Congress rewards its loyalists and how.

Usually found hanging around Republic TV office with footwear in his hand, stalking Arnab Goswami and generally displaying creepy obsessive behaviour, ‘comedian’ Kunal Kamra has now found a new platform. Recently, in a six-minute video, he went on a ranting spree, using exaggeration, selectively manipulated information and a cocktail of unconnected facts and rhetorics which he thinks is clever sarcasm. Giving a total Dhruv Rathee pro-max vibes, Kamra tries to paint that Indian government failed in managing the Chinese coronavirus pandemic.

But this is not about the content, or rather lack of it, in this rant in NYT. It is more about how Congress rewards its loyalists. How unknown idiots are projected as ‘brave voices’, who sometimes end up collecting lakhs of funding for lifestyle expenses under the guise of being ‘RTI activist’ when RTI just takes Rs 10 application fee.

The rewards of being Congress loyalist or someone who toes the party line need not necessarily be in cash. You see, one Rahul Gandhi fangirl was recently made the Consulting Editor of the party’s mouthpiece National Herald. Similarly, Kunal Kamra, abusive troll and propagandist masquerading as comedian, got space in New York Times, which has been known for its racist articles against India and a very evident anti-India bias.

Most of these people have no real achievements in life to boast about. Their only claim to fame is being anti-Modi and visceral hate for the RSS. You would often see them casually refer to the RSS as ‘terrorist organisation’ and make ‘cow urine’ jibes towards ‘Sanghis’.

All they have to do is toe the Congress line and play the hero card. On one hand, Kangana Ranaut gets vilified only for one tweet asserting her Hindu identity and putting out one pro-Modi tweet. But, on the other hand, useful jokers like Kamra end up getting international platform to whine against India because they speak the language Rahul Gandhi understands.

Here is how it typically works for some. They’d put up a distasteful tweet, sometimes completely fake news and then get called out for same. When Police decides to take action against them for spreading fake news which could lead to communal unrest in country, they would play the victim card that they are being targeted over ‘tweet’. International media will give them space to share their grievances where they will portray themselves as martyrs who are ‘speaking truth to the power’ and hence are being ‘hounded by state machinery’. But they will not say that their ‘truth to power’ was fake news that could lead to communal unrest.

And what is worse? The fake news were originally propagated by a Congress-friendly ‘fact-checker’. They have been regularly cleaning up the mess left behind by Congress.

These ‘liberals’ have their ‘activism’ inspired from the West. All they do is replace ‘white supremacist’ to ‘Hindutva supremacist’ and claim to be ‘fighting for justice’. Peppered with theatrics, these ‘activists’ like to portray themselves as some sort of fighters for justice who are ‘silenced’.

That is why a cartoonist recently cried himself hoarse after he got a notice from Twitter about his tweet. Almost every one of us has received such notice. But this cartoonist played up his victim card. That’s where Congress came to his rescue to attack the ruling government, conveniently forgetting the draconian section 66A of the IT Act which Congress’ Kapil Sibal held so dear. To those who have forgotten the dark ages of UPA era, section 66A of the IT Act made posting offensive comments online a crime punishable by jail.

These are the new heroes of Congress ecosystem. A Rahul Gandhi ‘fan’ who is usually the first responder on all of his tweets spouting pearls of wisdom, a ‘fact-checker’ who spreads fake news and a ‘comedian’ whose ‘jokes’ appear staler than the accidentally squished orange I forgot in my bag and which now smells like revenge.

In his book, Sanghi Who Never Went To A Shakha, Rahul Roushan said, “As the term itself indicates, it is not supposed to be an organized clique that secretly meets and strategizes how to maintain the status quo, where it enjoys enormous power and privilege to influence public opinion. The constituents of this ecosystem include journalists, academics, jurists, bureaucrats, activists and artists, and of course the politicians. They end up helping each other.

For example, a journalist gives credence and legitimacy to an activist or artist through positive media coverage of their work, and in return the artist or activist wouldn’t say anything about the kind of journalism being practised by that journalist. An academic will make sure that impressionable young minds are willing to recognize only a particular type of journalists and artists as ‘real’ journalists and artists, while a politician or bureaucrat would reward such academics by giving them posts in policy-making bodies. Such bodies would come up with helpful policies that jurists would uphold.

This is just an indicative set of interrelationships. There can be many other permutations and combinations, where the constituent units can help each other. The constituents feed each other as their interests feed into each other. In the end, everyone needs each other to keep their own interests safeguarded. This interdependence is what makes it an ecosystem.”

You see, the ecosystem is not a secret society that meets on a new moon night doing some secret rituals somewhere. It’s not that someone sitting in Congress office called up NYTimes to give space to Kamra. At least one hopes that is not true, but it is quite possible because one never knows since the standards at NYTimes have taken quite a hit.

However, this is how the ecosystem helps each other. Kunal Kamra now gets to call himself a ‘columnist’ with NYTimes, which will obviously increase his worth in the ecosystem. And NYTimes gets free hits from the Indian right wing readers who would otherwise not care much about it, just to trash it. But more importantly, NYTimes gets an opportunity to further their racist, anti-India agenda to show that India is a messed up country. That is also how Rana Ayyub plays along with Washington Post. Win-win for both.

This is also why I will never get rewarded. You see, I am on the ‘wrong side’ of the well-oiled ecosystem. While the other side accepts people like Rathee and Kamra as towering intellectuals. It is a good thing, though. It will continue to give me more writing opportunities in future.