Disclaimer first: I am neither Pro-Narendra Modi nor Anti-Narendra Modi. This article is not pre-planned. Just few thoughts came yesterday night, and I am writing them down.
"Psychology of Mass" is a special science subject. What becomes popular and what becomes unpopular to masses is the subject of this science. In foreign countries, those who are more expert in this, are hired to advise politicians on how to Manipulate Mass Likes and Dislikes!
Commercial people seek help of such experts to make their products popular. But most probably in India, politicians go about this by seeking help of "Media Experts" and "Media Managers"
I think this is an error of our Politicians if they are not consulting "Mass Psychology Experts"
"Psychology of Mass" is a special science subject. What becomes popular and what becomes unpopular to masses is the subject of this science. In foreign countries, those who are more expert in this, are hired to advise politicians on how to Manipulate Mass Likes and Dislikes!
Commercial people seek help of such experts to make their products popular. But most probably in India, politicians go about this by seeking help of "Media Experts" and "Media Managers"
I think this is an error of our Politicians if they are not consulting "Mass Psychology Experts"
Increasing popularity of Narendra Modi has become an example of failure of Mass Media Experts
Some national Channels and national newspapers are not missing a single opportunity to defame Modi. And yet his popularity is increasing day by day. Youth have started worshipping him as Saviour and icon.
Why so? In foreign countries, regular surveys are made to gauge popularity of political leaders. Here, we see such survey only in Pre-Election times,.....and the surveys often look like paid surveys.
Therefore what?
Since there is no objective analysis of popularity of Narendra Modi, every one is free to draw his own inferences about his popularity. Following are some of my own speculations.
1) He projected Newton's Third Law; Action and Reactions are equal. If you damage me, you will also suffer damage proportionately. Youth which was being taught about non-violence, suddenly liked this. (Rightly or Wrongly)
2) He said, 'Not Mahatma Gandhi, Follow Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the iron man'.
Now, whenever you advocate iron men of history, and start following them, you become popular with masses. Maragaret Thatcher, Indira Gandhi etc many leaders gained mass popularity by projecting and acting as "Iron man or iron lady". (Opposite example: Those who advocate Mahatma Gandhiji, soon become unpopular among masses!!)
3) A larger "I" :
So far as I am concerned, when I speak about "I" and "My", it means I am talking about me or my family. Modi enlarged meaning of his "I". He said, 'Whenever I am speaking about "I" or "My", I am speaking about my six crore Gujarati. If you will insult Gujarati, it will amount to My Insult"
Now pause here for a moment, how many of our national leaders speak like this? How many of them have expressed "feeling of hurt" when any Indian is insulted abroad? Do they express shock when any Indian youth is hurt abroad? Do they publicly say that "I" means "Me and My 1.21 billion Indians"...?
4) The more Media Managers hurt him, the more popular he becomes.
The media managers fail to see that 2002 riot is a stale banana. People will turn away if you keep serving it to them again and again. Remember Law of Diminishing Returns?
There can be a lot more to write on this. There can be extremely opposite views on what I have said above.
But, I wish to underline only this much,
"Mass Psychology is a Science of Studying Likes and Dislikes of people, and our very few political leaders understand value of this science".
Haresh Raichura
13th May,2012