The author is a former minister in undivided Andhra Pradesh and former chief of Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee. He represented Janagaon Assembly Constituency in Assembly for many years.
“He’s going to give me a farewell kiss, but what good is it to me now when he never did it before”- Alejandro Jodorowsky
Exactly this is what Ghulam Nabi Azad, leader of opposition in RS, must have felt, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi bid him an emotional farewell or almost turned his farewell address a moment of tearjerker or an emotion filled articulation.
For, a tear or two in PM’s eye,( read not in two eyes), which made it an emotional moment, came immediately a day after he gave a “shout-out” to Azad, while he was jibing, and referring to the Group of 23 in the Congress.
Like that farewell kiss in the above quote, Azad might not be in knowhow what good a farewell tear in PM’s eye would have done to him other than helping PM scoring some political brownie points for shedding an emotional farewell to rival politician.
What makes one to wonder whether the tearjerker moment in parliament scripted through moving tribute of the PM, mere an art of playing to the gallery given the way he had unceremoniously dumped LK Advani, his political guru or when he had enacted no such emotional tribute when curtains had come down on a long exemplary political career of Adavni.
Also Read : Modi Flags off 8 connecting trains to Statue of Unity
One can recall no such tear filled emotional farewell was articulated by the PM when he was bidding farewell to his political guru, nor he expressed the same words that that he said for Azad – “I would not let you retire, I will continue taking your advice. My doors are always open for you.”
The public memory is still afresh on how he clipped the wings of LK Advani when he succeeded him as PM candidate and rubbed salt in his guru’s wounds when he made him to confine to the group of Margadrashaks- a club of old men with nothing to do.
The PM once again proved when he jerked a tear or two in RS that when it comes to playing politics he would play it anywhere and at anytime be it a farewell address or vote of thanks to Presidential address or from foreign platform. He knows exactly what works with his audience and he times it perfectly and he tailors speech accordingly.
Also Read : KCR: I will be CM for another 10 years
It’s surprising to see a PM who has no word of sympathy for those who were killed in Gujarat riots, those migrant labourers who were killed on railway tracks and to those who were made to trek thousands of miles and for the farmers sitting just a few kilometers away from his office has a tear or two shed for an opposition leader.
We all know how the other veterans like MM Joshi, Yashwanth Sinha were sidelined and confined to something irrelevant called ‘Margadarshak Mandali”, to which and to whom he neither had a tear nor his doors open nor was there any occasion where he took an advice or two from them.
The sidelining of his seniors and guru is a manifestation of his politics which lack ethics or emotions and how he relegated them to backburner. It was surprising, why he never felt it was necessary that his seniors whom he had poorly treated also deserved such emotion filled farewell that he showed to his rival in RS.
No doubt the video with his emotion filled tearjerker is moving and would go viral in social media to help him to turn the moment to suit his political greatness and the magnanimity that he has even for his rivals.
Also Read : Revanth pins hopes on TPCC Chief post
The tear-filled emotional farewell to Azad in RS will now be exploited by Bhakths to create hype and publicity…around the greatness of their Mahan Neta. But, the question being asked is was all this emotional filled hoopla necessary? Could it have been avoided? Was he trying to mimic Rakesh Tikait, whose tearful message turned out to be a spark of the revival of the farmers’ protest?
Modi seems to be the only PM of the country since independence who used his emotions smartly, anywhere and anytime to make masses believe of his action rather than the substance of the actions. He seems to be the master who knows Indian public pulse rather than their actual need. It remains to be seen how long he will be able to sway the public opinion in his favour with these two gifts—his smart emotions and weak opposition.
The emotion filled show won’t stop here…..nor the play would end here. Picture abhi bhaaki hai….to take to a point where the certain idea of Truth would become a casualty of manipulation of emotions. The day is not far when People see through his emotional drama and rhetoric.
(The author is a former minister in United Andhra Pradesh and ex-president of the TPCC)
Also Read : Neglect of agricultural labourers
