From Snakes-and-Ladders to Snakes & Scorpions

By S. Narendra

(Former Information Adviser to PM, Principal Information Officer to

Government of India & Spokesperson)

“Narendra, the prime minister has said that he would wind up DAVP. There have been serious problems with the printing and distribution of PM’s speeches. Saving DAVP depends upon you,” said the affable secretary of I&B ministry P.Murari to me as I was sent to head DAVP as its first Director General. By upholding the official ad policy of political neutrality and non-discrimination, distancing from   media   political games and restoring DAVP’s professional credibility were few of the apparent challenges. These had to be accomplished in an election year, 1989, when official media system like DAVP come under maximum political stress. Read on for yet another interesting blast from the past.

Irrespective of the party is in power, they all misuse the official media machinery for perception management, and it tends to get worse in an election year. Luckily for The Rajiv Gandhi government, the Jawaharlal Nehru’s centenary that coincided with its penultimate year in office, offered a legitimate opportunity for opening the government media advertising. Other reasons were being invented every other week to saturate the media for trumpeting the achievements of the government.  By this time the ad revenues of Doordarshan & AIR  had swelled. The newspapers - the only private media available then - were making  lots of hay in this pre-poll sunshine. The influential sections among them were engaged in mutually destructive games for cornering bigger slices of government patronage. Openly claiming to be government-friendly, several of them – the likes of  Times of India, National Herald, Hindustan Times, Hindustan, Amrita Bazar Patrika, apart from scores of regional media businessmen -  were attempting to isolate competition in order to improve their share of the official patronage. On the other side, papers like the Indian Express, Statesman were feeding the opposition with complaints that they were being denied official Ads. Even while I was navigating this cross-fire, PMO had given me a select list of newspapers to be given priority in Ad space as well as in effecting payments. A senior PMO official was monitoring the implementation of this instruction.

Parliament to Rescue: Suddenly, Parliament took up this controversy in its questions hour. A very worried I&B minister, H.K.L.Bhagat, also the parliamentary affairs minister, called me for a briefing. He also enquired about the complaints against me. I seized this opportunity, and submitted that he can turn the tables on the opposition by   fully disclosing the share of government Ads going to different newspapers. Despite the pulls and pressures, we had struggled to maintain some balance in Ads allocation and this helped us to disprove the complaints by a section of the disgruntled media. The fear of Ad matters   coming before Parliament came in handy in resisting further government pressures to increasingly favour government-friendly media.

From April onwards I had scaled down DAVP activities like printing and storing of publicity material  and film production, as I did not want to mount inventories. This precaution was taken mainly because there were hints that the government could opt for early elections, and such inventories relating to outgoing regime would not go down well with any successor government, particularly if it happened to of a different political hue. By August , I had spent most of the funds allocated and I definitely had no intention of asking for more funds for new communication activities. I reckoned that not having funds would help me to ward off government pressure to launch new ‘achievement’ projecting campaigns close to elections.

The Rationale: Let me explain the rationale behind the government communication policy. It can be broadly divided into following  categories - all clubbed under public service advertising  (PSA).

• The first category relates to awareness building and empowerment campaigns (especially in a poor, developing country) in support of development programmes (Like MNREGA, HIV/Aids prevention, Mother  & Child Development schemes like ICDS,  Janani Suraksha Yojana, Swasthya Bima Yojana). These have now acquired  the title BCC or behaviour change (desired behaviour)  communication.
• The second category belongs to easing policy and programme implementation and compliance ( e.g.GST, IT, Ease of Doing Business).
• Third, somewhat controversial field is the government’s legitimate duty and need to put information  in public space about its performance in relation to its poll commitments (e.g.100 days achievements, annual reviews, new schemes, rallying  calls). This is a grey area where performance accountability clashes with partisan   publicity using public funds for political gains.
• Parties criticising this from opposition benches revel in exploiting this avenue when they are in power. Governments are prone to overload this function of PSA when their electoral mandate   nears the end.
• Another category   is the public advocacy of certain policy options. For example, Rajiv Gandhi government was keen to push through legislation for giving constitutional status to Panchayat raj (local self governments)   institutions and making elections to them mandatory. Such communication again is controversial as there would be  no political consensus on their goals and benefits.   

