Thursday, October 27, 2011

Convince if not then Confuse

Political marketing: Convince if not then Confuse

Congress is trying to confuse public. Baba Ram Deo and Anna Hazare set two issues keep hitting public mind- Black money and Corruption respectively. They are successful because these are social issues affecting the general masses. These issues were agenda points of BJP in 2009, but couldn’t get luster. BJP tried these political products to sell in the market of 2009 Loksabha election. It was not successful, reason being, BJP as political party didn’t have the required credit to hit public mind.
Duo made issues visible. Visibility crated problem for congress. Being in power for most of the time, it is not able to reject blames outright. One thing has set in publics’ mind that these are the bad side effects of misgovernance of congress. This situation is highly disturbing congress and its government.
Initially Congress and government tried to convince both. They labored hard to make them understand that their demand would be met. But all endeavor failed. Subsequently, they are busy to confuse public like past. Here they are doing a great mistake. Now public is well connected through different modes of ICT. Hence having information, and tool to verify the veracity of the facts and timing as well.
After independence congress was single effective national party. But with becoming Atal as PM in 1998 from BJP, things changed drastically. Now it is a parallel national party and giving stiff competition. Congress is losing its national character gradually at the cost of BJP and regional parties. If we evaluate some regional heads, they are doing better than congress. CM Nitish kumar is a good example to cite.
Congress has not taken any lessons from all these changes and developments. If taken, not emulated to change itself to accommodate all such changes. This is one prominent reason of loosing political ground among many others. They are trying to do politics in Nehru and Indira style in a boundary less and well informed society which was almost absent in past. There are sea changes from then and now. Obama getting elected US president sent a worldwide signal about the change sweeping across the borders.
Congress needs to reform itself to meet public expectations. Political parties in power serve the society and public through policies. If assess the performance on this, we will get negative marks. Bills are introduced under public pressure but not passed. Lokpal bill is an example to it. Productivity of our legislative bodies and parliament are going down. It means politicians are doing what not to do and not doing what to do. Hence they are losing public faith.
Nitish kumar, Dr. Raman and Shiv Raj Chauhan, Tarun Gagoi as CM has set a new agenda for Indian political actors-perform or go. The agendas are good governance and governance deficit. It is unfortunate to say, water is flowing against the gravity. Right of service was first launched by Madhya Pradesh and now GoI and others are trying to copy. It implies states are ahead in enacting public needed and demanded laws. GoI is lacking in its basic duties, so losing command over public.
In the tough political competition, all parties bound to respect public demands and mood. Days have gone of imposing will and ignoring public wishes. Congress is still in old mode of imposing and posing. This is the reason two simple gentle man jolted the oldest party and its government. Further sad part, they are treating these two and their team to reduce the strength to agitation related to all. This is going against. This is generating a feeling that they are getting this treatment because they raised public issues. This also proves old mode functions.
First attack was on Baba and his close associate Balkrishana. Second attack is on Anna and his team. Santosh Desai has critically analyzed on this issue in his article. If they were not 24 carat gold- the ideal condition- can’t they raise the public issue. On this one can conclude like this. To raise such social issue first one should prove his 100 percent purity. By throwing mud on the social activists, congress is thinking that it will confuse public. It is a wrong notion and mistaken approach. Even if a bad character will raise these, s/he will get issue based support- at least on social sites- a strong tool in public hands. This was absent during Nehru and Indira regime.
Public has clarity in its mind. They know it is hard to get blameless person, in this case public is not seeing the miner blames of person raising their issues. They are concentrating on the issue affecting the country and its progress. And it is fueled by opposition, civil society, media and intellectuals. Even in deep rural these are talks of town and with blame going on to congress.
Old adage foreign hand, RSS supported is fired cocks. Information revolution made it blunt. Hard to understand why congress is using these blunt weapon. Now public questions why RSS and alike can’t raise such issues. What is wrong if it is raised by them? Further, they ask questions why black money generated and why corruption spread and whose duty was to retard its growth. Its answer is congress.
To prevent further loss, congress should accept its mistake like Clinton accepted as president in case of his sex scandal. Accepting mistake makes one great not mean. If Congress will accept the reality like Bill clinton and promise to act cleanly, they can set the whole process in reverse gear as long term political marketing strategy.
If not, 2014 election will be on these issues and as of now it will prove a nightmare for Rahul. Though he is trying to administer soft medicine to reform and adjust changes, but it is not working as disease is chronic one. Hence, it needs hard one to cure. One line theme for congress shed old style of imposing. Assess public mood and act accordingly if wish to have their mandate. Try to work with good governance as central agenda.
(Views are personal and based on different sources)

Heera Lal
www.makingyouhapy.org

Sources:
1. http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Citycitybangbang/entry/the-divine-middlemen
2. http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_bjp-accusses-congress-for-creating-emergency-situation-on-corruption-black-money_1554498
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Prime_Ministers_of_India
4. http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-10-23/uk/30312708_1_steve-jobs-apple-founder-pancreatic-cancer

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