Quote:Modi is probably not a fan of Shakespeare plays.  But that doesn’t stop him from taking the Bard’s “The world is a stage” to historic height in politics. The Hindutva leader’s tool of trade is “make believe”.

For decades, Bollywood movies have brought tremendous joy to hundreds of millions of viewers in India. The flicks have also made them forget temporarily daily deprivations such as a life without toilets,  and constant fears of their young daughters and sisters getting  brutally gang-raped.

Instead of actors and actresses, Modi has a jingoistic national press and a cyberarmy dubbed ModiMob to troll the social media. They swarm the Twitter and  Facebook pages of political parties, groups and printed media, local and foreign, critical of Modi’s policies. Their antagonistic and vile remarks routinely set off cyber battles between keyboard warriors.

The jingoistic press in India, more than its counterpart in any other country, is afflicted by collective delusion and hysteria. They are capable of seeing victory in defeat, weaknesses as virtues, black as white. They declared victory upon withdrawal from the border standoff with China, BRICS naming Pakistan terror groups as triumph over both China and Pakistan, the disastrous demonetisation as unmitigated success…