Early Christmas Turkey! The Rajiv Gandhi government was in the midst of a rough monsoon Parliament session, when there were hints that it could seek early poll, after announcing a slew of populist measures.

Around   this time, I was asked to be present as an observer during a close-door presentation  to be made to a group of ministers by select advertising agencies. Invitees to this ministerial group were Romi Chopra, an Ad guru of those days, Sam Pitroda, (and Jairam Ramesh who was assisting Rajiv him). Apparently, this ministerial group had been asked to come up with an election campaign. Presentations from top guns of first tier Ad and PR agencies continued for from mid-September Monday to Thursday. This was to be followed by a final presentation to be made the next Thursday before the PM by the selected one or two agencies. We were unclear over the kind of brief to be given to the agencies. It had been made clear that I was to be present only with a watching brief.  

By Thursday evening it became clear to the ministers that none of the agencies had come up with an acceptable campaign theme and there were no outlines of audio/video /print material scripts and there were no ‘scratch’ AV productions to be shown to PM in the following week.

The ministerial group was obviously in a panic as they had to face the PM next week and present an acceptable campaign kit.  I was summoned to a crisis management meeting  of this group. The senior minister expressed appreciation of the good work being done by DAVP (nice to hear such words once in a way), and requested me to produce a campaign kit. Until now, DAVP had been treated as a pariah and I had been told that the PM had no confidence in DAVP’s professional credentials. All professional talent was supposed to be outside the government domain! I had barely four days to prove our capacity.  Working day and night, with teams of empanelled producers and printers, we managed to put together a kit. It consisted of two 30 minute audio cassettes, four video clips, six posters, four scripts for booklets and four leaflets.  The ministerial team was much impressed by the kit and profusely thanked me. However, there was one sour note. I was informed that they would not attribute the kit to DAVP, as the PM was biased against it!,

Danger Lurks in Success: In this hour of some joy, I could not see a great danger lurking. K.Krishnakumar, the minister of state in the I&B ministry called me to inform that the PM had expressed his appreciation of  the campaign and I should attend a meeting the next morning.  At this meeting the minister’s private secretary Thomas   (IAS) handed over a paper containing the numbers of print and AV material   required to be produced. The numbers were mind boggling:  a million copies of each poster (6 versions), booklets (2 versions), leaflets (4) and some 10,000 copies of each audio and video cassettes. At 1989 prices, the cost of production was close to Rs 40 crore. All these items were to be produced in about two to three weeks, before the announcement of elections. Sam Pitroda in one of the earlier   meetings had announced that the polls could be held end-October. I had thought that once I handed over the campaign kit materials for presentation to PM, the production and distribution would be taken over by selected Ad agency and the Congress Party. But Krishnakumar said that it had been decided to entrust this work to DAVP.

Rules & Norms thrown to winds: I tried to duck for cover under several genuine reasons. DAVP had no budget for such a huge job. The minister said that PM had personally assured that such funds would be made available. I raised another problem - even if we commandeered the entire public and private production facilities in Delhi and elsewhere, such a mammoth job could not be accomplished in the given three weeks time-frame. The minister summoned a fellow Keralite businessman who was ready with a letter promising delivery of the entire lot within the schedule. I had posed one more problem: DAVP can undertake such huge job only on the basis of a requisition by a client department. Promptly, a letter making such a request to DAVP from the Directorate of Filed Publicity (DFP) was produced. This outfit had never in its existence placed a request  for print or AV material with us! The Director of DFP had not only agreed to place a request for such humongous quantity of supplies but had also promised to send bulk supplies to his over 250 field units. From the latter, the campaign material was to be lifted by the Congress party filed units.

