A group of intellectuals critiques current government with series of talks on video called Aqal ki Baat

On February 24, Prime Minister Narendra Modi signed off his radio address to the nation, Mann ki Baat, with the promise that the next edition would be on the last Sunday of May, when he would be back with renewed confidence and for many more years.

Since early last week, a group of thinkers has been putting out a series of videos with a cheeky title — Aqal ki Baat — and a clear intent: if Mr. Modi does resume his broadcasts, it will not be as Prime Minister.

Short talks

The videos start with a short animation of a microphone and the title; then, against a neutral background, a speaker talks directly to camera. The talks are short (from 1.30 to 7.30 minutes, with most clocking in at around the 4-minute mark), in Hindi and English, and by experts in various fields, including economics and policy, the RTI Act, gender rights, forest rights, employment, and demonetisation, pointing out what they see as the faults of Mr. Modi’s tenure. Some speakers talk about attacks on institutions, intellectuals and academia, and the effects of demonetisation.

Shabnam Hashmi, one of the producers (the videos have been released by Anhad, the NGO she founded in 2003), says the effort is because “the national media, especially the electronic media, is completely compromised and controlled, and a certain narrative is being thrust on the people of this country.” She and her collaborators felt the need to offer a counter-narrative. “I think it adds to the resistance which many other groups are part of, confronting the brazen dispensation which is sitting in the Centre.” And, she adds, “As opposed to Mr. Modi’s Mann ki Baat, which one is sick and tired of, there was a need for Aqal ki Baat, which if you translate it is wisdom talk.”

“This is not an ordinary election,” says Harsh Mander, activist and author, and one of the speakers. “It will decide if India’s secular democratic Constitution will survive. Aqal ki Baat allows us to talk directly with people to counter the propaganda of the ruling establishment with real facts, to enable them to take informed decisions.”

Another of the speakers, Atul Sood, Professor in the School of Social Sciences, JNU, reiterates that view, and says that instead of the government’s performance in the past five years, or specific goals, “the attempt is to construct the discourse around intent: good guy versus bad guy. In this context, laying down before the electorate the issues that impact lives of ordinary people is of immense significance.”

Radhika Chitkara, lawyer and researcher, says that she felt the need to contribute because, “since 2014, there have been relentless assaults on the Forest Rights Act, and the constitutional authority of gram sabhas of Adivasis and forest dwellers through legislative, executive and judicial means, which attempt to overturn decades of accomplishments of the forest rights and environmental movements.”

‘Fake information’

Initiatives like this, says Kawalpreet Kaur, Delhi president of the All India Students’ Association, “could help counter the absurd and fake information being circulated over the Internet by the government. It is time people knew the real facts, like that unemployment rate is the highest in the past 45 years and educational institutions have been under massive attack in the past five years.”

Low-budget effort

The series was done at very low cost. The simple elegant look makes a virtue of necessity: there was no money for graphics or anything but a simple shoot. A friend offered a studio, shooting and editing staff worked overtime, and the speakers spoke for free, spending their own money to get to the recording.

As of Sunday, there were 84 videos on YouTube. Though none had huge viewership numbers, this is not a concern for Ms. Hashmi as the platform is not their main channel of distribution: that is WhatsApp. Before the series began, the team contacts over a hundred people across India in civil society networks and asked them if they would help. As videos release, these nodal people get copies and then send them out to their contacts. “We can’t count to how many people it is reaching out [via WhatsApp],” she says. “It could have reached a lot more if we had money to boost them, which we don’t.”

Will new videos continue to come out after voting is done? “This is targeted at the election,” Ms. Hashmi says. “but we might continue. Even if this government goes, there will be issues which we are fighting for.”