The Narendra Modi thread

[Sachin=GOD]

how about acknowledging the fact that all these major media outlets are private corporations whose prime motive is profit and naturally' date=' they will showcase whatever gets them the most [s']TRPs money... it doesnt matter if its Modi's speech or Republic Day Parade :dontknow:

TRPs can (and are) be easily manipulated and many big channels/networks have decided to stop using TAM Data (the only method to asses TV viewership in India) - http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/big-broadcasters-walk-out-of-tam-call-trp-system-absurd/article4796241.ece As you said, the prime motive is Profit so if they are paid money to cover Modi, they will do it irrespective of their support for Kaangress.

[Sachin=GOD]

Actually paid media is only for BJP... Congress can't even get this done for any of its leaders even if they promise to pay all the media...

Cong doesn't work that way - if you follow certain Indian channels/newspapers then you would know that the "paid news" concept is of a more advanced nature for Cong where the channels don't cover anti-Cong stories or fail to do proper follow up. Cong also realizes that it doesn't have many commanding public speakers like the BJP so you will rarely see any Cong rallies being telecast LIVE on news channels. If Pappu does give a major speech (as the CII one or the one in the Cong Chintan Shivir in Jaipur), it is covered by ALL channels.

[asterix]

^ Not comparing with Pappu.... But I'm pretty sure not all channels covered live the Pappu CII speech...

[Crookbond]

how about acknowledging the fact that all these major media outlets are private corporations whose prime motive is profit and naturally' date=' they will showcase whatever gets them the most TRPs... it doesnt matter if its Modi's speech or Republic Day Parade :dontknow:[/quote'] While what you say is true, paid news is not the same as sensational news. You seem to be referring to the latter and not the former. Paid news may not drive TRPs by itself but could be broadcasted as the channel was paid to do so.

[FischerTal]

While what you say is true' date=' paid news is not the same as sensational news. You seem to be referring to the latter and not the former. Paid news may not drive TRPs by itself but could be broadcasted as the channel was paid to do so.[/quote'] but the political race is sensational in some sense, especially the build-up to the main event. You should have seen the atmosphere here in 2012 US Presidential election, even though most people knew Obama would win by a long mile... All cable news channels were showcasing only two things, the Dems attacking the Repubs and the Repubs attacking the Dems... I think in India, this could be the case as well....

[diga]

Pappu: :hysterical:Yes we can

[Crookbond]

but the political race is sensational in some sense' date=' especially the build-up to the main event. You should have seen the atmosphere here in 2012 US Presidential election, even though most people knew Obama would win by a long mile... All cable news channels were showcasing only two things, the Dems attacking the Repubs and the Repubs attacking the Dems... I think in India, this could be the case as well....[/quote'] Yes - I do not disagree. Therefore, paid news is generally broadcasted with a sensationalist spin to it even when it isn't. If it not done so, it will be easy to detect such "news".

[Sachin=GOD]

Bhaiyya' date=' so what's your point? Lets say it was all paid for... How does this affects the outcome? [b']You might also say that BJP actually paid the crowd to attend instead of the crowd paying to attend... Whichever way, it appears to be a success... You also trying to imply that BJP only pays for all this to Congress channels during specific events but doesn't pays them normally when they hound Modi 24/7? You think Congress was out bid by BJP in this case? Yaar talk some sense...

we all know how political parties get "crowd" to attend their rallies. I would never, ever judge the success/failure of a leader by the number of people attending his/her rally because the days of people coming on their own to hear their leaders speak are long gone. Nowadays preparation for such rallies starts weeks in advance with all the nearby district unit chiefs being given responsibility to bring certain number of people to the rally (most are brought in by Buses and in certain cases even special trains have been known to run for the purpose of bringing in people for rallies). I'll give you an ex - about 2 years (or maybe it was 3) there was a HUGE BJP rally in Delhi and more than 5 lakh eople attended it. Now honestly tell me - do you think 5 lakh people in Delhi would attend a BJP rally? For that rally every single State Unit of the BJP had been given targets of the number of people from the state who would have to be brought to Delhi to attend the rally. Same thing happens with big rallies of all other parties so don't go by the crowd attending the rally. If the stakes are high (as they were in this case) then you will almost always see a huge crowd in any rally. Cong has been in power for 9 years now so obviously the channels have got a lot more benefits from them (we can see that in channels like NDTV which have not made profits in around 8-9 years but continue to attract big investors willing to invest millions or IBN Network or Hindustan Times etc) so BJP can never compete with the Cong in that aspect. Besides, many channels/media heads are connected to the COng in some way or the other and some even belong to families of COng members so they have an obvious bias towards the Cong. Here's a small example of how Cong pays channels - http://www.newslaundry.com/2012/02/30-crore-of-butter/

[saneindian]

Modi now doesn't have to do rallies in these urban areas. He needs to travel to the hinterlands, go to the smaller towns, kasbas and villages and address people there. Rather than these mega rallies, some sort of a pad yatra across India spread across 2-3 months would be a good start. And yes please no Hindutva rhetoric. Let the focus be purely on development, corruption and other failures of UPA government.

