At a time when the government is expected to come clean about the supply situation of LPG and LNG, it has resorted to hedging the reality by painting a picture of misplaced bravado. On the other hand, social media platforms are awash with videos and eyewitness accounts people running from pillar to post trying to replenish LPG cylinders.
The most alarming bit is the conduct of minsters, who are, otherwise, quick to run down Opposition politicians on social media and TV channels. For most part of the first week of the Iran-US and Israel war a certain minister, who has recently been in the news for keeping the company of a notorious transnational criminal, disappeared from the public eye.
This minister, instead, opted for closed-door, off-the-record briefings for select journalists for disseminating positive spins about how the Modi government is on top of the LPG crisis. The import of these briefings subsequently appeared in newspapers and on TV as news items attributed to ‘sources’. The journalists who attended these briefings were not allowed to carry their phones into the room for the fear of someone recording the discussions surreptitiously. They would be asked to deposit their phones with the office staff before meeting the minister behind closed doors. A few journalists attended these briefings confirmed to gfiles that the minister was it his evasive best when pointed questions were put across.
Anyone who dared to stray from the government’s line even slightly were reprimanded by barring them from attending the closed-door briefings. In one case, the minster called up the owner of a newspaper to express his displeasure about an editorial that was mildly critical of the government’s handling of the LPG crisis. The next day, the minister’s staff did not call the journalist in question to the briefing.The Modi government has mastered the modus operandi of providing headlines and news breaks as WhatsApp messages that are attributed to ‘sources’. There is a method behind the government’s state of play.
By not placing the information on record through official statements, the government prevents the creation of a trail of records that can be potentially used to hold it to account. Muddying the infosphere is a tried and tested playbook of those who believe that they are above the prosaic details of governance, because they are convinced that they have been divinely ordained to rule like a priest-king.
