A Tale of Two Nominations

IN THIS AGE OF the viral Insta-image, illusions evoked by optics can change the course of destiny, cloud the face of vanity, or simply disguise reality. Examples abound.

There are no better conjurers of illusion than politicians. Consider the photograph of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s casually placed arm over Yogi Adityanath’s shoulder. Were the optics illuminating a succession plan? The debate is still raging inconclusively after the image was placed in the public domain.

That was then. Now, many moons later, in the midst of a political Mahabharat with seven acts, could two images have the same enigmatic effect?

Modi basking in the reflected adulation of mesmerised believers in the crucible of bharatiyata— Varanasi. And the recalcitrant scion, Rahul Gandhi, sneaking almost unannounced into his family fief to file his nomination. While Modi demands what he believes is a well-earned reward for “transformative” work, Rahul hopes for benefaction to secure his family’s future.

Politics is played in the shadows but practised in public.

Modi’s show of strength in Varanasi evolved from the public expression of a backroom tactical political imperative. The need to project invincibility in the public domain. That demoralising jack knife that combatants unsheath to bleed confidence out of their opponents. Of the notion or belief that they stand a chance.

With a lot still left to fight for in this election, Modi is hoping that images of him grateful to be drowning in the sea of support, of him being held up as NDA’s totem by a close-knit assembly of influential allies, and his oversized projection by an indulgent media, will underline his stranglehold on the contest. Maintaining the aura of Modi’s dominance is vital to BJP’s campaign. Let’s not forget that the party has this time round put all its eggs in the Modi basket of guarantees.

A war wherein one side is convinced of its inferiority and the other down on hope is never going to be an even contest. The weaker side can only at best hope to negotiate a peace and at least get to set some of the terms of the surrender.

Of course, the other side, in this case Congress, vehemently disagrees. And the party’s top faces have expressed their derision in public for all to note.

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has, for one, dismissed Modi’s Varanasi theatrics as the vainglorious performance of a flailing prima donna refusing to accept that the curtain is coming down.

While Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has focused on the person, Congress’ lead spin doctor, Jairam Ramesh, has focused on the props. Which, according to him, are the totems of Hindutva (the weaponised ‘Jai Shri Ram’ slogans and muscular religiosity) that have chopped India into a million enmities.

But however hard Congress may try to puncture the Modi propaganda balloon, it can’t obscure the optics.

The optics. Rahul Gandhi being dragged to the altar of public judgment in Rae Bareli only for the sake of making a contest out of it is an acknowledgement that the election was over even before it began.

Perhaps the dynast, for all his delusions, knew this well before April 19 when the battle began. Which explains the torturous humming and hawing over taking the fight to Modi’s northern citadel. Which explains why he chose not to pick up Smriti Irani’s audaciously thrown down gauntlet in Amethi. And which also explains the sullen final nod to the pleadings of hangers-on to contest from Rae Bareli.

When a forced truce is installed on June 1 as the last vote impresses itself upon the microchip of the EVM, Rahul Gandhi will hope that his efforts (or lack thereof) will at least win him the consolation prize. The face-saver of ensuring the Gandhi family’s unwavering grip on the grand duchy of Rae Bareli.

Are these two images—Modi in Varanasi and Rahul in Rae Bareli—then the final two acts of the election archived for posterity?

Or are we being cuckolded by the artful illusion of optics?