How PR can make a man look like a King: Rahul Gandhi's image in Gujarat

 It was not long ago when the Viacom 18 channel Colors aired a particular show named 24-styled after the popular US show. This show, starring Anil Kapoor as the lead was quite popular.  It was showing that a new generation young leader had a threat to his life. He was the popular figure of the nation and the would be Prime Minister.

But this show had an uncanny resemblance to one particular family namely the Gandhi family of India. It was just one of the few tricks up the sleeve of the Gandhi family to make an image makeover for the Gandhi scion. But the show didn't create much furor after people realised who it was framing. This was just the first try of the family. Also at the same time was another movie named Youngistaan which again portrays the life of a youth icon in Indian Politics. Again the same cheap subliminal suggestion at the hand of the media.

Now again the family strikes. Now it is in the Prime Minister's backyard in Gujarat. It wishes to make an image makeover of Rahul Gandhi with the help of some speeches, doctored by Mr. Sam Pitroda. Also included in the drama is mother Sonia Gandhi and some other people like Mr. Hardik Patel of the Patel Anamat, who are aiming to get a piece of the electoral pie in Gujarat elections.
The party is trying to spread the message that the Gandhi scion has changed and that people listen to him in the crowd. They say that he is holding discussions on topics and has decided to be in touch with CWC in a more deeper way. But it should have been the other way. The person who has been in touch with the CWC all these years without any possible incentive is the true candidate worthy of such an appointment. 

All the senior Congress leaders who made the party what it is today are ignored and their contribution forgotten. Himachal Pradesh young leader Anil Sharma joined BJP on similar lines. Bantu Ramu another youth wing leader from Telangana joined BJP also citing similar concerns about growing nepotism in Congress. The Congress must understand that this isn't any Godfather movie that they can decide on the selection of their scion and all the henchmen are going to rever him as Godfather.
The party is committing a political suicide just to project this man as the de facto candidate. Why cannot they appoint any senior candidate for this post of the CWC President. One of the candidates could have been Shankersinh Vaghela; another candidate that could have been considered is Oomen Chandy who has successfully ruled Kerala for past 2 terms. The only message this appointment is sending out to the world is that if you are joining Congress, be ready for facing nepotism and the Godfather approach of the Gandhi family. Maybe stitch a Nehru coat along with a kurta and pyjaama for good style like the long coats in Godfather.

Tamil Nadu rejects Chinamma; When is India rejecting Congress-amma?

The past week saw the drama unfold in Chennai as the AIADMK leaders decided that they don’t want Sasikala and her family in the party. This decision is of prime importance because it comes at a time when the country is going through another similar dilemma with the Congress party. The party leaders are preparing for the new leadership under Rahul Gandhi after 19 year long leadership of Sonia Gandhi. What is more important is that the party is staging a mock election that would elect him.

The TN AIADMK decision should come as a case study for the Congress party and its leaders that it is high time that they decide in the welfare of the party and its image as the party who earned India’s Independence. The party has been mired by many scams and all this is linked to the family who has tried to stay in power for the past 19 years. The family got its prominence in the party since the death of the iconic leader Rajiv Gandhi. And using the sentiment as a lightning rod for sympathy votes this family paved the way for a total eclipse of the party leadership. They rejected any other leaders in the party who had much better and new ideas. 

The people were fooled into thinking that the family has done a great sacrifice for the nation. The party leaders played using the same theme and continued this drama for the next two decades. Two decades of youth denied any prominence so that this family can have the center piece in the Indian Political scenario. And now the christening of Rahul Gandhi will turn out to be the last nail in the coffin for the Congress Party. It is the time that people of the Congress Party decide for a new leadership, one that doesn’t have the ‘Gandhi’ surname at the end. This brand has seriously been overused and misused.

The freedom fighters of India gave their lives so that we are freed of the clutches of the British Imperialism. But they would never approve of this decision because this is again a sort of imperialism. The fire that breaks the cold wave of imperialism should never turn into an inferno that engulfs lives of people and their freedom. It is time that the party displayed the same magic that it displayed many years ago. It should either change the leadership by putting their foot down for a new powerful leadership or it should change their flags and join a powerful group. There is no disease that is more deadly than hypocrisy. And another term under the Gandhi family will make the party a symbol of hypocrisy.

People respond to Power of Thoughts not Pedigree

Yogi Adityanath has been elected as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh and the press and TV channels are guessing the agenda of this government already. Some are of the view that this person is going to be against the minorities in the state, some think he will be against the Muslims in the state. All the while this choice has allowed the Congress and other belligerents of the BJP a chance to launch their salvo against the NDA government and PM Narendra Modi. Some other faction thinks that Yogi Adityanath is going to transform UP into an extrapolated Gorakhpur. A few years before when Yogi Adityanath was not elected in Gorakhpur, the city was a mess. Roads could have been a training ground for commandos who want to jump over potholes. Electricity and water was also a major challenge. But Yogi Adityanath changed the city into a ‘mini-Singapore’. Possibly nobody took notice of it.

