“Ek Din Woh Mere Aib* Ginane Laga ‘Farab’,
Jab Khud Hi Thak Gaya Toh Muje Sochana Pada”
(*Aib-faults)
120/80.. 125/85…130/90…135/95…140/100…130/90…125/85…120/80…
hold, these are not projected figures of petroleum product prices in 2017 but
blood pressure count of Rahul Gandhi during his 80 minutes encounter with Arnab
Goswami. He might have felt this zigzag, fluctuating blood pressure as “Adamant”
Arnab started shooting ‘superficial ‘
questions to which our young vice president of AIC couldn’t answer properly.
There are several angles to discover this
historical (pun intended) political interview. It was a golden chance for the
congress scion to prove his political capacity. Unfortunately, he became
trapped in his own youthful ‘thinking’ politician’s image & Arnab
skillfully emptied him.
In the beginning Rahul was looking very
confident & fresh. He served initially with an ease & air of confidence
was there, but by the middle of the interview he began losing his confidence. Reason?
Poor briefing by his political mentors & lack of readiness on his part too.
How come a vice president of India’s single largest political party couldn’t
answer simple & straight forward questions when the nation wanted to know
(oops, I am getting Arnabesque) the political vision of his party…
When ‘most awaited political interview on
Indian television” is to take place it is always expected from both the sides (Interviewer/Interviewee)
to be ready with ‘high end ammunition’ at their disposal, unfortunately Rahul found himself struggling & shielding
himself with age old bows & arrows while Arnab was shooting with Kalashnikov
& smart bombs.
After this disastrous image, make over exercise
some new questions have surfaced.First, is Rahul really capable of facing
serious political challenges, which congress party is facing? Second, is he really serious
about what he said in the interview?, because this interview has changed the
political discourse over night. Can we expect that congress scion has sharpened
his sword against ’system’ & within a few days we may see some more congress
leader’s heads rolling on the ground?
In media, academics television’s effect
is called ‘magic multiplier’. For Rahul, who intended to take full benefit of
this multiplication, seems lost in translation. The most bleeding part was his
answers on the incidents of 1984 & 2002. As far as anti Sikh riots are concerned,
he could have simply protected himself by using this platform to apologize Sikhs worldwide & by doing that he could
have cornered Narendra Modi for 2002.Unfortunately, he missed this golden
opportunity to attack his attackers, especially when he has done it earlier
before four years ago in a youth congress programs press conference. Just a
simple reference of his congress elders could have done that.
Generally for public relations & image,
make over soft platforms are used worldwide or a pre planned, ‘pre set’
interviews are ‘arranged’. In this interview’s case Congress’s media managers
were proved utterly wrong. They put Rahul & Congress’s credibility at
stake. How one can expect Arnab Goswami to ask soft & friendly questions to
Rahul who was facing his first TV interview after a decade.
Though Rahul tried to push his agenda of
RTI, women & youth empowerment & radical changes in ‘system’, he didn’t
sound confident. His constantly sweat face from mid interview was enough proof
of it, though the interview was taken in
‘controlled environment’.
By the way, our ‘Adamant’ Arnab too lost
a good opportunity to ask some more relevant questions regarding congress scion’s
vision about the country’s future (apart from Rahul’s preset agenda). He could
have elevated the level of interview by asking some really ground level
question about congress’s internal problems & Rahul’s vision for next ten
years or so, but he didn’t.
Anyways, it was a lost opportunity for
both of them (fully for Rahulbhai & partly for Arnabbhai) but if we see the
entire episode from a journalistic angle it must be accepted that Rahul was
willing to prove his maturity, but Arnab’s journalistic experience over powered
his political agenda. At the conclusion of this analysis Rahul’s position reminds me a classic Urdu couplet which goes
something like this…
“Samaney Duniyabhar Ke Gham Hai, Aur
Idhar Ek Tanha Hum Hai,
Sainkado Patthar Ek Aaina*,Kab Tak
Aakhir,Aakhir Kab Tak..?”
(*Aaina-Mirror)
(Photo Courtsy-Gogle Images/Nirala Joshi)
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