I thought I had a last weapon to defend DAVP against this blatant misuse. I told the minister that under the official rules and procedures laid down, DAVP was mandated to go for open, pan-India tenders for procurement of services costing more than a crore of rupees. Also, a high value tender cannot be given to a single party and that too to a party without any track record. Soon, the joint secretary of the ministry was called into the meeting. This official informed the minister that he would give a letter to DAVP authorising it to make a one-time exception to the rules. The minister was very unhappy when I submitted to him that a joint secretary cannot issue such a letter without the concurrence of the ministry of finance. I was directed to meet the cabinet minister the next morning.

Another Sleepless Night: Myself and my colleagues in DAVP spent a sleepless night. The secretary of the ministry had conveniently stayed away from the ministerial meetings and refused to give me an audience for seeking his guidance. They would not even entertain my calls.

The author

(sunarendra@gmail.com).

blog: http://spokespersons.blogspot.in/

The next day’s meeting with H.K.L Bhagat was destined to be a tense one. He tried his best to persuade me to sign the single tender contract with the party recommended by Krishnakumar. Bhagat told me that the government was confident of getting re-elected and I need not have to worry about any kind of post–election problems like an enquiry into the matter. Further, I was promised that I would be elevated to the next level that was anyway long overdue due to me but had been denied thus far. In response, I submitted a letter to the minister, seeking immediate leave of absence preparatory to retirement (I had a decade of service left). I politely pleaded with the minister that the ministry should grant my request and appoint an immediate replacement, so that it can go ahead with its production plans. A surprised minister, refused to accept the letter.

Foot Note: The Congress party election campaign (1989) was entrusted to Rediffusion agency, and became a landmark, notable for its snakes and scorpions campaign. A little before the Dussera festival, there was one more Ad campaign …..Watch this space.

Grass root action to Break the Glass Ceiling!

   

·  Principal secretary Nagambika Devi offers support to take PRCI Daughters' Prog beyond  cities,      to the grassroots ·  Renowned actress Geetha Poduval calls for education par for boys and girls ·  Bengaluru Chapter celebrates Daughters’ Day ·  Chalana Chitra Academy offers to partner PRCI      for value-based programmes all over  Karnataka

Geethya Poduval lauds PRCI

BENGALURU: The Bengaluru chapters of PRCI and YCC celebrated the Daughters’ Day to raise awareness about providing equal opportunities to the girl child. Impressed by the initiative, Ms Nagambika Devi, Karnataka Principal Secretary Sports and Youth Affairs, announced support to PRCI to take the programme to Tier 2 and 3 Towns to help raise awareness levels there.

Acknowledging the fact that it was because of her father’s encouragement that she was able to achieve her ambitions, Ms Devi  urged parents to push their children out of their comfort zone , so they can learn and grow the hard way. “It is difficult for parents to let their kids out of their protective cover, but it is essential for their growth” she observed.

 Lamenting the fact that girls often face hurdles to move up the ladder of opportunities in life, noted film actress and stage and TV anchor Geetha Poduval called for a change at the grassroot level.

 “As a society, we must remove the barriers in education itself and begin to treat girls and boys at par,” she said in her keynote address and wondered as to why there should be any differentiation or preferential treatment to anyone. Preference to one should not lead to indifference to another, she remarked.

“Everyone has a dream, but what is important is that we develop courage and acquire strength to realize it,” she said and quoted her own example: “There was Art inside me, and I had to do justice to that.”

Geetha was all praise to PRCI for the Daughters’ Day initiative as she expressed hope that the drive will one day move the needle on cause of the girl child.

No caption needed for this selfie!

PRCI Chairman Emeritus and Chief Mentor M B Jayaram said the Council always addressed social issues through meaningful communication and the Daughters’ Day initiative is one among them. “We have been taking up issues on global platforms through our conclaves,” he said.

 PRCI felicitated women achievers at the event held at NMKRV College. Mamatha Gowda, IAS Officer , Tumkur District, Bharthi pratap Classical singer, Vandana Supriya Oddissi dancer ,Radhika Bharadhwaj , Journalist TV9 ,Vijayalakshmi Shibrur Journalist Suvarna, Ashwini Angadi visually impaired girl with a great set of achievements and  actress Jayashree Raj.

