Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent visit to the United States that received wide coverage from Indian news channels and print media has however, failed to throw light on the acrimonious reactions from the Indian American community, besides the spontaneous outburst against his government’s fascist designs. The story trail came across from two different media channels, firstly Live TV that had Jayanti Jha as the news anchor and secondly a channel reporting on Twitter tools used by the BJP network that had succeeded in using a photoshopped version of The New York Times front page.
Jha’s voiceover dwelt on American Indian protests taking to the streets outside the White House in large numbers carrying placards and banners asking him to go back and also carrying the message in Hindi “Modi wapas jao”. Jha also mentioned a huge presence of Sikhs in the massive crowd of protestors. People picketing outside had strong views about the perceived anti-farming bills passed by the BJP government. The protestors also voiced their ire over persecution of minorities and other weaker sections of society by the government over the recent years. There was also footage of a video that showed children screaming “No farmer, No food.”
Women too had come out in large numbers as the footage showed. By and large a huge crowd had assembled on the streets to voice their disillusionment with the Modi government’s policies and harassment trail on the domestic circles. The anchor also pointed out that it was the first time that an US President, in this case being Joe Biden, had refused the gesture meant for a hug from a visiting head of state. Further, she also pointed out that vice president Kamala Harris had given a long pep talk to Modi on democratic principles and how best they can be upheld.
After pointing out that even in the pre-election phase, runners for the post of American President and Vice President, namely Joe Biden and Kamala Harris had strongly expressed disapproval about Prime Minister Modi’s policies, she summarized her commentary stating, “A person who spreads hate and divisiveness at home, cannot capture the love of the masses on any foreign soil.”
The more recent video on views from Twitter had the anchor named Sakshi Joshi telling people how a Twitter Tool kit readied itself to give people the construct of hardworking and diligent our Prime Minister Modi is. Her narrative said, “Immediately after deplaning on his return flight from America, he visited the Central Vista project site.
The Twitter news claimed that the visit was not known to anyone. Many on Twitter asked about how the cameramen came to know about the visit?” She further said, “The Twitter tool kit informed people that Modi adjusted his sleeping hours in accordance with that of the destination country. It seems this is the first time any man in the world is doing such a thing. It’s making history for mankind.”
Continuing to Dwell on the tool kit’s construction, she made mention of how a doctored photograph of The New York Times front page was making its round in the circle of “Bhakts.” She also went on to point out a glaring mistake that gave away the photoshop attempt. “The date line on the newspaper spelt “Setpember” instead of “September.” Furthermore, even if one chose to discard this error, the photoshopped newspaper screamed almost a flyer headline featuring Modi’s picture that stated, “Last Best Hope of Earth”.
The anchor pointed out that such a headline is highly unlikely to feature in any of the newspapers in the world, including our godi media.” She sarcastically pointed out that the Bhakts were repeatedly scanning the paper for coverage on Modi’s Washington visit. However, they were unable to find even a small amount of footage. This forced them to resort to their photoshop skills to make up for their perceived anomaly.
Besides, the anchor Jha, in her penultimate statements, said, “Yes it’s a historic visit. For nowhere in the history of any foreign visit, an Indian head of state had been subject to so much humiliation.”