[saneindian]

Paid or not paid, for a party that has just 3/294 MLAs in the state, it was an impressive rally. Some news channels, perhaps ABPnews said "the crowd strength was not more than 8000 people", NDTV said "kuch hazaron ki bheed" !! lol

[FischerTal]

Modi now doesn't have to do rallies in these urban areas. He needs to travel to the hinterlands, go to the smaller towns, kasbas and villages and address people there. Rather than these mega rallies, some sort of a pad yatra across India spread across 2-3 months would be a good start. And yes please no Hindutva rhetoric. Let the focus be purely on development, corruption and other failures of UPA government.

i didnt hear any hindutva rhetoric in yesterday's speech, but yes the villages have to be toured extensively, especially in UP.

[saneindian]

"Kuch hazar log" to yahan khade hain

[FischerTal]

"Kuch hazar log" to yahan khade hain

whats perplexing is how did the people understand what he said given that the speech was in Hindi

[saneindian]

Kuch aur hazar at Nizam College grounds, next to LB Stadium.

[saneindian]

whats perplexing is how did the people understand what he said given that the speech was in Hindi

Hyderabadis can understand bit of hindi, primarily because of a significant muslim population and popularity of urdu

[Haarkarjeetgaye]

any amount of campaigning will go in BJPs favour for national elections. not in modis favour unless he has guts to contest and win on his own as bjp leader

[diga]

An old article dated MARCH 18, 2002 on Modi

Elsewhere in Gujarat, the problem was broadly similar. The state police force is about 43,000 strong, though only 12,000 of them are armed. The SRP numbers 14,000. The mobs which targeted Muslims in rural areas ranged in strength from 500 to 10,000. In Sardarpura, where 29 people were burnt to death, the mob was over 500-strong while in Pandarwada, where more than 50 were burnt to death in their homes (the police says only eight died) the mob, drawn from people of nearby villages, numbered over 5,000. Gujarat Minister of State for Home Gordhan Jhadaphiya says "there is ample evidence to show that the police resorted to effective firing against rioters". Union Law Minister Arun Jaitley stated in the Rajya Sabha that the police fired 2,000 rounds which killed 98 rioters. In addition, 4,000 people were arrested for rioting in the past week. The problem, according to former director-general of police M.M. Singh, one of the finest officers Gujarat has seen, began in Godhra on February 27. He says the police should have immediately cordoned off the area from which the attackers came and taken strong action instead of allowing the culprits to flee. This, he says, would have pacified Hindu feelings to some extent right at the very outset. "Where any act is bound to lead to communal violence the police should always take strong steps against the group which has committed the act. That invariably has a salutary effect." Another former police officer feels this didn't happen because quite a few officers in Ahmedabad and other places were too political and partisan towards the Hindutva cadres. There's also much criticism over the delay in calling for the army's help. According to Modi, he had officially called for the army by 4 p.m. on February 28. By 6.30 p.m. a formal request had landed in Delhi. By 1 a.m. on March 1, George Fernandes had landed in Ahmedabad at Modi's behest. At great personal risk, he bravely took to the streets next morning to check the violence. At 11.30 a.m. the army was staging a flag march in Ahmedabad. (see box) Significantly, Modi tried to ensure that the bodies of the victims were cremated near the hospital where they were brought for post-mortem at 3.30 a.m. on February 28 from Godhra. The Sola Civil Hospital is on the western outskirts of Ahmedabad where the Muslim population is negligible. Cremating the bodies there, Modi thought, would have helped contain the anger. Some VHP leaders present at the spot were also under instructions to convince the relatives of the victims to agree to the proposal. But the moment the proposal was floated, the kin of the dead flared up and accused the BJP "of acting in a manner worse than the Congress". Vishnu Sathwara, a VHP worker shouted: "After using us to climb to the top, the BJP leaders have now left us at the mercy of the wolves." The retaliatory violence began almost as soon as the bodies reached the homes of the Ram sevaks. So, a single action which, had it succeeded, could have contained violence never took off. Says political analyst Arvind Bosmia: "It is beyond the means of the Sangh Parivar to lead such an upsurge. It was largely a spontaneous reaction to the Godhra killings. And not just Modi but the entire Sangh Parivar has been put on this strident path. In fact Modi has been swept up in this militancy." Says another party worker alluding to the fact that Modi was, until last fortnight, unwilling to take action on issues relating to Hindutva for fear of jeopardising the future of the BJP-led NDA Government at the Centre: "Ever since he took over Modi was hell bent upon becoming a Vajpayee but the people have swept him in the direction of Sardar Patel." SEE NO EVIL: As thousands-strong mobs took to the streets in revenge attacks everywhere, policemen were reduced to bystanders 98 people were killed in police firing in the state. There's another story doing the rounds about which few are keen to talk about. According to it, Modi was given an ultimatum on February 27 itself by the VHP leadership to act against the perpetrators of the Godhra carnage by evening or else face the music. By evening that day the police had detained two of the six main accused besides 50 others. That was found to be inadequate by the VHP because the number of attackers in Godhra was over 1,000. Modi, of course, denies this altogether sticking to his stand: "Had the police been inactive how could I have controlled riots in just three days? Just look at Gujarat's history of communal riots. The riots have continued for several days in the past after having once begun." The polarisation along communal lines is total at the moment. As the secular lobby plays up the anti-Muslim violence more and more while underplaying the Godhra tragedy which was actually the cause of the violence, Modi and the BJP reap more and more benefits at the ground level from the consolidation of the Hindu vote. Says Kalpesh Shah, an Ahmedabad businessmen: "How can those who are demanding the dismissal of Modi forget that it all began with the Godhra incident? If the anti-Muslim violence was unprecedented the Godhra incident too was unprecedented in independent India. The more the secularists gun for Modi the more popular he will become among the Hindus." At present, Modi is clearly the unwitting beneficiary of the Hindu backlash. No wonder there are whispers that the next assembly poll due in February 2003, might happen this June. The political dividends might well accrue to the BJP but the March riots will continue to haunt Modi. He will have to live down the image of a man who gained politically from the deaths of innocent people.

