By pitching Lata vs Rihanna, Modi is reading the wrong score

As anyone who has sung in a choir well knows, a key factor enhancing the power of massed voices is the dynamics: a good conductor knows when to keep the singers soft and when exactly to raise them up fortississimo to a stirring crescendo.

By ranging playback singer Lata Mangeshkar against the global pop star Rihanna in its propaganda battle against India’s protesting farmers, the Modi government has hit a painfully discordant note.

It all began on Tuesday night, with the Barbados-born Rihanna tweeting out a CNN article about the internet cuts effected in several parts of Haryana in an attempt to disrupt the swelling protests by farmers against three new agriculture laws that they believe will undermine their livelihood.

“Why aren’t we talking about this?!” the musician asked.

She was immediately greeted by a wall of misogynistic, racist responses on…