Public image, both as it is projected by political parties and perceived by the public, is instrumental in determining electoral choices. Image construction enables one to exercise influence through policy pronouncements. Sombre attempts are made to intertwine issues and images of the parties in the campaigning process to better appeal to the masses.
However, the promises made are forgotten too soon and are revived only five years later with an obnoxious proximity to the dates of the subsequent round of elections.
Mass media is increasingly being used as a medium of promoting the marketable ‘good intentions’ of the political parties by projecting an electable image of the candidates. While social media has been self-celebratory in stating that it ensures a good practice of democracy and enables transparency in governance, the cracking down on Facebook users who share any posts critical of the ruling dispensations highlights a completely different narrative. A question thus arises about social media’s role – whether it’s promoting democracy or acting as a mere panopticon?
With India’s general elections drawing closer, it’s interesting to look at how Bollywood is being increasingly used as an instrument of propaganda. Although this is not new, the scale and mediums (web-series, short films, movies, biopics) through which this propaganda is carried out today is more far-reaching than ever before.
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The fact that the biopic on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which aims at perking up BJP’s electoral prospects while reviving Vivek Oberoi’s sinking acting career, is set to release just a few days before the election commences, could be anything but a coincidence.
Moreover, The Tashkent Files, a movie that questions the suspicious circumstances around Lal Bahadur Shatri’s death is also scheduled to be released just around the elections. My name is RaGa is also slated for release around the election dates. Uri, which released earlier this year, glorified the surgical strikes of 2016 to no ends, and promoted the josh associated with being ‘Indian’.
While movies like Thackeray and Toilet: Ek Prem Katha (promoting Swacch Bharat), which celebrate the ruling dispensation, might help serve narrow political whims, they hardly enrich democratic values. In other words, such practices do not augur well for a democratic society, as per qualitative evidence.
Jean Baudrillard, the French sociologist and a cultural theorist described hyper-reality in postmodern societies that are technologically advanced as a condition in which the distinction between what is real and what is fiction is increasingly blurred by the portrayal of images by the media. It’s diligently crafted art that juxtaposes physical reality with virtual reality, and human and artificial intelligence.
While Baudrillard founded the concept decades ago, hyper-reality resonates at a much larger scale today than was ever possible. With social media, we are submerged in it. Our digital footprints are mapped by agencies to outline better ways in order to lure us into manipulation.
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With elections just around the corner, several other aspects merit closer scrutiny. From excessive political outcry over ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ to initiatives such as ‘Make in India’ and the recently announced meagre agricultural subsidies all seem to portray an image that is far from the actual state of affairs. The latest pre-poll political gimmick included the railways serving tea in paper cups with “main bhi chowkidaar” written on them.
In a country where 18.78 million Indians face housing shortage, 45 farmers commit suicide each day, with 7.20% unemployment and spine-chilling crimes against women, we have a lot to achieve. Yet, the NDA-led government at the Centre seems to have its priorities in place, by enabling outfit like the Bhartiya Gau Raksha Dal which has succeeded in ensuring that India is safer for cows than women. It showcases the persistent dichotomies in our political belief system wherein Bharat Mata is worshipped while women lack the basic dignity to live.
Hashtag initiatives that trend on Twitter are another point of influence of social media, yet the realities are far from being captured. The pertinent question, therefore, is when politics and development are all about image creation and publicity by public relations professionals, how much truth really exists and how many of unbiased facts do we have access to?
In the upcoming elections, who will bag the big win? Film director Prakash Jha recently stated that movies don’t influence the election outcomes. He may be right, but given the education and awareness level, it still succeeds, in whatever capacity, to waver the audiences.
In certain ways, postmodern theory seems to justify the current information environment well and as the dates draw even further closer, we might find a lot more controversial videos and images being leaked coincidentally. The impact of this hyper-reality can be only analysed at greater depths post the election results of 2019.
Debarati Bhattacharya is a doctoral student registered with the Faculty of Planning at CEPT University, Ahmedabad.