Chronology of events

FEB 27, 2002 8.03 AM: Incident at Godhra claims lives of 57 kar sevaks 8.30 AM: Modi is informed of the carnage. 4.30 PM: Gujarat Assembly adjourned and Modi visits Godhra where he holds a meeting, giving shoot-at-sight orders to the police. 10.30 PM: CM holds meeting with senior government officials at Gandhinagar; orders curfew in sensitive places and pre-emptive arrests. FEB 28, 2002 8.00 AM: Special control room set up in CM's house to monitor the situation during VHP bandh. 12.00 PM: Modi informally contacts Centre for calling in army. Cabinet Secretary T.R. Prasad tells Defence Secretary Y. Narain that army is to be mobilised. 12.30 PM: Vice-Chief of Army Staff Lt-General N.C. Vij tells Narain that only two columns are available as the rest are deployed on the border. 12.35 PM: Prasad directs Narain to advise Chief of Army Staff Gen Padmanabhan to have troops ready due to the rapidly deteriorating situation in Ahmedabad. 12.45 PM: Narain tells Vij to arrange immediate movement of troops to Gujarat. 4.00 PM: Modi requests army deployment following consultations with Advani. 6.45 PM: Cabinet Committee on Security meets under the prime minister's chairmanship; approves the immediate movement of troops to Ahmedabad and other parts of Gujarat. Vajpayee deputes Fernandes to supervise the deployment of troops. 7.00 PM: The Gujarat Government's formal request for army deployment is received in Delhi. 11.30 PM: Airlifting of troops begins. MARCH 1, 2002 2.30 AM: A brigade reaches Ahmedabad. The 54th Division's General Officer Commanding contacts acting Chief Secretary. 9.00 AM: Discussions between representatives of the army and the state take place, followed by troop flag march in Ahmedabad. Ahmedabad police received 3,500 calls on February 28.

[adi B]

paid or unpaid,the bottom line is that the speech was a success be it in the media or general public,heck i was receiving all kinds of texts to be sure to watch the speech from my acquaintances, even my friends (congress supporters) acknowledged that fact today..not seen such large scale speeches from congress leaders nowadays ,would love to see

[adi B]

Modi now doesn't have to do rallies in these urban areas. He needs to travel to the hinterlands, go to the smaller towns, kasbas and villages and address people there. Rather than these mega rallies, some sort of a pad yatra across India spread across 2-3 months would be a good start. And yes please no Hindutva rhetoric. Let the focus be purely on development, corruption and other failures of UPA government.

exactly,i mentioned it here couple of months back..the votes from rural areas is the backbone of forming the govn,modi should make his presence felt in such areas

[adi B]

whats perplexing is how did the people understand what he said given that the speech was in Hindi

hyderabadis can understand/speak hindi very well,its a well developed multi cultural city..i loved it when i went there and had zilch communication problems