B.RAMAN
During the eight years that the Congress-led
coalition has been in office, the country has moved forward in many directions.
It enjoys a greater stature in the international community than ever before.
For the first time, India came to be looked upon as a budding equal of China. Many
started talking of the phenomenon of Chindia--- China and India rising together
to occupy their due place in the international community.
2.The positive “We Can” feeling generated by the
achievements of the Manmohan Singh Government in its first term in office has
since given way to a negative atmosphere. This has been due to leadership
inadequacies, the weakening of the image and authority of the Prime Minister, moral
and administrative permissiveness in the name of coalition compulsions giving
rise to widespread perceptions of corruption galore and stalling in the
introduction of the much-needed economic
reforms.
3. The Prime Minister’s televised address to the
nation on September 21,2012, clearly indicated that he has realised the need
for changing this negative atmosphere and projecting an “ I Can and I will”
image of himself to the people of the country. A brief address like this could
not have been comprehensive. He focussed himself largely on the economic issues
and did not touch upon other burning issues of the day like action to deal with
corruption and improve governance through administrative reforms. Such reforms
would have to be in the functioning of our anti-corruption and national
security apparatus.
4. It is important for him to interact with the
people again on the issues of action against corruption and administrative
reforms. He could do so either through another address to the nation devoted
only to these two subjects or through a televised live chat with distinguished
journalists.------ either individually or with all of them in a group. The journalists should be
given the freedom to decide the format of the chat and the issues that will be
discussed. The Prime Minister’s Office should resist the temptation to steer
the chat in a direction favourable to the Government.
5. I would not say that the Prime Minister’s
address to the nation has made public perceptions more favourable to him, but
it has at least placed before the people his view of the state of the nation
and what he intends doing about it. Till now, the public was exposed only to
the constant negative campaign of the opposition, particularly the BJP.
6. The failure of the Prime Minister and his party to realise the importance of an
appropriate media strategy that could take advantage of the new technologies
and new techniques of perception management has been exploited by the BJP and
its NRI followers to assume their dominance over the new media in the virtual
world and add to the negative image of the Prime Minister and his Government.
7. It is important for the Congress to break this
dominance and establish a level playing field. The image of a Government which
is all the time reticent, over-cautious and over-defensive has to be changed
quickly. We need the image of a Government that is self-confident,
self-assertive and forward-moving.
8. Policies and actions are important for achieving
an image transformation, but a style of more accessible, more articulate, more
responsive, more spontaneous and more forthcoming approach to interactions with
the public and the media is equally important. We live in a world where style
is as important as substance, but the Prime Minister and his Government have
for too long neglected paying attention to the style of leadership.
9. There is a need for an urgent mid-course
correction in the way the Prime Minister projects himself to public opinion and
makes himself available for explaining the thinking and policies of his
Government. He should not think that with his televised address to the nation
he has done his job. He has only begun his new task. He has to press forward
and transform the negative atmosphere into a positive one. (24-9-12)
(The writer
is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi,
and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai, and Associate
of the Chennai Centre For China Studies. E-mail: seventyone2@gmail.com Twitter @SORBONNE75)