The state of UP was ruled during the last few decades by parties who divided the state into factions of religions, minorities etc. This had even forced many youngsters to leave their home state and move to Metros like Bengaluru, Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai to get a good education and find job opportunities. Because they know that in their home state all this is not possible. They even shifted their families to these cities permanently. Hooliganism in the name of minority status, religion and political affiliation had made the lives of people very difficult in the state. In spite of being such a big state with ample resources these parties forced an entire generation of youngsters to migrate. But Yogi Adityanath or the BJP was not responsible for any of these incidents. Then why is he branded as a fanatic or right-wing fundamentalist?

It is time that we understand that the religion of a person is his personal choice and it has nothing to do with one’s work. The people of India must evolve to get this philosophy in their character. The political parties need to know that people do not respond to anybody’s family pedigree. They respond to the power of their ideas. The BJP has a single-minded approach to its ideas and a strong leadership structure wherein the decision is streamlined and unquestionable. The BJP has a good number of Muslim candidates and minority candidates in it as it has Hindu candidates. But they are not there to practice their religions, rather to do some service to the people.

Comparing a leader who has clarity of thoughts to a dictator who killed millions is just a bogus propaganda designed to paint the leader in the colors of the dictator and taint his image. The media and the press must take on the responsibility to identify this trick and expose it to the public. The power of thoughts and intentions succeeds over all kinds of physical, economic and social powers.

As of now the election of the face of the CM and his Deputies has enamored a great confusion in the state. Maybe the new government can enamor an equal magnitude of accolades in the year to come or divide the state again into factions. Either way, this drama will have a guaranteed number of actors and an even larger audience ready to cheer them.

 

British Raj: ended 1947 AD ..... Family Raj: ended ???

The party that led India to freedom; the first people's party of India; the party that gave its most iconic leaders to India. Various epithets are being used to describe the Congress which was the party that ruled India for quite some time from the day of its Independence.

The Congress is like a palace that was built in a grand fashion. But like any old palace it is now in ruins because the later leaders lacked the commitment that had built the party. Earlier the Congress was having members from every section of the society and truly it was a people's party. But now the Congress has condensed into a small family only-the Gandhis.

Any political party have to have many dimensions of thought and social experience. This helps it to make a decision that is touching every life in the country. But when a party tries to gravitate to a single point of importance and ignores all other viewpoints it no longer remains a party. This is the reality of Congress party today that has turned from being the most illustrious party in the history of the country to being the most hated and ridiculed party.

The Gandhi family shares an Italian cultural bond, but that does not imply that they can bring over a mafia styled gang and godfather model of governance to Congress. They have used the party to harbor their family and everybody in it. The result is simple. A party that is not a representation of the people will not be supported by the people. It is like that chair that grows more that its legs. The people who are working in the Congress no longer have any representation and all lights are directed to Rahul Gandhi. But the people never feel any connection to this guy and why should they? They are overshadowed, their efforts are not appreciated publicly. Other than a member of the Gandhi family who has been prominent in the media from the Congress party?
The result is that the party has lost more than 15 states to the BJP in assembly elections and will continue to loose more if they don't take a step. Using the hand to say that 'Ab Bas' to the Family Raj that has been continuing for decades and should choose new leadership for the Congress.

Decision against dynasties

The UP polls marked the highlight of the entire assembly polls season this year. The people of the most populous state in the country took a decision to vote for something other than just caste, religion or minority status. They realized that they were being played by the political parties or should I say political families. These families have divided the entire UP into a number of factions which they used to get into power. These factions were the basis for their power in the state. Also a state that has quite significance because the high number of voters. In terms of American polls this can be compared to the state having the highest number of electoral colleges.

The SP used the cycle, the common mode of transport for the poor in UP as the symbol to get the sentimental vote of the people. But their convoys always had nothing less than 4 wheel drives. The BSP used the minority Muslim vote to get into power and then ignore them and everybody else for the next 5 years. 

From renaming engineering colleges as per their convenience to making monuments that display their grandeur, this state has still not come out of the feudal mentality that people will be impressed by architectural marvels alone. The people gave them a strong message by the landslide victory of the BJP that they want something that is tangible to them.

The only fact that the people of UP understood this is in itself a great achievement and also a testament to the strength of the BJP in the whole country. But also this is a reminder call for the Congress party that they need to think whether they need a change in the leadership of the party and think of themselves as a party rather than a dynasty. Also this is a lesson to the SP that it should have reduced all the negative publicity that it accumulated during the tensions in their party. These events portrayed them as weak. And later they joined hands with Congress which gave the people the impression that it would lead to diarchy.

The people need a strong party and not a face or a family. And this can only be brought about by a strong leadership structure that is impervious of all the factors like family, face etc. It is high time that these parties take note of this.