By latching on to the central premise in the biopic The Accidental Prime Minister, that Congress chief Sonia Gandhi reduced two-term Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to a rubber-stamp while keeping the seat warm for the Gandhi scion, the BJP seems to be attempting to whip up anew the groundswell of anger against the Nehru-Gandhis that swept the UPA government out of power in 2014, and brought then Gujarat strongman Narendra Modi as Prime Minister. Except, that was 2014. This is 2018.
With just months to go before the general election, it is Prime Minister Modi’s government that will be called to account. The Congress, acquiring an ever larger footprint with its victories in three BJP-ruled states, no longer has to be on the defensive as it was four years ago when a multitude of scams were laid at its door.
Both parties are whipping up sentiment by charging each other with corruption in scams ranging from Rafale to AgustaWestland. But it’s the timing of the movie that is a dead giveaway. With the BJP gleefully promoting the trailer from its own Twitter handle, it’s too close to the polls to be seen as anything but propaganda. Unlike others of its genre, it’s based on the living, and its main protagonist, Anupam Kher, a strong votary of the party. Based on the book by Dr Singh’s one-time press adviser Sanjaya Baru, that doesn’t even cover his second term in office, which in the main is what the movie is about, the Congress, hard put to seek a ban or a stay given its own stand on freedom of expression, may have to let it ride. Will “Maunmohan Singh” do the same?
