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.

When PM’s speech was shot on ‘blank’ TV camera!

Lessons for communicators on preparing 

for disasters and how to avoid them, too

By S.Narendra

(Former Information adviser to PM & Principal Information Officer and

Spokesperson Government of India)

Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao was to board the special plane on his visit to New York at 10.30 AM on November 2, 1995. He was to address the United Nations 50^th anniversary ceremonial session, somewhat a non-event. The entire Indian delegation, including myself, was already at Palam airport, awaiting PM’s arrival.

Since returning from G-20 meeting in Argentina barely a week earlier,   the PM was engaged in hectic parleys with political parties for holding Assembly elections in J&K that had been under the President’s rule from 1989. Pakistan had managed to prevent the holding of elections by assisting J&K separatists and intensifying terror and violence. The longer India was prevented from holding the, greater was the advantage to Pakistan internationally.

J&K voters enthusiastic over polls
(Representational pic)

Islamabad was making out a strong case before the UN and other international fora for an outside   mediation in the bilateral dispute over J&K between India and Pakistan. It was propagating that India was deploying massive security forces in J&K for suppressing the state people’s demand for separation and independence. By holding   free and fair elections in J&K, the prime minister wanted show to the world that people in the Indian part of Kashmir had a choice to elect their own government, unlike in the Pakistan occupied part of Pakistan where no elections had ever been held since its forcible occupation in 1948.
The prime minister, in fact, had been preparing the ground since 1993 beginning for restoring normalcy in the state and holding of elections. Around this time, he had taken me and his trusted political aide, P.V.R.K.Prasad into confidence and instructed us to work for creating an enabling media environment for the polls.   

Yo-Yo Poll Parleys: Pakistan was not the only one hell bent on frustrating Rao; there were forces within and outside   Rao’s  government  itself working  behind the scenes to derail  his Mission J&K poll. That had made Rao redouble his efforts to get everybody on- board. From the early morning of his day of departure, the prime minister was having a final round of talks with political leaders, particularly Farookh  Abdullah, son of Sheikh Abdullah ,and president of the National Conference, the state’s dominant party. NC’s participation in the poll, therefore, was very essential. Normal political activities by political parties in J&K had come to a total halt due to violence and death threats held against political leaders. Against this background, persuading political leaders to resume political activities leading to elections was not an easy task, despite assuring maximum security cover to political leaders. An announcement of J&K

J&K: Pak tries to spoil peace and poll

elections coinciding with the UN’s 50^th anniversary assumed significance in the context of Indo- Pak dispute. Pakistan was sure to rake it up in this session. Besides, J&K people had strongly signalled that they were fed up of militancy and ready for elections and normal life.  

Last minute Search:  During the  negotiations, Farookh Abdullah and other J&K  leaders, had put forth a demand that the prime minister should make an immediate  national broadcast reiterating the state’s special status (under Article 370), including the state Assembly’s right to accept or reject the application of central laws to the  state. Soon after concluding his negotiations, Rao wanted official documents relating to J&K, in order to base his broadcast on the commitments made in those documents. He was not satisfied with the documents supplied by the home and external affairs ministries and called me at the airport  asking me to collect as much material as was available with me on J&K, particularly the two agreements reached between J&K’s leader Sheik Abdulla and the government of India. I requested the PM to give me time to return to my office   and home for gathering such papers - that meant further delay of PM’s departure (we left at 2 pm).

Tricky Satellite Slot: As the PM was to leave on a foreign trip that very day, his crucial broadcast on J&K matters could not be made from the Indian soil. Rao was halting for two days at Ouagadougou, capital of Burkina Faso in West Africa on the way to New York. It was one of the most backward countries, with next to nothing in terms of communication.

Blank recording? PM PV could have been foxed, but for PLan-B

Any broadcast of PM had to be relayed

over satellite to Doordarshan in New Delhi and within the few hours available we managed to book time on a European satellite for 3^rd and   4^th November. But there was a tricky issue. This particular satellite would hover over Ouagadougou for just an hour in a 24 hours cycle and we could not miss it any cost. I had taken with me a Doordarshan   team specifically for the Ouagadougou leg of the trip, so that they could uplink   the recorded address of the PM through the satellite at the fixed one hour slot.

No out of Turn Word:  The political negotiations had stipulated that soon after the PM’s broadcast (from abroad), the union cabinet presided over by the home minister, S.B. Chavan   (in PM’s absence) was required  to pass a resolution announcing the decision to hold J&K Assembly elections. Both the PM’s broadcast and the cabinet decision were to be   publicly welcomed by the J&K leaders, indicating their willingness to participate in the   elections. Such announcements were to be followed by a formal election notification by the election commission. The purpose of such an arrangement was to send out a loud and clear message of national consensus. There was to be no out of turn word.

