Fooled by Politicians

I had been following Times Now on the recent CWG mess quite regularly. The editors did a good job of making the right noise day in day out on why CWG was in a mess. Fingers were pointed at the Organizing Committee and whosoever connected with it. Quite a few interviews were done on the general rut - accountability, responsibility, nation, pride, etc.

But something was quite startling about it. How politicians were able to fool the situation and were able to manufacture consent. Every time a question was asked on what happened in the past, they would deflect it to future selling a rosy picture. Invariably people fell for that. Q: Mr Kalmadi, its a shame that the games village is not ready and athletes have started pouring in. How do you explain this? Why was work not done in time? To such questions Mr Kalmadi would take a very measured, always works, approach. Firstly, he'd say that it is not a matter of concern (DENIAL) as we have stepped up our preparedness. No one is complaining and athletes are having a good time. (After having denied the history, he'd deftly take a futuristic stance that obviously no one can say with certainty will happen or will not happen). Let me tell you Mr Such & Such that we'll deliver an excellent games (SOLD A ROSY FUTURE). And the athletes and the officials and our countrymen will have a great time. Ah! this completely shuts out further allegations. So next question logically would be - Do you still expect the games will go on as planned. Here the politician (Kalmadi in this case) has won the battle. He has quite successfully sold the idea of a brighter future and no more is he going to be pained by questions on roof leaking, dogs found sleeping on the bed, paan stains on the floor, shit in shit pot and everywhere else ... Having successfully fooled the audience, he'd now move to seal the debate. To the question whether the games will go on as planned, he'd say definitely two hundred percent. There is no question about that. Wah! a victory. Editor having fallen for the bait would now defer their judgment call to the 'let the games begin' day. Everyone is assured that the games will start as planned.

Compare this to others managing the games but playing the support role and not really at the helm. Rather, what separates a Kalmadi from the Balbir Singh, Mehnot, etc of the world. A Balbir Singh or a Mehnot sometimes fall for the bait and answer the question that media prompts them to. They get into explanations. So Mr Singh, dogs sleeping on the bed what do you have to say? Mr Singh would respond, well MCD should have taken care of this but its a minor problem (DENIAL, but after ACCEPTANCE). Wrong strategy surely. If Kalmadi were to respond, he'd say that we have a week to go and let me assure you it will be a stray dog free games and our countrymen, athletes, officials are going to enjoy this game. Ah! victory again.