From Flowers to Sarees, A Story of PM Modi's Communication Imagery Post-Operation Sindoor
Prime Minister Narendra Modi waving at supporters during a roadshow in Vadodara, Gujarat. Photo: PTI
On May 26, Gujarat's Vadodara city was decked out in red to welcome Prime Minister Narendra Modi – from red carpets, to women in red sarees with red bindi and caps that read 'Operation Sindoor'. Women performed the garba in front of red hoardings that declared India victorious in the strikes against Pakistan. With all this grandeur, Modi's roadshow appeared to be a marketing exercise for Operation Sindoor.
During this red roadshow in Vadodara, a part of his two-day visit to Gujarat, family members of Army officer Colonel Sofiya Qureshi, one of the two women officers who briefed the media on 'Operation Sindoor', were seen showering flower petals on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Colonel Qureshi is the first woman to have led an Indian Army contingent at ASEAN's multi-national military exercise named 'Exercise Force 18', which was the largest-ever foreign military exercise hosted by India. Her family, including her parents and sister, shared that they were called by the district magistrate to attend the show and shower flowers on the prime minister.
When Colonel Qureshi and Indian Air Force Wing Commander Vyomika Singh briefed the media about 'Operation Sindoor', several reactions on mainstream social media hailed the idea of having two women lead the operation with bravado. Despite that, today, when it comes to receiving public appreciation, the family of a colonel who led the airstrikes against Pakistan terror bases is being ferried to a roadshow to shower petals on the prime minister.
Why is it that the two symbols of nari shakti (women empowerment) did not receive a shower of petals from our fellow Indians? After all, it was these women who led the defence operation, not the prime minister.
On May 22, in a public address in Bikaner, Rajasthan, regarding the April 22 Pahalgam attack, he claimed that 'hot sindoor (vermillion)' flowed through his veins – again using the symbol that depicts married Hindu women to display the depth of his anger against Pakistan.
He said that the Indian armed forces made Pakistan 'kneel' during Operation Sindoor and that the world had now seen what would happen when ' sindoor turns to gunpowder'.
But what stands out in this apparent PR exercise is that the prime minister's convenient amnesia makes him forget about those who actually led the 'war' he claims he won.
This opportune act has made him utilise ' sindoor' not just as something that married Hindu women apply on their foreheads, but also totally rendering invisible the Muslim women widowed in the Pahalgam Attack – and later making Colonel Qureshi's family a part of the civilians present to laud Modi with flowers, demeaning the contribution she has made to secure the border.
Using her family as an accessory to augment the roadshow reminds us of the way Modi deployed the 'women empowerment' label to push forward his right-wing stances on triple talaq , Waqf (Amendment) Act, as well as the revocation of Article 370.
Isn't blood supposed to unite us into the common fold of being humans? Doesn't ' sindoor' divide? This also pushes one to contemplate if Modi's crusade against the 'terrorist structures' in Pakistan was also a crusade emanating from a Hindu Rashtra avenging the killing of Hindu men in front of their wives?
In this Hindu Rashtra's crusade towards a Muslim enemy country, the Hindu wife of Vinay Narwal – an officer of the Indian Navy who was killed in Pahalgam – became the first casualty of the crassness of Hindutva followers. Yet, Narwal's widow, Himanshi, did not find a single mention in Modi's speeches after Operation Sindoor.
On May 31, at Modi's 'women empowerment conference' in Bhopal, it is being speculated that 620 women in ' sindoori' saree will be managing things on and off the stage, including water, food and parking.
Will they be credited for the management of the conference, or will their work be sidelined, and the sindoor in Modi's veins will take the credit for that too?
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