Wanted: #GST4Petrol

Please sign this petition addressed to the PM.
https://www.change.org/p/how-long-do-we-have-to-reel-under-fuel-price-hike-weight?recruiter=29763990&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink&utm_campaign=share_petition.

How long do we have to bear this burden?

Petrol and diesel prices are skyrocketing again. The common man doesnt get any respite despite promises from ruling party and protests by the opposition

Our simple question is: Why can't we bring petrol and diesel prices  under GST?

At present, a central excise duty of 23% and State VAT of 34% is  levied on petrol and diesel. Thus, the total tax works out to 57%.

If these essential products are brought under GST , the maximum tax will be only 28%. This means the prices of petrol and diesel can come down by almost 50%.

The people and the economy at at large will be benefited as it will have a positive, cascading effect. 

Please act in public interest and give the common man the much-needed relief.

How UP was won - a Political Communication Analysis

By Dr C.V. Narasimha Reddi

The stunning victory of Mr Narendra Modi with over 320 seats in the state Assembly of 403 seats, is indeed a Tsunami that no one predicted as the party vote share jumped from just 15% in 2012 to 39.6% in 2017. “This will usher in a big change in the Indian Politics” said Amit Shah.

Three Pronged Strategy

What could be the reason for such a massive mandate? An objective analysis of results and media reports reveal that Mr. Narendra Modi as an icon of the party with Amit Shah Party President as a strategic tactician (action man) evolved a three pronged strategy to win the war of UP elections. It includes: Modi's ideology and his development schemes; propaganda and communication strategy and the third most important one is grassroots communication through booth level samithies.

Sab Ka Saath, Sab Ka Vikas - an idea that clicked

Ideology and Performance Indicators

First, the BJP has evolved a content strategy based on its ideology and high performance indicators of welfare schemes. They include:

•    Creation of a sectarian division between Hindus and Muslims by not having fielded a single Muslim on the 403 Assembly seats. A sense of loyalty developed by Hindus towards BJP

•    BJP’s viewpoint against triple talaq to woo muslim women.

•    It is not caste that matters but development said Modi Ji which has broken the caste ridden society of Uttar Pradesh, by highlighting that one needed development, innovation, a new sense of spirit to eradicate poverty and not the old lethargic caste based reservations.

•    The Prime Minister address to the nation on demonetisation watched and heard by millions of people created a war resonated so strongly with the poor for establishing an equitable society, who became his captive vote bank. As a result Mr. Modi not only became pro-poor but also anti-corruption crusader. In the process, a type of social coalition has been created comprising the poor, the new middle class, marginalised sections of other backward classes and dalits. This has been a strong point in favour of BJP.

•    The B.S.P's strategy Dalit - Muslim vote bank has been shattered by social coalition.

Along side ideological connotations, the BJP's election strategy included the achievements of NDA Government’s welfare schemes during the last two years. Among others, the credits of the Government comprise make in India, the concept of 'Roti Kapda and Makan’ (Food, Clothing and Shelter) for the poor, national policy for farmers, “Phade Bharat Badhe Bharat”, “Aam Aadmi Bhima Yojna”, Prime Minister’s foreign travels that brought 'Samman' to India, Skill India, Digital India, Swachh Bharat, Jan Dhan etc. Other welfare schemes that were included in the strategy cover: the initiation of 52 lakh gas connections to women in UP as well as disbursal of Rs. 20,000 crore loans through the Mudra Bank and opening of three crore Jan Dhan accounts.

If the recent notebandi topped the list of achievements, sending of 104 satellites to space by ISRO in one go became an added value to boost the image of Modi Government.

Amit Shah - Big  Change in
Political Communication

Multi-media Propaganda Campaign

All these ideological and performance indicators were sold to the electorate more forcefully and effectively through a strong multi-media propaganda campaign. Second part of the election strategy was, therefore, a multi-media communication and propaganda campaign to reach out to the electorate. Media included: interpersonal media, folk arts, mass media – newspapers, radio, TV and social media – facebook, twitter, youtube, etc. The Prime Minister’s speeches in the course of his Man Ki Baath, radio broadcasts, TV news and speeches delivered in India and abroad, election rallies, and his views expressed on the stump made more impact on the voters mind, particularly, those who are exposed to mass media.

