How Narendra Modi Controls the Indian National Congress
For the last few years, I’ve wondered why Congress politicians aren’t aggressively campaigning on major issues that India’s citizens are facing under the Modi government. On issues like the unbelievable increase in petrol and diesel prices to the instances of crony capitalism and corruption that have surfaced, leaders of INC have done little more than tweet about it. Everyone knows how badly this government failed at COVID management, and we all knew the PR machine would be back in full swing to claim victory once the second wave subsided, yet Congress did little to counter it. This lackluster opposition of BJP’s failures has been repeated time and again — from demonetization, to GST, to farm bills, the arrest of activists and the constantly declining GDP growth — there has been little done by the opposition to raise these issues and bring them to the forefront of people’s consciousness.
Most people attribute the opposition’s failure to the lack of money, most of which has been cornered by BJP; or the lack of media coverage, which again seems to be controlled by BJP. These are indeed major contributing factors, but the reality is that most of Congress isn’t even trying. Many things can be done to oppose that don’t cost much money, and one can break through the media controls if a party is willing to go all out and campaign. Why Congress politicians don’t do any of it though has only become clear to me recently.
Over the last year, Anand V (a security researcher) and I have been doing extensive research for a book titled The Art of Conjuring Alternate Realities. The book deals with information warfare. We explored diverse sources, one of which was Russian cyber warfare doctrines, and that is when it struck me… The reason that many Congress politicians don’t constantly amplify Modi’s failures is because Narendra Modi controls the Congress!
This control wasn’t achieved through bribing leaders, or forcing them with blackmail and the fear of raids, it was achieved through the use of Information Warfare techniques. Using methods that have traditionally been used by intelligence agencies against foreign adversaries, Narendra Modi has successfully convinced a large part of the opposition that trying to oppose is a futile exercise. He has in essence demoralized the opposition to such an extent that few within it have the zeal to fight back.
I saw it first hand during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections when Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi were the only Congress politicians actively raising the Rafale scam and the NYAY Scheme in their speeches. The other Congress politicians focused on different issues, and many leaders didn’t speak on Rafale or NYAY at all, believing that it was a useless endeavor. Instead of convincing the public of what Rahul Gandhi was saying, many INC leaders were themselves convinced by BJP’s messaging that NYAY was just a slogan and couldn’t be implemented, while Rafale wouldn’t dent Modi’s reputation at all.
Even now, when France has started a judicial probe into the Rafale deal, very few Congress politicians have raised the issue. The BJP, to its credit, continues to propagate the message that Rafale can’t dent Modi’s image, and that’s duly amplified by the national media. As Amit Malviya, BJP IT Cell head, mockingly tweeted “People across India have rejected him [Rahul Gandhi] then but he is most welcome to fight 2024 elections on this issue!”
The sheet of paper VP Singh showed in election rallies, claiming they contained the Swiss Bank Account Numbers of Rajiv Gandhi never surfaced, but the general public continues to believe there was a major Bofors Scam. Even when evidence of wrongdoing surfaces in the Rafale Scam though, the Congress politicians do little to raise the issue, fundamentally because PM Modi and BJP have established a grip over their minds. It’s the same grip that ensures they don’t stand up for activists arrested on trumped up charges. They’ve been convinced that they’ll themselves be branded anti-national, suffering politically and socially if they do stand up for activists.
This despondency that BJP has successfully instilled in the minds of INC politicians also explains why so many of them defect for petty and often fleeting gains instead of fighting for the Congress to make a resurgence, and it explains why so many of the very rich Congress politicians also don’t contribute much to INC’s campaign efforts. They believe that the money they spend would be wasted as INC has no chance of winning, even though that might not be the case if they did campaign with full force.
This phenomenon of making the enemy voluntarily act in a predetermined manner beneficial to the initiator is called “Reflexive Control” in the information warfare domain. Narendra Modi has made use of it masterfully in controlling the opposition’s behaviour over the past few years, and almost no one has noticed it! The BJP, when it was in the opposition, held massive protests on price rise. The people who currently sit as ministers were all out on the street with LPG cylinders, bullock carts and other visual devices… blocking roads and raising the issue. Fuel and LPG prices today are much higher than they were then. Even the prices of edibles like vegetable oils are at unprecedented highs, yet no one is protesting. The answer: “constructive opposition”.
BJP has convinced leaders of the opposition that they can’t go out on the streets, or aggressively protest in any manner. They can’t keep raising issues and spreading negativity. They must act “constructively”. The minute anyone protests, BJP brands them in a multitude of ways to discredit them and show them in bad light… this doesn’t mean protests wouldn’t work in convincing the public of BJP’s failures though. As opposition, BJP was as destructive as they come, yet through the use of Reflexive Control methods, they’ve convinced the current opposition that it can’t be disruptive, negative and protesting — essentially ensuring the message of BJP’s failures never gets amplified. It has used other information warfare methods even more effectively to psychologically manipulate the opposition to such an extent that there’s feeble and limited criticism even of people calling for mass murder and genocide of Muslims by convincing many in the opposition that it would be considered anti-hindu and be bad for their popularity.
It is to maintain this information landscape that leads to a despondent and feeble opposition at the national level that BJP presents an aura of invincibility even after losing almost all state elections since 2018. When viewed through the framework of Information Warfare, it seems Narendra Modi doesn’t just control much of the media, he also controls the opposition! The applications of information warfare aren’t just limited to politics, they are key to understanding the modern world! From elections to national security, it has implications for everything around you. To understand how Reflexive Control actually works, and a lot more, read The Art of Conjuring Alternate Realities: How Information Warfare Shapes Your World (HarperCollins India). Pre-order now to understand how the war to shape your thoughts is being waged!
Link to book: bit.ly/AlternateRealities
For future posts on information warfare, politics, national security and strategic affairs, sign up for our newsletter at www.thememo.in
