic line. Watch me when I get back, reparteed Jaishankar at Cape Town, holding his fire for later.

Going by External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar’s world view, such criticism is better levelled at home than while abroad. Jaishankar has apparently got a PhD in nuclear physics from JNU and not in communications theory. Otherwise, he might have heard of Marshall McLuhan, a Canadian, who back in the 1960s postulated the theory that as the world became increasingly interconnected through various electronic technologies, it tended towards a “global village”.

Also read: Congress hits back at Jaishankar after he slammed Rahul on speeches abroad

Interconnected world

Simply put, in an instantly interconnected world, there is no way of isolating the news or repercussions of events from spreading outward unless you pulled the plug, like New Delhi reflexively and automatically does in Kashmir whenever things get out of control there and it wants to impose an information blockade and throw a cloak of secrecy till it becomes possible to put a suitable spin on it. It doesn’t really make a difference if you criticise a political dispensation at home or abroad. News spreads. The Government of India, under Narendra Modi, has not yet patented the technology to prevent outward spread of news.

This must have been evident to Dr Jaishankar when he was counsellor (commercial), according to Wikipedia, at the Indian mission in Budapest in 1992 as India struggled to contain the blowback of the Babri Masjid demolition whose effects were felt far and wide. It happened in UP but had its impact not only in India but in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Iran, Malaysia, OIC countries, as its shockwaves spread outward and onward unstoppably.

Curiously enough, the External affairs minister, who in a press conference the other day, mentioned China, Pakistan and Rahul Gandhi almost in the same breath, has developed an unusual barometer to evaluate India’s standing in the world. This became obvious when he was in Namibia last week when the train accident happened in Balasore, Odisha, which killed about 275 people and injured over a thousand.

This is what he had to say, addressing Indian expatriates in Namibia: “A lot of leaders from all over the world and the foreign minister from here [Namibia] also has expressed solidarity and sent sympathy. I received many messages from foreign ministers and friends across the world. The Prime Minister also received lots of messages. This is an example of how globalised today’s world is and how the world is connected with India,” he said further. (Emphasis mine). Political observers are invited to come up with a coinage to a unit measure for this Jaishankar barometer of global importance and another one for the frequency with which BJP politicians come up with quips to counter Rahul Gandhi’s.

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Unwanted attention?

Let us leave aside for the moment the very odd way Dr Jaishankar measures India’s importance in terms of the volume of messages of commiseration arising from a colossal tragedy. Certainly, that does not deserve to be finessed in the manner the minister did. The absence of expressions of consolation from a few foreign ministers or foreign dignitary would in no way mitigate the horror of the tragedy.

It also sounds as though the credit for India being so tragically connected should be put down as a foreign policy success under the able leadership of Prime Minister Modi, something to be highlighted during the nine-year celebratory romp that Dr Jaishankar has undertaken. The pertinent question remains; what is true of Balasore in terms of spread of news, is it not equally true of Rahul Gandhi’s “specimen” remark, for instance, whether it is made in India or abroad? Word gets around no matter where the geographical point of origin. Information respects no boundary.

Yet, Dr Jaishankar says what Rahul Gandhi does abroad is not in the national interest as it solicits attention of the unwanted kind.  This is what Dr Jaishankar has been quoted as saying in Delhi University’s Aryabhatta College: “Every country has issues and diversity… people can have views, they can have opinions, but if you say that in India, there are big problems and the world should do something about it, then you are inviting bigger problems.”  He is also on record as saying, “I have no objection to whatever he (Rahul Gandhi) does inside the country but I don’t think taking national politics out of the country is in the national interest.”

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False distinction

The distinction that Dr Jaishankar seeks to draw is false. In the ninth year of celebration of the Modi government’s successes, it has been conveniently forgotten that India slides unstoppably in the press freedom index, the democracy index and is regularly lectured on the lack of religious freedoms and for minority bashing. Surely the credit for all that does not go to Rahul Gandhi?

He has spent the best part of the year strolling around the countryside in a white t-shirt which became a bit of a joke, whereas both Prime Minister Modi’s and Jaishankar have gotten away with accoutrements that have been rather more complex and, in the case of the former, bewilderingly varied. Neither is Rahul Gandhi responsible for the thin skin exhibited when it came to airing the BBC documentary that dwelt on Gujarat riots while Narendra Modi was the chief minister.

The distinction is false for another reason as well. Just as Dr Jaishankar addressed Indian expatriates in Namibia, his boss Prime Minister Modi does a little political jig in front of the Indian diaspora and Overseas Friends of the BJP whenever he travels abroad, takes potshots at the Congress, and lets his chest grow a couple of inches. Surely, these politically choreographed moments of grandstanding translate into something substantial by way of support? It is as yet unclear how this translates for Rahul Gandhi who is learning to walk politically on comic crutches. But from all the political attention he is being lavished perhaps Dr Jaishankar knows something we don’t?

(V Sudarshan is a senior journalist and author, most recently, of Tuticorin: Adventures in Tamil Nadu’s Crime Capital and, Dead End: The CBI, the Minister, and the Murder that Wasn’t)

(The Federal seeks to present views and opinions from all sides of the spectrum. The information, ideas or opinions in the articles are of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Federal)