And the gaffe: The   prime minister of a big country like India visiting a far off small African country was a rare event and the President of Burkina Faso ,had  fully filled up PM’s the two -day visit with engagements. We officials were entrusted with the job of drafting the PM’s broadcast address could hardly get a few minutes for consultation with PM in-between his crowded diplomatic engagements. When it came to preparing his speeches, Rao was his own draftsman and   very demanding when it came to researching facts. We had managed to put together a final draft and I took the PM to an improvised recoding room for recording the broadcast. The Doordarshan camera person switched on his camera and gave the go-ahead signal.  The PM spent about half an hour for recording   the speech and left the room after ascertaining that the recording was okay. Only a few minutes were left for our departure for the airport when the Doordarshan cameraman came trembling and blurted out: ‘Sir, PM’s broadcast... there was no tape in the camera’. You can imagine the gravity of this carelessness by a small link in the chain and its profound consequences.

Luckily, breaking the official procedure that required only Doordarshan   to record official broadcasts, I had asked the cameraman of the Asian   News International (who was in the accompanying media party), Surinder Singh,   also to be present while recording Narasimha Rao’s  broadcast.  And, Surinder's tape saved the day, and a historic broadcast of the prime minister managed to catch the elusive satellite uplink. Another Disaster Averted. Lesson: Always keep plan B. I can never forget Surinder's big help! God bless him wherever he is is!

When PM’s goes abroad, a team of telecommunication experts travel in advance and rig up a ‘hot line’ communication connection with the PMO in New Delhi. Normally, senior officials accompanying the   PM have access to it. I was using this facility to be in touch with my office. During one of my calls, my deputy informed me that he had been asked by the union home secretary   to arrange a press conference for him, a few hours before the PM’s broadcast. This was not part of the political arrangements set before PM’s departure from India and no one in the government was supposed to speak on the J&K matters until after the PM’s broadcast.

My deputy had duly followed the home secretary’s instructions and had not cared to inform me. As Narasimha Rao was closeted with his Burkina Faso president, I could not consult him about the home secretary’s press conference.

The author
(sunarendra@gmail.com)

The then home secretary was also concurrently secretary in the department of J&K affairs, of which the PM was in charge. And, the home secretary was known to have his own mind and speak out of turn. I feared that his media interaction was very likely to stray into J&K elections that hung in the balance. Using the   PM’s hot line, I spoke to the home secretary, enquiring about the subject matter of his press conference and how he planned to respond to questions about J&K issues.

Pulling his rank, the home secretary asked me ‘Do I need the PIO’s permission to meet the Press’? I responded: ’sir, you are very senior and trusted by the government. You are free to address the press conference. Since some delicate political issues are there, the media would not be interested in any other subject you may like to brief them. They could trip you and put words   into your mouth.  I think you are slated for higher positions, and as a well wisher I am calling to caution you. You are free to address the press conference. But I will bring this to PM’s notice’. The home secretary’s response was “Thank you Narendra, I will take your advice’. He cancelled the press conference. 

               

How PM Gujral bore the brunt for Media kite flying!

Costly lesson – There is nothing like a friendly journo

By S. Narendra

(Former Spokesperson, Govt of India)

The distinction of giving the maximum number of media interviews in the shortest tenure as Prime Minister goes to former PM Inder Kumar Gujral. He was one political leader who could offer the most quotable quotes in Punjabi, Hindi and in English which the media would just lap it up. His tenure of 11 months as PM can be described as governance through media interviews.

I had the privilege of serving as his information adviser as well as the government spokesperson. Soon after his swearing in on 21^st of April 1997 in the Ashoka hall of Rastrapati Bhavan, he spotted me at the rear of hall and walked up to me and took my hand, and   said : “Narender, I will not let you leave the government ( I was contemplating early retirement then); you will be my information adviser.”

Breakfast Interviews: I had instructions to meet the Prime Minister   daily at his   breakfast table for a briefing. He was not in the pink of health (was  very hard of hearing  in one ear),  and a late riser. As a result the breakfast time was anywhere around 9.30 AM and at times could stretch up to even 11, unless he had some official engagement early in the day. What I found was that on most days, besides me, there would be some senior media person as well for breakfast, often a team of them, and the breakfast would be followed by an

interview. Despite being the designated information adviser, I was in dark about such media meetings. I was not the lone person to be so surprised by morning media  visitors; even his close personal staff, who were supposed to arrange his day’s schedule were more than once caught off guard by the prime minister’s   morning media engagements!

He was extremely warm and open with me, gave me free access and sought and appreciated my inputs. As a former I & B minister, one of the most  outstanding  in that slot, Gujral not only  was very familiar  with the  media world but had close contacts with owners and senior professionals. As Mrs Indira Gandhi’s trusted lieutenant in the 1960s and early 1970s, he had taken some pioneering steps to get more of Indian news across to the world and had contributed greatly to the development of All India Radio and DD. I had the occasion to be associated  with this area of work and as a result, we  had  developed a close bond.