Modi’s Dress

GandhiJi's dress made all the more difference for the people to identify him as a man of the people in the freedom struggle. Similarly, Modi's dress, overt change in style and his energetic personality – all created an effective veneer around his political style which has added to his vote catching power among all sections of the people including the Dalits.

Among all, Mr. Modi is an excellent orator whose oration with parables not only attracted the attention of the public but also influenced their mindset towards his ideology. One of the strategies has been his punch dialogues such as SP Leader Akhilesh Yadav and Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi were described as “old furniture”, while BSP leader Mayavathi as “Yesterday's newspaper”. Amit Shah treated all opponents as “Kasabs” who was executed in terrorists attacks case. Mr. Modi's speech modulation and body language also projected his personality and influenced the voters. Prime Minister even participated in street shows to reach out to the people at the booth level. Above all, people say that Modi had a better hearing aid to listen to what we call grassroots voice that helped him to evolve his communication strategy.

As a result of his style of speaking and achievements, people praised Mr. Modi calling him honest, clean and “Garibon Ka Messiah”, a symbol of India and immediate cause of the elections that helped his party to win the elections.

Booth Level Samithies

Third, an effective grassroots communication strategy was designed almost in 2014 to reach out to the village voters through booth level samithies. These samithies were constituted at 1.4 Lakh election booths with BJP party workers and RSS pracharaks. In fact, RSS paid a pivotal role at the grass roots. This aspect of strategy was more forceful than the other two strategies. If the second strategy of propaganda was through mass media, public meetings and rallies, the third strategy was based on two step - flow of communication – Modi's message first reached booth level samithi members through mass media in the first step and in turn these members of booth level samithies reached every household in the village, town or city to carry the messages of Mr. Modi. House hold communication was yet another feature of the election campaign in which messages of MR Modi were humanized and personalised to influence the mindset of the voters.

Whither India

Dr C V Narsimha Reddi

India was ruled by foreigners for about 1000 years of which Muslims ruled for 600 years including the Mughals. A dichotomy surfaces in the recent election campaign of BJP that if “Sabka Saath – Sabka Vikas”, was the BJP's election campaign in 2014 while the winning BJP consciously excluded Muslims in the 2017 election fray. What message does that send? People ask what will be the future of our secular country? An issue to ponder over. (The author is Editor  of Public Relations Voice; Former Director Information and Public Relations Department, Govt of Andhra Pradesh. Email ID – drcvn@hotmail.com

Communication for Vote Farming

The recent Legislative Assembly election campaigns have seen a dramatic change in the communication, particularly political communication, is conducted. While PR Narendra Modi is credited for dramatically transforming or even disrupting the political communication, the opposition too had its own share of initiatives. PRapport initiates a debate among communication professionals to analyse and understand lessons from the new communication regime - what was right and what we wrong. We at PRCI did make a beginning during our 11th Global Communication Conclave with a discussion on Disruption – Political Communication with a Fireside Chat with BJP political strategist Ashwani Singla. Now  we take this forward.

By S.Narendra*

India has successfully completed another   cycle of   free and fair elections. The latest poll cycle witnessed several new features   in poll campaign   communication. According to a BJP leader in UP, the battle strategy aimed at winning   ‘booth by booth’ (there were 150000 poll booths).For this purpose the party deployed lakhs of  foot-soldiers for personally connecting with the voters. The foot-soldiers efforts   in the field were   coordinated through mobile phones and  social media.

In a first of its kind, BJP  gathered inputs from thousands of  voters for preparing its manifesto. Such crowd sourcing and deployment of foot-soldiers seems to have created a groundswell. The 3-D communication-that is, multi-screen projection of election BJP rallies, especially that of PM rallies, (first unveiled in 2012 Gujarat poll), was very much in play. At each such venue, a bank of plug-and -play facility was created for news channels to take their feed which went a long way in getting free airtime. Perhaps , relative absence of broadband  connectivity limited the scope for streaming  PM’s rallies  from one centre to others.