Press Club-Mumbai demands CBI probe into journalist's mysterious death

The Mumbai Press Club demanded an immediate CBI inquiry into the mysterious death of Aaj Tak reporter Akshay Singh. Any delay in ordering the probe will only strengthen the perception that India is sinking to the depths of another 'failed' Banana Republic. 

Like others, who have died under mysterious circumstances, Akshay’s death needs to be probed by the CBI rather than Madhya Pradesh’s SIT, which depends on the state police for inputs and information. Nothing short of ordering a CBI probe into Akshay’s death is acceptable. We also urge Prime Minister Narendra Modi to break his silence on this perplexing and tragic issue.

Mumbai Press Club also deeply mourns the death of Akshay Singh, special correspondent of Aaj Tak, who died investigating and reporting the Vyapam scam at Ujjain, in Madhya Pradesh. We stand by the Dahod-based family of Singh, who was just 38.

Whatever may be the autopsy report, the case should not be treated as normal as we over the last one month have seen reports of many similar and unnatural deaths of people connected with the Vyapam scam, be it witnesses, accused, suspects, investigators and beneficiaries.

The death of Akshay has come at a time when the journalist fraternity is yet to come to terms with the burning to death of Jagendra Singh of Shahjahanpur in Uttar Pradesh and Sandeep Kothari of Balaghat in Madhya Pradesh, whose burnt body was found in Wardha district of Maharashtra. The two back-to-back similar incidents have come as a shock and a wake up call for all media persons. 

Mumbai Press Club also demand an immediate sacking of MP minister Kailash Vijayvargiya who has been accused of showing appalling insensitivity with his dismissive comment on Akshay.

On its part, the Mumbai Press Club has taken the lead in helping file a case in the Supreme Court demanding a CBI Inquiry and is in touch with different journalist associations, organisations, federations and bodies in UP and New Delhi. The Club will also be extending some financial assistance to the bereaved families of the dead journalists. 

The Mumbai Press Club has also set up a fact-finding team in collaboration with the Nagpur Union of Working Journalists to visit Nagpur, Wardha and Balaghat and investigate the brutal murder of journalist Kothari.

Looking forward to your support for strengthening journalist rights and unity!

Rajesh Mascarenhas

Secretary

Mumbai Press Club

July 07, 2015

Smile That Goes Beyond A Mile!

PRCI, Delhi Chapter Celebrates Daughter’s Day on July 4

By Ms. Molijit Lall

(Secretary, PRCI, Delhi)

New Delhi: To celebrate Daughters’ Day, PRCI Delhi Chapter  organised a site visit to Holy Family Ashaniwas, an orphanage for girls at Mahavir Nagar, Dabri-Palam Road, Delhi. Study material, games, bedsheets and refreshments were presented to the children.

 PRCI celebrates Daughters’ Day as an annual event to create focus attention on the importance of the girl child. This year the event has received added impetus with the launch of  'Beti Bachao-Beti Padhao' by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The Holy Family Ashaniwas children were overwhelmed to see PRCI delegates and sang a heartwarming welcome and prayer song.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. N.D. Rajpal, Chairman, Governing Council PRCI told the children about the importance of education in their lives.  He also highlighted various activities conducted by PRCI all over India.

Dr. Gaganjit Singh, Chairman, Delhi Chapter, wished all the children and encouraged them to talk about their areas of interest.  He also interacted with the staff to discuss further possibilities of aid to be given.

The children interacted with the PRCI team talking about their favourite subjects, hobbies and career dreams. While the younger ones (aged 3-8) were happy talking about their favourite food, movie stars, what games they play etc., it was the older group of children who spoke about their knowledge of Kalpana Chawla, our Prime Minister  Narendra Modi, their aspirations like to become a teacher, computer engineer as well as a sportswoman.  

“It was truly a heartwarming interaction,” said Dr Gaganjit Singh.

The event was organized as a part of PRCI Delhi Chapter’s CSR activities, to bring joy into the lives of these 40 girls residing in Ashaniwas who are being looked after by a dedicated team headed by Sister Suzan.

PrezSpeak 8: PRapport crosses 5,000-pageview mark in 100 days !