On one   particular morning,  I went to  join the Gujral  at his breakfast table, and found a very familiar senior financial journalist already closeted with him. Amidst the breakfast, the journalist and the prime minister would break into conversation in Punjabi. It so happened that Gujral knew the journalist and her family and their talk often dwelt with old times and exchange of information about common acquaintances. The prime minister asked me to go ahead with my briefing, as the media person was present in her capacity.

Besides conversations in Punjabi, the journalist representing the Economic Times began to slip into English and sought PM’s views   on some very delicate  monetary policy issues. While popping such questions, the journalist would also thrust   a tape recorder into PM’s face.

As I said, Gujral was very hard of hearing in one ear and unfortunately the journalist was seated on the side of the bad ear. Each time a question on the monetary policy was shot, the prime minister would turn to me to ask “what was the question”. Not only I was repeating the question, so that Gujral hears it properly but also cautioning  the  prime minster about the tape recorder. More   than once I   told  Gujral that issues concerning the monetary policy was the  exclusive domain of the Reserve Bank of India and thjat the journalist should be directed to RBI. And. Gujral  would ask the lady to follow my advice.

It is necessary   to explain here that the prime minister, was not very familiar with the complex issues of monetary policy ( this was as expected, because most PMs  leave such financial matters to their finance ministers and the central bank). The   Journalist was trying to extract answers from Gujral about the day-to-day management of the par value or exchange rate  of a currency. 

As the breakfast lengthened, the journalist’s questions started drawing the PM into questions like whether his government would prefer to float the Rupee in a band. An exchange rate band means the value of a currency (Rupee) against another currency ,in place of being a  fixed one, is allowed  the  by the central bank (in this case RBI) to fluctuate within a certain predetermined limit.  (Chinese remmimbi is allowed to float in this fashion).

The information sought was highly sensitive, and even the finance ministry would prefer to stay out of it. And this was the subject of speculator in the forex market where millions of Rupees would be at stake on such piece of information. As Gujral was not hearing the questions properly their import was getting lost on him. At this stage I got up and took the tape recorder away from the journalist and pointed out to the PM that the journalist was misusing her family relationship. 

Not a single question had been answered by the prime minister, as I had firmly intervened every time the journalist was trying to convert an informal meeting into an interview on such a sensitive issue. I had repeated  every time that the journalist should direct her questions to  RBI .The journalist , before leaving assured the PM that  she would not use any information  (and there was none!) that she had gained in that meeting.

A Telephonic Blast: Early next morning, there was a blast   on telephone from a highly upset finance minister,  P. Chidambaram: “what kind of interviews you arrange for the prime minister. Have you seen Economic Times? Do you know what are the  consequences ......”.No amount of explanation by me that there was no such interview could convince him. The Economic Times had a banner story:  Rupee to Float in a   Band, attributing the information to the PM himself.

When I spoke to the editor of the newspaper and protested about the story, he first threatened, stating that I was forcing him to run the transcript of the interview. I told him that he would be doing a great service to the country, and the PM,  if he were to do so. I asked him either to run the transcript or sack the reporter concerned. An hour later the editor rang  up to apologise, confirming that there was no tape.

RBI Loses Millions: There was mayhem on the exchange market, as the Rupee wobbled violently, because of the newspaper story. The Government and the RBI were caught in the situation of a person who faces the question ‘have you stopped beating your wife?’ Whether

the story was denied or met with a  ‘no comment’, they would send signals for speculators to gamble and put pressure on  the Rupee. According to sources, the RBI had to intervene in the exchange market to shore up the Rupee and lost about Rs 800 crores in one day.

There is nothing like a friendly journalist! This advice was given to me by a former journalist,  Lajpat Rai Nair, who went on to become the Principal Information Officer initiated me into the  Indian Information Service in 1964. Nair was one of my predecessors as well as the founder -Director of the Indian Institute of Mass Communication. He had served under Jawaharlal Nehru. He had told our first batch of trainees at IIMC that  we should be very friendly towards the journalists but not to  mistake them for friends. He had explained that   news sources (PR)   and news users (media)   ought to have an incestuous relationship,

The Author

but each has different obligations and loyalties.  While each should carry the trust of the other, both should respect   each   others’   professional positions and obligations, and draw   a mutually understood grey line between the personal relationships and professional ones. 

PM Blamed, unjustifiably: Noted economist and commentator S.L. Rao in his book Elephant Can’t Dance ( a collection of his articles in media) blamed former prime minister Gujral , for speaking out of turn to media on a subject he did not know that cost RBI  a huge sum. But, now, you know where the blame belongs. There by hangs a lesson for us in media relations.

(Coming up: Britain –A Fourth Rate Power and 

Royal Skirt or Royal Bow?)