| by B.Raman
( September 24, 2012, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian) 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.
(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)
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