PRCI rocks with Daughters’ Day Activities

Happy to inform you all that PRapport has crossed a new milestone by logging in 5,025 page views in a matter of about 100 days and 60+ posts.

This has been possible with team efforts and on the backbone support of our Director (NE) Mr S Narendra whose exclusive columns have become a major hit. Thank you Mr Narendra, for your unrelenting support to PRapport.

India registered close to 3,000 views and the US a whopping 1,570 plus. Germany is racing towards 200. The viewership is steadily growing in other global destinations: Hong Kong 54; UK 43 and UAE 23.

Meanwhile, PRCI continues to rock with various activities, Daughters’ Day being the latest.

Delhi and Bengaluru had their celebrations and their reports should be up soon.

In Mumbai, we are tapping an opportunity with the newly formed Lady Journalists’ Association for a session on Sexual Harassment at Workplaces.  This will be done in association with PRCI’s honorary consultant  Mr Vishal Kedia of  Complykaro.

My sincere request to  you - all Chapters and members  - to keep sending in reports, comments and Thought Leadership contributions to enrich PRapport client and make it even more popular.

Bye and do take care of yourselves!

Reportage of a Water War Correspondent: From swirling Kaveri crisis

S.Narendra

(Former Information Adviser to PM, PIO of  Govt of India, 

and Official Spokesperson)

The hour hand on the clock in the meeting room was closing towards 9 pm. Hesitatingly I passed on a chit to PM Narasimha Rao : “Sir,my New Year party to media is about to start. Can I be excused?’ The ever gracious Rao surprised the ministers and officials attending the meeting with this remark: “Oh! Narendra, I am sorry....you come with me...No... You wait here...I will get you the files”. And then he handed over to me a thick bundle of files and said: “call me as soon as your party is over”. What happened subsequently is history. Read on PRapport exclusive:

The Iron Lady of TN

The year 1995 was about to end, with the Christmas and New Year holidays round the corner. A stormy parliament session had ended without transacting much business, a familiar experience (even now?!). Out of the blue, a political storm  originating in Tamil Nadu, had hit the government of P.V.Narasimha Rao. The Supreme Court was hearing a petition of Tamil Nadu government to direct Karnataka government to release 11 tmc of Kaveri water, as per the interim orders of the Kaveri Tribunal. Instead of adjudicating the petition, the apex court issued an order directing the Prime Minister to find a political solution, that too within a week, to the seasonal river water dispute between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. In a way, the apex court had hoisted the politicians on their own petard, because politics had prevented a settlement of the dispute.

This was an unprecedented political tangle. The parliamentary elections were only a few months away and Rao as the congress party president was casting his net wide seeking poll allies. But suddenly he found himself between the blades of political scissors. On the one side was a tempestuous political ally, AIDMK’s Jayalalithaa as Tamil Nadu chief minister and on the other side was a potential ally from Janata party, H.D.Devegowda  of Karnataka. A few months earlier, when he was an  MP, Devegowda  had voted for Rao government in a ‘No Confidence’  motion moved by BJP in 1994.  As a state leader, with a reputation as a farmers’ champion, he wanted to appear as uncompromising as the iron lady from Chennai.

Truant Rainfall: In a nutshell, the problem was this. Whenever the North East monsoon (from September to December) plays truant, the two states fight over the depleted water available in Kaveri. Tamil Nadu historically has more acreage under Kaveri irrigation than Karnataka and depends upon the abundance of Kaveri water as well as the North East monsoon. This was one of those years  when the North East monsoon had been deficient, thus reducing the  quantity of river water. And Karnataka  had not  released 11 tmc of  water  to Tamil Nadu, claiming  that the river water was barely adequate to meet its own drinking water needs.

Midnight moves: Hectic parlays took place in PM’s house from December 25 with the ministers and officials of the water resources and agriculture ministries for assessing various options. In one such meeting that lasted right up to mid-night, the PM expressed his displeasure over the facts presented to him by the officials. According to the facts on paper, there should   not be any shortage of water for irrigating the crop acreage under cultivation in both the states. Suddenly, he turned to me and said: “Narendra, find out from your media friends what the problem on the ground is, and let me know in the morning”.

