The Five O' Clock Shadow Phenomenon

The Five O' Clock Shadow Phenomenon

The Nixon-Kennedy Debates in the 1960s were held at the beginning of the new medium of television. Kennedy was the younger, more suave, better-looking, wore better suits, carried himself with grace, and did not scowl. Neither did he have a five o’ clock shadow. Nixon ended up looking disreputable on the black and white TVs of the time, and nobody listened to what he had to say. Kennedy put out advertisements asking if anyone would buy a second-hand car from Nixon and consolidated the smear.

And in the end, thanks also to a very well-funded campaign, his projection as a war hero, visionary author, Harvard man etc. managed to win the narrowest of victories. Later, after the Kennedy and Johnson administrations ran their course, Nixon put a lot of his visual shortcomings behind him and became President. Richard Nixon’s comprehensive makeover process was described in a seminal book called The Making Of a President. That was the beginning of the televised political campaign even as radio trotted alongside, gamely trying to keep up. 

Today, with the nine Indian general election dates announced, the model code of conduct in place, at least two aspirants for power are clearly television and social-media phenomenons. And the presence of TV, Facebook, You Tube, digital alternate media etc. is so ubiquitous, as to have become unremarkable.

Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi of the BJP is, of course, head and shoulders above the rest of the 2014 field. He fascinates the media because of his substantial oratorical skills, his Indira Gandhi-like use of local headgear, as Rajdeep Sardesai pointed out, his considerable experience and success in Gujarat, and the newness of his development message slanted towards empowering the States. Narendra Modi’s bearing, natural authority, sartorial care, grooming and tone all convey subliminal messages that project the impressive future PM.

The other TV  phenomenon is an upstart challenger with next to no governance credentials or political experience. But this one brilliantly manipulates extensive media coverage, despite little substance to his pitch. Without this media ‘oxygen’ as senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley puts it, Arvind Kejriwal and his AAP would fade very quickly. But Kejriwal knows how to keep the spotlight on himself with ever new inventions of ‘newsworthiness’.

But despite agitating his way into the national consciousness purporting to be a corruption crusader, Kejriwal’s political reality show, running under the camera’s gaze, is increasingly coming unstuck. His on-record political circus is riddled with casually sinister contradictions, bare-faced lies, camp antics begging photo opportunities, street spectacle and sound-bytes.

And in the middle of the orchestrated chaos, Kejriwal positions himself like a beggar king out to strike terror in the hearts of politicians of experience and captains of industry. He is a fanatical street agitator turned messianic pretender, grubby in sandals and sweater, coughing and smiling menacingly, spouting extravagant and far-fetched promises to cleanse the system. Meanwhile, he may well have overdone it as the Election Commission considers punishment for AAP’s illegal attacks on the BJP HQ and other offices after the promulgation of the model code of conduct.

When the last vote is counted for this election on May 16^th, it will become clear that Kejriwal and the AAP are neither larger than life, nor possessed of any substantial vision. The establishment of Lokpals and Lokyuktas is not a panacea, any more than the medieval Catholic Church’s appointment of Inquisitors and Witchfinder Generals.

Indeed the blatant attempt to appoint a partisan Lokpal on the part of the outgoing UPA Government tells one that the Lokpal may become yet another ineffective ‘caged parrot’ of an institution. In the political evolution of a democracy, probity and integrity cannot be forcibly grafted on. If we are about to unfold a proud electoral process in the midst of our venality and corruption, it is because the Election Commission, amongst our very many compromised institutions, has managed to stay unsubverted and capable of delivering the will and verdict of the people.

Meanwhile, the economy and polity is making ready for a Modi-led NDA Government. The stock market is poised at minor all-time highs in terms of the Nifty and Sensex numbers, the debt market is receiving substantial FII inflows, but the widening and deepening of everything as we surge towards adding another $1 trillion in GDP is going to begin after May 2014. We are currently told India will most probably become a $3 trillion economy by 2021; but under NaMo/ NDA stewardship there is likely to be an advance on this date.  

It is ironic and not a little sad to see that Congress is truly reduced to a party of ‘power brokers’ as Rajiv Gandhi called it in the eighties, with no cadres worth the name anymore. That is how a negligible pretender like the AAP makes such undeserved headway in the national capital, and presumes bold enough to try and strut on the national stage.

(815 words)

March 7th, 2014

Gautam Mukherjee