A notable aspect was the seamless mixing of traditional campaign mode with the state-of-the art technology by the two main contenders-BJP and SP. The  latter, as the ruling  party spent hundreds of crore of rupees from government funds for showcasing its performance (Kaam Bolta hai)  and its young chief minister. SP’s incumbency handicap  was also palpable. The Incumbency  burden  in this case meant  that the voters had  taken for granted  any  development initiatives  of  the outgoing  government. And, rerunning  its  such achievements in TV spots  and other media  without  unveiling  SP’s future agenda  failed to rally the voters.  The government communication  usually tends to throw  information at people without  packaging  such ‘achievement information’  into a political  message .    

The BJP on the other hand, enjoyed the advantage of  presenting  the  Union Government’s  several  on-going pro-people  programmes  which were not being  effectively  implemented by  SP state government . The Centre’s   dominant presence on  social media  like mygov.com site,  apps and social media  and  on TV and radio  could not be matched  by other parties., And, PM himself  adroitly put  himself  as the champion of the poor against the rich and took almost personal responsibility for lifting UP out of its under-development.

The opposition attack on demonitization seems to have backfired as the people perceived the step as a blow against  the rich and the corrupt. As the theatre of Ram Janmabhoomi movement and demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992, one expected BJP to revive the emotional Ram temple issue. Surprisingly, the issue did not dominate the political discourse.

A sub-text to the political communication was the BJP’s clever weaving of   the social divide represented by Dalits, OBCs and Upper castes into its seat  distribution arrangement. Although BJP totally ignored giving any representation to Muslims (16% of the state population), and its opponents   attempted to paint BJP as anti-minorities, such factors did not significantly swing voters away from BJP. This is one mystery of this election campaign communication  that needs to be carefully studied.

An important point to note is that both conventional media and social media, howsoever intensively they are deployed, have their limitations. Such limitations can be overcome only when they are enjoined with IPC   or inter-personal communication for micro-messaging. In this case, the BJP’s massive numbers of foot-soldiers were empowered with messages using social media.

And, more importantly, they became the listening posts,   sending   feed- back to central strategists. At the helm was an untiring, towering   foot-soldier in the form of Narendra Modi. He was both the media and the message phenomenon. Opposition withered away.

PS: One of the first Communication needs assessment, CNA, studies commissioned by the Election Commission (designed and supervised by me), established that Voters were influenced more by IPC that is, when they discussed issues with friends and other known people. The latter tended to be information consumers of media and eager to be Jaankars. My recommendation to ECI was to reach out to such Jaankars who could relay messages to actual voters who may or may not access media. In traditional societies, IPC tends to be more effective. (*The author is a former Information adviser to PM and government spokesperson. He can be reached at sunarendra@gmail.com)

Wanted: War Memorial in Mumbai!

Inspired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Mann Ki Baat Message dedicating this Diwali to soldiers defending the country’s borders amid tremendous odds, a national body of communication professionals has launched a campaign for a War Memorial in Mumbai.

“The financial capital, which also houses the Western Naval Command, is out to have a permanent War Memorial. Several people from Maharashtra have also sacrificed and continue to do so for the nation,” said B N Kumar, national president of Public relations Council of India (PRCI), and a trained war correspondent.

The splendid War Memorial at Dharamshala, HP

“This is part of our series of social communication endeavours and we are keen to communicate to all concerned to work on a War Memorial in Mumbai,” said PRCI chairman emeritus and chief mentor M B Jayaram.

“Recently, we have seen a war memorial in Dharamshala which is a huge tourist draw and serves as a reminder of the sacrifices made by our soldiers. It was heartening to see many tourists saluting the soldiers and taking selfies and posting them on the social media,” Kumar said.

