In these grim times, when the nation is faced with a multitude of problems and needs some hope that all will be well, it is good to know that there is someone at the helm who has our interests at heart and is changing things around. No, I am not referring to you-know-who, the decisive leader who will lead us all to greater glories, but to another, who has already begun to change our lives — well at least the lives of those who live in his domain — for the better. I speak of Arvind Kejriwal.
Don’t believe me. Just see the ad that Mr Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party has released on television channels that portrays how he has transformed Delhi and improved the lot of its citizens. At one time, they had to deal with high prices, electricity tariffs and cheating auto drivers; now, power bills are more reasonable and as for those autowallas, they politely stop for every passenger and switch on their swanky electronic meters rather than ask for unreasonable amounts from passengers. Life is good and
it’s all thanks to Mr Kejriwal.
If you haven’t seen this commercial, you should, if only to see how a man who came to power by pitching himself to be completely different from the usual, garden-variety politician has transformed into a borderline megalomaniac determined to create a personality cult around himself. The two-minute ad shows a middle class housewife going about her chores while the voice-over talks of how difficult her life was because things had become unaffordable. “I used to cry by myself, wondering how I would run the house,” she muses. All this in monochrome, no doubt to symbolise her despair with the bad old days.
“Phir Kejriwal ki sarkar aayi,” she says, lighting her gas stove, and instantly the film turns into glorious colour. Power and water tariffs fall and happy days are here again. She shows the bill to her husband, who is happily watching television in the living room — won’t be like him to be doing things around the house. “Humare liye to Kejriwal bahut hi madadgar ban gaya hai,” says the voice-over while the housewife looks up in gratitude, a neat hint at his divine status, perhaps?
The next part is perhaps even more telling. The TV set is showing one of those nightly panel discussions and the voice-over intones, “Roz TV dekhte hain, to aisa lagta hai ki saare beimaan ek jagah ikattha hue hain. Kejriwal ke peeche haath dho ke pade hain”, a clear dig at not just other politicians, but also at the media. Mr Kejriwal, who has in many ways benefited from the media’s saturation coverage of him — far more than what newbie politicians get — has made no secret of his utter contempt for journalists, alleging they are conspiring against him. Now we know he thinks of them as “beimaan”, (dishonest) who are all out to get him. She peels her lauki or bottle gourd — which I found somewhat appropriate in a strange way — and expresses her anger (gussa) at these nameless enemies of her hero. Dinner served to the master of the house — not yet to herself — she appeals to God to keep “Arvind” safe and sound. Is he in any danger? The ad certainly implies that. It all ends with her looking at the camera and exhorting all of us to join hands with Mr Kejriwal.
It is a fascinating ad that can be deconstructed in several ways. Many women have already criticised it for reinforcing of the worst kind of male chauvinism — husband chilling in front of the TV set while the wife slogs away in the kitchen, but I think that is missing the point. The ad is supposed to do exactly that — Mr Kejriwal knows who his core supporters are and showing the male sharing home duties would disturb them immensely. We may like to think Indian society is changing, but not so much and not so fast, and certainly not in every strata. Mr Kejriwal and his advisers know their audience.
What is more fascinating is the complete and total absence of an entity called the AAP, which Mr Kejriwal heads. It is all about him and him alone. His name is mentioned countless times. He is the leader, the provider of hope and most of all, the messiah. It is he who has led his folk from darkness to light and it is he who should be thanked; what is more, his remarkable feat has angered power-brokers and corrupt people. Smartly, the ad has been done in a sarkari directorate of advertising and visual publicity-style rather than in the slick and dazzling manner in which Narendra Modi’s ads were made; the latter wanted to aim at the “aspirational” Indian who wanted to become a global citizen, the former understands that his support base is from the middle and lower middle-class who feels put upon and alienated from the big-shot powerful types. Hence, the auto driver is shown to be honest, but in the “before” portion, there is no reference to how he used to cheat his customers.
This, to my mind, is an example of great communication. Mr Kejriwal is actually saying, “Achhe din are here and I am responsible for them.” With all the resources at his command and his vast base of fanatical supporters, Mr Modi has not been able to convince anyone that things have improved; Mr Kejriwal, while battling an unfriendly lieutenantgovernor and Central government, has managed it with this modestly filmed ad. These guerrilla tactics is what set him apart.
As for those who think that he is becoming bigger than the AAP and does not tolerate any potential rivals and naysayers, ask yourself — how is that different from anyone else leading a political party? No, there is no point complaining about him; it would be wiser to pick up some of his tricks and think about how to deal with him in the future because Mr Kejriwal is here to stay.
