How Modi turned Project Cheetah into national event

Prime Minister Narendra Modi did manage to turn a routine effort of releasing eight African cheetahs in the Kuno forest, a simple effort of wildlife conservation, into a mega national event. It is a perfect case of political gimmicks. The Prime Minister appears to be taking people for granted, despite the fact that he was elected with a clear majority. There is no reason to doubt that the event was organized in the run-up to elections in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh, which are scheduled for this December. The saddest part of the entire story is the role of the media. It simply blurred the line between advertising and news while covering the event, exceeding the permissible limit of propaganda in a democratic state.

Rahul Gandhi and the Congress have rightly raised the question of devoting disproportionate time and energy to this event and ignoring vital issues of unemployment and inflation. However, a close look reveals much more about the event. The event unfolded in a cinematic manner and reached its climax with the usual rhetoric of Congress-bashing. It not only conforms to the political style of the Prime Minister but also indicates what is in store in the coming days when a full-scale campaign is launched in poll-bound states. He will take the route of maligning the Congress in all possible manners to counter the Bharat Jodo Yatra of Rahul Gandhi. We will see more such events that will be without content but accompanied by all the hype.

The Prime Minister discovered a pretext to hype a simple event. He reminded us that cheetahs became extinct soon after independence and previous governments did nothing to bring them back. The statement is false, and former Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh correctly pointed out that efforts were ongoing to obtain African cheetahs for Indian habitats. The PM also took undue credit for lion protection at Gir Forest. The forest was made a wildlife sanctuary way back in 1965.

People should also keep in mind that relocating cheetahs to new habitats is difficult, and there is a chance that the project will fall short of its goal. The cheetah is a fragile animal and needs a grassland area to survive. The Kuno forest lacks it. This may be the reason for the conservators' taking so long to decide its relocation from Namibia after the project was conceived in 2009. Is it that the government made the decision in a hurry to gain some political advantage?

There are many other questions that are hard to answer. One such question relates to psychology. No one knows whether public relations managers have selected this animal to promote the image of the Prime Minister. The cheetah symbolizes energy and speed, and it may be an attempt on the part of publicity managers to associate the Prime Minister with the trait. Maybe they wanted to promote his masculinity. However, it is hardly commensurate with the spirit of the country. Gandhi Ji associated courage with non-violence and our tradition associates femininity with power. If we read something more in the exercise, we can also assume that the Prime Minister's choice of the animal has something to do with his style of functioning. The cheetah is a loner and does not form a group. Another important aspect of the story of the current relocation of cheetahs has hardly found mentioned in the media and has remained absent from the political discourse. The Sheopur district, where the Kuno forest is situated, has a large population of kids who are severely affected by malnutrition. The Karahal block, inhabiting the Saharia community, has been reporting the deaths of malnourished kids. The Kuno forest belongs to this block. According to government data, the number of kids in Madhya Pradesh is 65 lakhs. Over 10 lakhs of this population are malnourished. Six lakhs of them are in the category of severely malnourished. However, there is every possibility of this data being unreliable and that the population of malnourished kids might be bigger. Moreover, the community has a high incidence of illiteracy and unemployment. The rate of migration among this primitive tribe is also very high.

Is it proper on the part of the Prime Minister to ask the people to clap for eight cheetahs, the new guests to the area? He also spoke with a group of local youth to teach them about cheetah protection. Is it not an irony to ask those people to protect an animal whose own survival is under threat? The Prime Minister concealed the harsh truth that the State and the Centre have failed in making the lives of the tribes of this area better. A 2018 study by an institute of the MP government has reported the economic vulnerability of the community. The study finds the community at a very low status on most of the human development parameters, including poverty, employment, health, and education. Had it not been ideal for the Prime Minister to make the program modest, instead of making it a high-profile event? He should have used the opportunity to understand the problems of the local tribal community.

Did the media fulfill its responsibility? The answer is a big no. It just turned itself into government propaganda machinery. It was nothing wrong with covering the PM's programme in detail. But it reflects very poor on media the way it covered the event. It could not hide the invisible hand behind the coverage. All the TV channels had similar content that was probably supplied by the government source. No objectivity was visible on any channel. The sycophancy reached its peak when an anchor chose to wear a dress with Cheetah color. The media tried to portray that the cheetahs will change the life of the people. It really brings us to the age of post-truth.

(The author is a senior journalist. He has experience of working with leading newspapers and electronic media including Deccan Herald, Sunday Guardian, Navbharat Times and Dainik Bhaskar. He writes on politics, society, environment and economy)