PRCI said part of one of the mills lands could be used for the war memorial. Or between the State government and CIDCO, they could look at a suitable place in Navi Mumbai

The War memorial can house war planes, battle tanks, and artillery guns, apart from plaques highlighting some sacrifices and achievements.

This can also inspire the youth to join the armed forces which offer adventurous life and are one of the large employers with pretty decent salaries and perks and even post-retirement benefits.

Bharat Lost A Ratna

By Narendra Modi

Prime Minister of India 

BHARAT has lost a Ratna, but the light from this jewel will guide us towards APJ Abdul Kalam's dream-destination: India as a knowledge superpower, in the first rank of nations. Our scientist-President -and one who was genuinely loved and admired across the masses - never measured success by material possessions. For him, the counterpoint to poverty was the wealth of knowledge, in both its scientific and spiritual manifestations. As a hero of our defence programme, he shifted horizons; and as a seer of the spirit, he sought to liberate doctrine from the narrow confines of partisan tension to the transcendental space of harmony.

PM Modi pays homage to Kalam at Rameshwaram - PIB Photo

Every great life is a prism, and we bathe in those rays that find their way to us. His profound idealism was secure because it rested on a foundation of realism. Every child of deprivation is a realist. Poverty does not encourage illusions.  Poverty is a terrible inheritance; a child can be defeated even before he or she has begun to dream. But Kalamji refused to be defeated by circumstances. As a boy, he had to support his studies by earning money as a newspaper vendor; today, page after page of the same newspapers are filled with his obituary notices. He said that he would not be presumptuous enough to say that his life could be a role model for anybody; but if some poor child living in an obscure and underprivileged social setting found some solace in the way his destiny had been shaped, it could perhaps help such children liberate themselves from the bondage of illusory backwardness and helplessness. He is my marg darshak, as well as that of every such child.

His character, commitment and inspirational vision shine through his life. He was unencumbered by ego; flattery left him cold. He was equally at ease before an audience of suave, globe-trotting ministers and a class of young students. The first thing that struck one about him was that, uniquely, he combined the honesty of a child with the energy of a teenager and the maturity of an adult. He took little from the world, and gave all he could to society. A man of deep faith, he epitomised the three great virtues of our civilization: dama, self-restraint; dana, sacrifice; and daya, compassion.

But this persona was powered by the fire of endeavour. His vision for the nation was anchored in freedom, development and strength. Given our history, freedom had a political context of course; but it also included freedom of the mind and expansion of intellectual space. He wanted India to leap out of the under-developed trough, and eliminate the curse of poverty through inclusive economic growth. Wisely, he suggested that politicians spend only 30% of their time on politics, and 70% on development; a suggestion which he often followed up by calling in MPs from a state and discussing the socio-economic issues of their region with them. The third pillar, strength, was not born of aggression, but of understanding. An insecure nation will rarely discover the route to prosperity.  Strength commands respect. His contributions in our nuclear and space achievements have given India the muscle to be confident of her place in the region and the world. 

His memory is best honoured by the creation of new institutions that nurture science and technology, and enable us to find a beneficial equation with the awesome power of nature.

Too often, greed makes us predators of our environment. Kalamji saw poetry in a tree, and energy that could be harnessed in water, wind and sun. We should learn to look at our world through his eyes, and with the same missionary zeal.

Human beings can shape their lives through will, persistence, ability and sheer courage. But we have not been given the right to script where we are born, or how and when we die. However, if Kalamji had been offered an option, this is how he would perhaps have chosen to say goodbye: on his feet, and in front of a classroom of his beloved students. As a bachelor, he was childless. But that is wrong. He was a father to every Indian child, teaching, cajoling, urging, exciting, clearing darkness wherever he found it with the radiance of his vision and the passion of his involvement. He saw the future, and showed the way. As I entered the room where his body lay in state, I noticed the painting at the entrance that depicted a few lines from an inspirational book he wrote for children, Ignited Minds. The good that he did will not be interred with his bones, because his children will preserve his memory through their lives and work, and gift it to their children. (From http://www.narendramodi.in/)