It was a tough challenge. My media friends in both the states obliged and I could give their assessment of the problem to Rao by 8 AM. The problem was that in both the states the acreage under water intensive crops like sugarcane that requires water for 18 months had substantially gone up and in Tamil Nadu in particular, the  Kaveri delta farmers were sowing  3 to 4  paddy crops in a year, irrespective of the vagaries of the monsoon.

Big Rounds of Meetings: In response to PM’s invitation, the Tamil Nadu chief minister arrived by a special place loaded with several suit cases and her counterpart came by a commercial plane. The media visuals played up the contrasting pictures. The prime minister met the two state leaders separately several times to thrash out a compromise formula that does not antagonise either of the contending parties. As the general election was near at hand, neither of the state leaders wanted to be perceived as weak and to be giving up the cause of their political constituencies.

The PM’s meetings with the CMs were going round and round, even as the calendar had moved to December 31^st.  Meanwhile, both the chief ministers’ offices   were leaking to the media their versions of the   parleys with PM that was complicating the latter’s role. I came to know that the Karnataka CM was planning a press conference. This news had travelled to Tamil Nadu side as well, and they were planning a proper response after hearing the Karnataka salvo. I immediately got in touch with the   offices of the two CMs aides and informed them that any discussions with the media of the likely formula for sharing of water would make the PM’s decision to go against them. I also held out the threat that if they went ahead, PM may go back to the court, reporting failure of negotiations and put the problem back before the judiciary.  Diplomatic that Rao was, he authrorised me to convey to each side that PM appreciated the particular state’s stand, and therefore, the final award could be in its favour.  

During the day of the New Year eve, the PM had discussed with me the various formulas he had suggested to the CMs and told me to give him a draft letter to the two CMs, along with a one page background. Rao told me that he would have one last meeting with the water ministry officials at 7 pm , after which he would hand over the papers. That particular meeting dragged on right up to 9 p.m. At this point I sent him a chit stating that my New Year party for media was to begin. The ever gracious Narasimha Rao, got up and said: “Narendra I am sorry. You take the files.”

Rao then took me to the residential part of 7 Race Course road, went to his bed room and brought out a huge bundle of files and said; “When  does your party end’. I said: Sir, around 2 AM. 

He said: Alright. Call me around 3... After you have gone through the files.

Cold Shower in December Night! I used to host a New Year eve parties for media friends in the lawns of my residence for media, their families including children, diplomats and colleagues in the government and ministers. About 800 invitations would be sent to attend the party between 9 pm and 2 a.m. This was within the knowledge PM. On this particular ‘Kaveri’ day I was late for my own party. The party lasted well past 2 a.m. I  took a  cold shower although it was a December night and began studying the files. Promptly at 3 AM, the PM called me to find out my progress in drafting the letter. I requested him to give me time until early morning and  Rao asked me to meet  him at 6 am and have a cup of tea. As I was fairly familiar with the subject, and the PM’s parleys, I prepared a rough hand written draft and called my personal assistant Ravichandran to my residence around 5 am for typing it on the computer. For some reason, the computer had gone out of order and we rushed to my office in Shastri Bhavan.

Kaveri flows in Shastri Bhavan: Literally, we felt that Kaveri had come to the gates of Shastri Bhavan. The entry to the building was barred with fire engines that had pumped a huge quantity of water to douse a fire in the building. Power had been switched off.

Accompanied by Ravi, I rushed to PMs residence  and managed to get the letter and the background note typed. The prime minister had obviously spent a sleepless night and was waiting for me. I said ‘Happy New Year’ and presented the draft. The prime minister expressed his satisfaction and told me that he would be having two more rounds of meetings with the chief minsters.

At this point, I suggested to him that his final   letter of water allocation to be sent to the concerned CMs should be faxed late in the night (January1st 1996), after the CMs had boarded the aircraft for home. The prime minister smiled.

Those were the days when Doordarshan and AIR ruled supreme and there were no mobile phones and no noise channels either! The fastest and latest mode of communication was through the trusted Fax.

