Choice of Gajendra Chauhan as FTII head shows differences between the Modi & Vajpayee governments

Gajendra Chauhan is a metaphor for the Modi government, its choices, likes and dislikes.
Chauhan is a B-grade artist (some say C-grade). The kind of an actor who chases fellow actors who scream in horror, “bachao, mujhhe bachao.”

There are such actors in every language and there are such movies made in every corner of the country. But nobody takes these movies or actors seriously, not even those who act and make such movies.

Now, Chauhan is not a great RSS activist either. He does not head any of the RSS affiliates nor is he a hot campaign property for the BJP. Had he been any of that he would have contested the last elections or devised strategies for the Sangh Parivar to fight the “left liberal influences in the society.”

Then, why is he made the head of Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), the most prestigious film school in the country?

Why is the BJP and the government blindly supporting a “bachao-bachao” actor?

Uncanny Choice

It seems the Modi government does not want to reward merit.

It does not want a player, politician, academic or actor to feel entitled. It seems the government wants to shower goodies on people who are totally clueless that they will remain eternally grateful for the completely unwarranted gifts. Forget Adoor Gopalakrishnan or Shyam Benegal, they are shining symbols of cinematic achievement, which may be dubbed elitist. Why not Shatrughan Sinha, Dharmendra, Hema Malini, Anupam Kher, Kirron Kher or any other decent star who had campaigned for BJP? Why not Gujarat’s old brand ambassador, the biggest of them all in Bollywood, Amitabh Bachchan?

Well, none of them would have felt overwhelmed.

Each one of them is a BJP activist or a campaigner or an associate and an eminent film personality in her or his own right and so would not have felt eternally obliged to the government for making him or her the head of the FTII.

So, why waste a position of influence or power on someone who will not feel indebted?



The most charitable explanation one gets to hear from within the government is that the BJP politicos who are no film aficionados thought that the job does not mean much and hence can be given to a minor campaigner, after all he was a Yudhishtir in the Mahabharat serial.

This strange choice of Chauhan brings to sharp focus the differences between the Modi government and the Vajpayee government. Atal Bihari Vajpayee was an immensely secure politician, who was proud of his poetry, politics and personality.

He carried the biggest BJP leaders along with him and could not stoop beyond Vinod Khanna, top Bollywood star at some point of time, as his choice for FTII chief. Sure, the Indian right wing has a problem of penury when it comes to intellectuals in the field of art, literature, cinema, academics and much else.

But the Vajpayee era was different.

A Brahmin from the Hindi heartland, who was a spellbinding speaker with mellifluous oratory, Vajpayee was a cosmopolitan politician. He chose Murli Manohar Joshi, an eminent academic as his Human Resources Development minister: a spectroscopy specialist who guided 12 PhD students.

Instead of an academic like Joshi, the Modi government has an HRD minister whose degrees beyond the XII standard are a matter of mirth for the Opposition.

Joshi was so steeped in academics and saffron ideology that saffronisation came naturally to him. Now, a TV serial artist may need a lot of a time and space to understand school, college and research institutes and to use them to the advantage of the Sangh Parivar.

So, even from an ideological point of view, the choice of the HRD minister continues to be a big surprise for the Parivar.

Compelling Logic

Brajesh Mishra, Vajpayee’s principal secretary, towered over the bureaucracy. Now, apart from the principal secretary there is an additional principal secretary from Gujarat diluting the role of the top babu in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). Then each official in Vajpayee’s PMO and every cabinet member had distinguished himself or herself with a splendid track record in bureaucracy, administration and politics.

Even his media advisor was a veteran journalist who had a stint in London as Press Trust of India’s correspondent there.

But the Modi PMO just has a PRO of indifferent exposure to national or international media.

Insiders insist that there is a method to the madness of offering key positions to first-timers and lightweights. They say that the new thinking in the Modi government is that people acquire stature as they get to occupy positions of importance and that their shoe size grows as they step into bigger people’s footwear. It is no easy logic, particularly in such a populous country that has no dearth of talent. But it is compelling logic because when a political, academic or artistic nobody is made to lord over an influential office, he or she is actually being rewarded for loyalty. And his or her every action becomes a test of loyalty. Gajendra Chauhan, obviously, passes that test with flying colours.