THE HINDU Editorial Vocabulary- October 31, 2017- Topic 1

Rahul Gandhi's #Makeover

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi set social media alight last weekend with a tweet stating his pet dog Pidi was the author of his suddenly effervescent posts. The sarcasm had his detractors scrambling to portray him, on the one hand, as frivolous, and doing so, on the other, without sounding humourless and stodgy. The hashtag #Pidi trended all Sunday, capping Mr. Gandhi’s makeover since the summer. 

The numbers speak for themselves: his followers on Twitter have shot up from about 2.5 million in July to more than four million now. The change is clearly a result of the Congress’s recently revamped social media team; more interestingly, also perhaps its strategy. The playfulness, the self-deprecatory humour, the regular-guy undertone in Mr. Gandhi’s social media messaging are aimed at creating a new public persona, a plan that was evident since his tour of American campuses last month. What political dividend this will pay is not clear, but it’s unsettling the official narrative. From being mocked as a princeling of Lutyens’ Delhi, Mr. Gandhi is trying to recast himself as a humorous, almost subversive, insurgent taking on the formidable powers-that-be. Referring to the GST as the “Gabbar Singh Tax”, he harnessed the film Sholay’s capacity to myth-make, and to project the indirect taxes overhaul as an extractive, arbitrary reign reminiscent of Hindi cinema’s memorable villain.

Mr. Gandhi and his social media team are still a light presence in the Indian social media space — Mr. Modi has 36 million followers, and this machine’s drive to take the battle to every post is the stuff of case studies in political campaign. But perhaps it is this mismatch that has given Mr. Gandhi’s campaign the oxygen it seeks. During the second UPA government, as an anti-establishment mood swept the streets, Mr. Gandhi appeared equally keen to be seen as a dissenter — for instance, in 2013, when he angrily tore into the UPA’s ordinance to invalidate a Supreme Court curb on convicted legislators. Then, his assertion of power over his party’s Prime Minister smacked of dynastic entitlement. Now, he is the everyman blocked off from the corridors of power, highlighting the depths of his failure after the dismal summer of 2014 to give an assurance that he is on the learning curve, using disarming wit to isolate the trolls’ violent imagery. The online space has been the staging ground for political projection before — most notably, Mr. Modi’s saturation strategy for the 2014 general election and Barack Obama’s 2008 “yes we can” challenge. And certainly, skilful use of social media allows a politician to control the message, as well as directly reach her audience unobstructed. But it is not just that an electoral battle is ultimately won at the hustings on the strength of party organisation and street campaigns. Unsettling the narrative is not enough; a campaigner must shape it with a social and economic agenda.

Vocabulary

Alight: descend from the air and settle.

Example: A lovely blue swallow alighted on a branch

Synonyms: land, come to rest, settle, perch, light

Effervescent: giving off bubbles; fizzy.

Example: He raised his glass, looked at the clear, effervescent liquid with the light glinting invitingly through it

Synonyms: fizzy, sparkling, carbonated, aerated, gassy, bubbly

Sarcasm: the use of irony to mock or convey contempt.

Example: His voice, hardened by sarcasm, could not hide his resentment

Synonyms: derision, mockery, ridicule, scorn, sneering, scoffing, irony, cynicism

Detractor: a person who disparages someone or something.

Example: Of course, detractors and critics emerged instantaneously out of the woodwork.

Synonyms: critic, disparager, denigrator, deprecator, belittler, attacker

Scramble: make something jumbled or muddled.

Example: Maybe the alcohol has scrambled his brains

Synonyms: muddle, confuse, mix up, jumble (up), disarrange, disorganize

Portray: depict someone or something in a work of art or literature.

Example: The author wanted to portray a new type of hero

Synonyms: paint, draw, sketch, picture, depict, represent, illustrate, render

Stodgy: dull and uninspired.

Example: Some of the material is rather stodgy and top-heavy with facts

Synonyms: boring, dull, uninteresting, dreary, turgid, tedious, dry

Revamp: give new and improved form, structure, or appearance to.

Example: An attempt to revamp the museum's image

Synonyms: renovate, redecorate, refurbish, recondition, rehabilitate

Persona: a role or character adopted by an author or an actor.

Example: His brash public persona is a facade for a very vulnerable man

Synonyms: image, face, character,personality

Subversive: seeking or intended to subvert an established system or institution.

Example: Subversive literature

Synonyms: disruptive, troublemaking, inflammatory, insurrectionary, seditious

Extractive: involving extraction, especially the extensive extraction of natural resources without provision for their renewal.

Example: Extractive industry

Reminiscent: tending to remind one of something.

Example: The sights were reminiscent of my childhood

Dissenter: a person who dissents.

Example: You see, it wasn't until I came out as a dissenter against certain policies of the left-wing political establishment that I learned what it is like to be on the ‘wrong side’ of an issue.

Tore: move very quickly, typically in a reckless or excited manner.

Example: She tore along the footpath on her bike

Synonyms: sprint, race, run, dart, rush, dash, hasten, hurry, bolt, fly

Unobstructed: not obstructed.

Example: An unobstructed view of the water