Is Modi authoritarian, like the Raja and Sultan? There are new versions of the old royal editcs —the three farm laws, for instance. Demonetization! That, too. Not even Muhammad bin Tughlak could have beaten ‘Notebandi’ for sheer abruptness. It made little sense. Don Quixote would have cheered and gladly died. Narendra Modi pushed demonetization down our collective throat for no sane reason at all, and without a ‘May I, folks?’ His pandemic lockdown made sense only to migratory birds.

Modi’s pervasiveness is all-pervading! He has been reminding us time and again he has a stranglehold on our lives. His all-pervasive whims and fancies. For some reason, Modi thinks he knows best what we want. And he has a perverse liking for throats —always pushing unpleasant laws down people’s throats, tying abhorrent GST-types round our necks.

They say GST is “good reform”. Maybe they are right. By that account even the three farm laws were declared spic-n-span. But farmers thought them downright ugly. Finally, even Narendra Modi sneered at them. The fact is Modi drove them down farmers’ throats and he paid for the misdemeanour.

The man had to spoil everything, something got to him, what? His pervasive character! Modi’s pervasiveness knows no boundaries. But for the Supreme Court! What if there was no apex court? Thank the stars and the Pegasus spyware. Pegasus caught itself! The safeguards built around Pegasus were made to self-nab! Especially the one about it can be sold only to governments.

Now, let’s see what happens? The Supreme Court has set up a commission to get to the bottom of the unravelled mystery. However, knowing that the Pegasus spyware company sells the weaponized malware only to governments, will the commission hang the Modi Government from the rafters for using banned spyware on common people?

Let’s not be shy. Pegasus is a form of pervasiveness that stretches ahead and behind and all round us. Private and public citizens were both spied upon and they did not know. The pervasiveness of Pegasus is particularly poisonous. All that it required was a smartphone number and it was set for life!

If the allegations of using Pegasus to spy on opposition politicians and business entities and journalists are proven right, then who in the Modi Government must have given the orders? It would be interesting to know. The only thing is will the sold-out media try to cover things up? You never know. One reason for Modi’s pervasive presence in our lives is the sold-out media.

Mainstream TV channels and the sycophants who anchor primetime cannot stop themselves from singing praise of Modi from morning to 11 pm. But for the weekends —when Arnab Goswami and Navika Kumar take two days off—there would be mass suicides. Thankfully, programme producers cherish their days away from the studio. Fact is, much of mainstream media is complicit in Mission Pervasive.

Election times are the worst. Then, it’s a blur of Modi’s pervasiveness on TV —the images of the man and his manners flashing across screens so fast it can give a headache! For example, throughout 25/11/2021, there was only Narendra Modi and the foundation stone of Jevar International Airport. Election-eve, Modi and the BJP are trying to influence voters.

A couple of days before that there was the Eastern Expressway —another primetime example of Modi-pervasiveness. Dramatic pictures of Modi stepping out of an IAF transport plane which had just then landed on the e-way looped on the screen throughout the day and much of the night. Imagine. The Modi cult is now airborne. No wonder for tens of thousands, indeed crores, they think the only succour lies in aligning with Rakesh Tikait, another grassroots guy. (IPA Service)