The King is never wrong and even if he is, it is upon his noble courtiers to remind the ill-informed peasantry about the greatness and grandiose of the King. The world may have moved towards democracy and done away with monarchy to a fair degree, but the culture of the courtier and the importance of their presence seem to be omnipresent in our modern democracies.
If we take the Indian example, the Gandhi family has established themselves as the kings or the de-facto rulers of the land called India. It is of paramount importance that a king has his courtiers and to solve this problem a section of the media has offered their expertise. This media is persistent about propagating a finely tuned message about the Dynasts and how it was them and them only who created the Indian nation and others were merely side watchers.
Thus constant devotion to their king has often made them write or say things that may seem perplexing to the ordinary citizen. The case in point, when today the entire nation is talking about the critical medical condition of our former prime minister Sri Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
These courtiers just like clockwork started to link the ailing leader with the king and narrated a story about how even the opposition revered their king and respected him. This subtle gesture that the King is always right and his magnanimity is over narrow political lines is a brilliantly manipulative tact used by the courtiers to subdue the peasants into believing that the Dynast can do nothing wrong.
When I & @Outlookindia colleagues met #Vajpayee to present him a copy of this story, he looked at us, said with a laugh, “Ah Outlook, khatra!” Journalists were never the enemy for Vajpayee, nor were they “anti-nationals”. Truly the Swadeshi Nehru. https://t.co/EA3GAcBEYB
— Sagarika Ghose (@sagarikaghose) August 16, 2018
Sagarika Ghosh in a rather sycophantic way linked an outlook article on Atal Bihari Vajpayee with the late Rajiv Gandhi. It is not only that several others from the courtier’s club also posted similar tweets and tried to mimic this bizarre adulation of the Nehru dynasty and somewhat disgusting opportunism displayed by Sagarika and her ilk.
Vajpayee ji while grieving Rajivji’s death had addressed him as his ‘younger brother’ and had said ‘Rajiv Gandhi is the reason I am alive today. Today I’m in the Opposition and people expect me to speak like an opponent. But I can’t. I only want to talk about what he did for me’. pic.twitter.com/i65jgJ0lUa
— Sadhavi Khosla (@sadhavi) August 16, 2018
When rajiv gandhi died Vajpayee emotionally said i owe my life to him : political courtesies .. niceties .. decency .. that’s the hallmark of Vajpayee era : am sure he would shudder to see the muck on social media today
— pallavi ghosh (@_pallavighosh) August 16, 2018
This is indicative of the underlying mindset of such courtiers. It is only when the King can be praised then only talk about the greatness of a man, as in the politician or the person is just a mere tool to be used to propagate the vision of their king.
It is indeed saddening that after 71 years of Independence we still have an unofficial monarchy in the Indian state, a monarchy which exerts its power through such courtiers who pose themselves as journalists.
