In giving Rahul – and his “dimpled” sister Priyanka – a free pass, and focussing excessively on their 'charisma' and 'charm' rather than on their politics, the media is open to the charge that it has been less than professional.

Even at its best, politics can be drab and dreary. The ceaseless back-and-forth of charges and counter-charges by various political parties and leaders, which acquires a fever-pitch come election time, is enough to make anyone cynical and jaded at the utter pointlessness of it all. So unimaginative have current-day leaders become that even political slogans are being recycled from times past: the invocation of the garibi hatao slogan some 40 years after it was first used on the stump by Indira Gandhi must count as the most damning admission of the failure to end poverty, yet it’s being offered as if it’s a new and magical formulation.

In their endeavour to package all this drabness and offer saleable narratives, the media sometimes leans on personalities who infuse “colour” by breaking the monochromatic dullness of politics. The recent advent of Priyanka Gandhi on the campaign platform in Uttar Pradesh, as a trusted ‘trump card’ of the Congress, has injected just such a colourful personality. It has predictably set off a gush of reportage about her charm offensive in the boondocks in the cause of the Congress party, whose campaign in the state is being overseen by her brother Rahul Gandhi.

The story of this double-barrrelled bhai-behen campaign to outgun the original behenji of Uttar Pradesh politics, and the other formidable political formations in the state, doubtless has an enduring appeal to it. For dynasty watchers and confirmed Congress supporters, it also has an endearing quality to it.

From all accounts, Priyanka is very personable, and brings a certain charisma that, commentators say, her brother is palpably deficient in. The fact that unlike Rahul, she isn’t seen overmuch on the political stage, but is pulled out only as a campaign bazooka at election time, also means that she retains a freshness about her.

That may account for why even angry jobless workers in Uttar Pradesh, who were staging a protest demonstration, were thawed by her “common touch”

The Daily Mail reports:

At the Sheena Home Tex factory, Priyanka showed her unique ability to connect to the people when she cupped the chin of Ranjana Tiwari, the leader of the jobless workers, and said: 'I can see you are very angry for a genuine reason. But I am here after a long gap. Why don’t you smile for me at least once? I want to see you all smiling.'



Ranjana said: 'The atmosphere was tense when we stopped her. I don’t know whether she had a solution to our problem, but she immediately defused the tension by connecting with us.'

It’s easy to understand why ordinary folks, who live difficult and dreary lives, may be enthused by the sudden advent of a fair-skinned political goddess, with hordes of mediapersons in tow, who makes them feel special for a day even if she doesn’t offer any solutions to their problems.

Yet, when the media pack themselves start gushing about Priyanka’s “charm and charisma” – and even her facial dimples and her sartorial preferences – without subjecting her or her politics to the media scrutiny that they deserve, they are in effect giving her and her party a free pass.

Even veteran journalists have bought too readily into the narrative of Priyanka as the “game-changer” in Uttar Pradesh, when in fact they were merely channelling the campaign hype of Congress leaders.

Rahul Gandhi too has similarly had a free ride from the media thus far. As we’ve noted here and here, there is much about his politics that is worthy of critiquing by a media that claims to be objective.

Yet, not once has been subjected to intense media interrogation of the sort that anyone who is being projected as the putative prime minister deserves to be.

In giving Rahul – and his “dimpled” sister Priyanka – a free pass, and focussing excessively on their "charisma" and "charm" rather than on their politics, the media is open to the charge that it has been less than professional.