By mid-day, I had a copy of the PM’s letter of water allocation. The whole day the media was bombarding me with calls to know the outcome of PM’s discussions with the CMs. I   got the news that the two CMs had boarded the aircraft after 7 pm. The PM’s letter was faxed to them around 10 pm (when their planes were about to land) and a little later I released the letter to media. The media was unable to get the CMs’ reaction (that was bound to be critical)  to the award. We wanted the award to be in media focus, not the adverse reaction of the quarrelling duo.

Much Ado: The award was a fair one, allocating 6 out of 11 tmc of water to Tamil Nadu. It

The Author
 (sunarendra@gmail.com)

was somewhat funny that the award should have involved such torturous and inconclusive negotiations. From the  beginning it was clear that politically the prime minister could not have allocated anything  but  a little more than half of 11 tmc demanded by Tamil Nadu. As part of his award, the prime minister set up a one-man  committee under Prof Y.K. Alagh to study the problem and come up with a feasible solution to the  dispute. He also decided to convene later a meeting of the National Water Council that had not met for decades to deliberate on unresolved inter-state river water disputes.     

The year 1996 had dawned with a clear hint of what the next 12 months held.  It was going to be politically turbulent, with regional players dominating the national scene and a nation adrift in troubled waters.

Girls under attack should go for a strong punch!

PUNE: PRCI and YCC organized a workshop on self-defence techniques for the students of PGDM- ABM at VAMNICOM (Vaikunth Metha National Institute of Co-operative Management), Pune, on June 25.

Mr. Swaraj Somvanshi who runs his own boxing academy (Dolphin International School Pune) for young aspiring kids guided the participants with self defense techniques. With the alarming growth of crimes against women, knowledge of self defence is extremely important, he told the students. He explained various techniques that can be applied during crisis. Dolphin International School students presented demonstration sessions in shadow boxing and basic stamina building exercises.

Speaking at the event, VAMNICON Director Mr. Sanjeeb Patjoshi (IPS/IG) urged to the students to learn the tricks and technique to lead a strong and healthy life. He recalled the old saying: “

A strong and healthy mind resides in a strong body.”

Youth to the fore! Bengaluru YCC Chapter celebrates Radio Day

By Geetha Shankar

(National Chairperson –YCC) 

Geetha Shankar

With the new academic year approaching, YCC is all set to start its activities afresh – with plenty of new blood to be infused!

YCC at the headquarter level is gearing up to meet the new opportunities.

We are fortunate to have this National Advisory Board for YCC:

• Mr. M.B. Jayaram, Founder YCC and Chief Mentor & Chairman Emeritus PRCI
• Mr. S. Narendra (past Adviser to PMs and ex-Spokesperson, Govt of India)
• Mr. N.D. Rajpal, Chairman PRCI Governing Council
• Mr.  B.N.Kumar, President PRCI National Executive (NE) 

Now, I am happy to announce that we have just appointed Mumbai-based young PR professional Ms Shreya Banda as the YCC National Secretary. Shreya is a PG from Manipal Institute of Communication and did her BMM from SIES College, Navi Mumbai. Currently she is with DBS Bank, Mumbai.

Radio Day celebrations in Bengaluru

BNK, our President –NE, informs us that he has already begun speaking to officials at Mumbai University and Amity University. Shreya will take these further and involve other colleges as well.

Mumbai is virtually the Mecca of mass communication studies with the city having over 80 colleges teaching BMM. I am sure that an enthusiastic Shreya will take up the challenge of spreading the YCC movement across with the help of PRCI Mumbai.

We request all PRCI chapters to come forward and involve the GenX in our professional activities in their respective cities.

Please refer to our website – www.publicrelationscouncilofindia.com – or write to me for further information.

To begin with, we can make use of the Guest Faculty pool which BNK has announced to depute senior PR and media professionals to various journalism and mass communication classes for imparting practical training.

