Harish Gupta
If the upcoming battle between Brand Modi and Brand Rahul is nothing but a marketing joust, it may be safely argued that the former enjoys a decided edge over the latter. Between BJP strongman Narendra Modi and Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi, twenty years his junior, Modi is ahead of his rival in most matters—political experience, non-incumbency of his party, perceived leadership quality, proven track record, and, last but not the least, a huge following in the social networking media. The Gujarat Chief Minister rides the cyberspace like a colossus. Thousands ofHindutva enthusiasts, in India or abroad, generally owing their loyalty to Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the RSS, work overtime to keep the flag of Modi flying along the internet highway. Last August, when his chat session was broadcast live on YouTube, there were over a lakh questions storming in. The Google+ platform had crashed under the weight of traffic.
In contrast, Brand Rahul has been generally laid back on the net, sticking to a few websites that are neither regularly updated nor frequently visited, and hesitant to use interactive platforms like Facebook to establish direct contact with individuals. The 60-years-plus leaders of the party who hold the party’s campaign purse-strings have always thought digital networking to be a “clever” idea, at best, but their heart was in poster, placard, newspaper and TV ads, and, above all, in mollycoddling the sarpanch and such local notables. At times such an works, but most of the time it doesn’t. After getting charge of overall strategy for the 2014 general election, Rahul seems to have woken up to this serious deficiency. Within the Election Co-ordination Committee 2014 under him, the communication and publicity sub-group has been the first to begin active work.
In contrast, Brand Rahul has been generally laid back on the net, sticking to a few websites that are neither regularly updated nor frequently visited, and hesitant to use interactive platforms like Facebook to establish direct contact with individuals. The 60-years-plus leaders of the party who hold the party’s campaign purse-strings have always thought digital networking to be a “clever” idea, at best, but their heart was in poster, placard, newspaper and TV ads, and, above all, in mollycoddling the sarpanch and such local notables. At times such an works, but most of the time it doesn’t. After getting charge of overall strategy for the 2014 general election, Rahul seems to have woken up to this serious deficiency. Within the Election Co-ordination Committee 2014 under him, the communication and publicity sub-group has been the first to begin active work.
The sub-group is headed by Digvijaya Singh who, despite his years, is agile on the social networks with considerable following. Its members include the party’s known faces like Ambika Soni and Manish Tewari, beside such rising “princelings” as Deepinder Singh Hooda and Jyotiraditya Scindia. The group is advised by technology veteran Sam Pitroda, “uncle Sam” to the young guns, who served as advisor under the late Rajiv Gandhi. Also on board is Sanjay Jha, a regular guest on TV political talk shows. For the overall publicity plan, money is the unlikeliest constraint. The budget being talked about is in excess of Rs 1,000 crore. But an interesting development is that the party’s official spokespersons like Soni and Tewari are clamoring for an “official channel” on the social media.
From Congress’ point of view, it is this top-down bureaucratic approach that needs to be avoided. In 2009, the party could improve on its electoral performance against the backdrop of a gigantic anti-poverty project liked MGNREGA and a five-year-long spell of high economic growth. Luck was clearly on the side of Congress, so its poll victory hardly depended on any serious name recognition, or a play on brand. Economy has since then slid down a steep slope. Permanent jobs have shrunk and a growing sector like BPO is facing collapse. Companies have performed so miserably that they have almost stopped hiring, bringing to a halt regular placements at engineering and management institutes. Jobs in the unorganized sector have become both skimpily paid and uncertain. Above all, the economy has for the past three years been in the jaws of a severe inflation. There is little hope that the situation will improve in the 15 months till the election unless Finance Minister P Chidambaram is able to “grow money on the trees”. This is not the time when the people are in a mood to bless the incumbent.
What Congress needs most for 2014 election is to project Rahul Gandhi as ‘future hope’, like the distant shore line seen from the roiling sea. It is possible only when many people who appreciate the potential in Rahul are addressed by him (or the Team Rahul) using individual e-mail ID or even mobile text messages. It should be a targeted address. That’s how President Barack Obama won his second term—by targeting on his potential voters, like Hispanics, colored, Asians, young voters and women, not to speak of known supporters of Democratic Party. They were primed by a blitzkrieg of campaign from several sources working in their individual capacity, though coordinated by Obama’s campaign network. The success of such a freewheeling campaign depends on the accuracy and breadth of its database as its central idea is to motivate the targeted voter to move out of home on the election day and cast his/her vote for the party candidate. The database can’t be sourced from party bigwigs, or their children, gracing a committee room in Lutyen’s Delhi. It requires mass participation.
It is not difficult to understand why Modi has gone so far ahead in winning so many volunteers to work for him in the cyberspace. On the face of it, it seems the VHP is furiously at work. But if one follows a few threads of conversation—such as a Facebook entry and the “likes” and comments it gathers, leading to comments on comments—it appears that there is a clutch of experts deftly playing on people’s pent up frustration with the system, to channelize it into support for Modi. It is a carefully designed plan to convert negativism into endorsement of a cult figure. This is exactly how Adolf Hitler won over the vanquished and impoverished German people, and that too in an era when the internet was not even dreamt of.
Politics, in its essence, is the art of getting many people to accept your view and reject that of your rival’s. Social network may be the current medium but it’s certainly not the message. People want to know Rahul’s idea of India and how does he propose to realize it if he comes to power. He may take his time to bat on the front foot. But he must be clear to him that the next battle will be with Narendra Modi and none else. In the US, voters had a clear perception of Obama’s priorities before they exercised their choice last year. Facebook, Twitter and e-mails may facilitate the choice but they are no substitute for a thinking leader. ‘Rahul the leader’ should take priority over ‘Brand Rahul’.
The author is the national editor of Lokmat group