We can look at organising seminars on issues of mutual interest and hold inter-collegiate competitions. For instance, Mumbai did a contest on Responsible Communication as a forerunner to the 8^th Global Communication Conclave and the winning teams participated in the youth session at the Conclave.

Pune, for instance, has been organising YCC activities on social media,

Young Communicators Club with PRCI Bangalore Chapter conducted a one day program in connection with Radio Day at VikasSoudha in association with Media Academy and Department of Information and Public Relations, Govt of Karnataka. “We celebrated it solely toreinforce the idea of radio as a medium of empowerment, awareness and of course entertainment”. The day was filled with interactive sessionsand panel discussions with experts from the radio industry.   

With so many colleges and student community, the sky is not the limit for expanding YCC.

Let us start planning right now. I request all senior members to send in their suggestions on involving the youth in our activities.

More exciting times and news to come.

We are together in this journey.

Let’s keep talking to each other.

Preparing a soft PM for hostile media conference!

By S.Narendra

(Former Information Adviser to PM, Principal Information Officer

to Government of India and Spokesperson)

It was supposed to be a 90-minute press conference of Prime Minister Narsimha Rao. In less than half the allotted time, media had cleared out of the 1500-seat capacity Vigyan Bhavan. The Prime Minister, with folded hands and tears in his eyeswalked up to the edge of the VIP platform, and thanked the media.

An extraordinary year in recent Indian history was closing on this June 30, 1992. The government under P.V.Narasimha Rao  was completing one year in office, with an impressive record. No one could have guessed that an annus horribilis could be put behind by another annus horribilis. Speaking about the former, it was violent, politically unstable, economically grave and financially humiliating, with the nation’s gold reserve pledged to Bank of England. Naturally, the country’s morale was at its lowest ebb.

When the Union budget was presented in 1992, the face of the economy had unrecognisably changed, for the better. But it was not fully out of the woods. The Licence Raj had been unceremoniously flushed out. Suddenly, a “we-can-do-it, Kinda-do-it” mood had set in. On 2^nd  April, with the support of the Principal Secretary to PM, A.N.Verma, I persuaded Rao to agree to hold a first full-fledged press conference to mark the anniversary, 3 months ahead. It was not easy to make Rao agree to this, because he was quietly navigating turbulent politics of not having parliament majority and stiff opposition to economic reforms. Some in his own party were not in favour of reforms.

A group of industrialists, labelled as Bombay Club, were against globalizating the economy and opposed to India entering the World Trade Organisation. Both FM Dr,Manmohan Singh and  Commerce Minister P.Chidambaram were pushing for drastic  policy changes. A media-corporate war  on  for getting  exclusive rights for publishing  foreign newspapers like the Time, London Times and Financial Times in India raged on. Pressure was being put on  Rao  by India Today, Hindustan Times, Times of India against any policy change; PTI was upset as Rao had allowed finance ministry to permit Indian entities to get international financial news directly from Reuters and others, without PTI mediation. The language media wanted no foreign media entry.

Harshad Mehta Scam: Adding to the swirling controversies was the public sector banks-related  stock  market scam engineered by the broker Harshad Mehta. This stock market scam had occurred when the regulation of the  stock market ( there was no SEBI)  and also that of the banks were right under the finance ministry  and RBI Unfortunately, Dr.Manmohan Singh had made an unguarded remark that he would not lose sleep over the stock market prices suddenly zooming.

Anticipating Surprises: I   had requested PM to  give about 30 minutes to one hour, twice a week, for preparing him to answer questions on a wide range of subjects. Preparing a prime minister for a high profile press conference is a tough exercise. The government of India consists of 70 odd ministries and departments and a prime minister could not be expected to know everything that happens in several murky corridors of power. Yet at a press conference, the prime minister was (and is) expected to answer any and every question, that too with authority. If he answers ‘I don’t know’ to a question relating to subjects he is not directly dealing with, an impression is created that the prime minister has no grip over his government.

Officials passing notes to him or her, or whispering in his ears during a press conference obviously send wrong signals that the prime minister’s inadequacy to deal with questions. No press conference can be strictly restricted to the government’s business. Media loves to drag everything into politics and political controversies. So, the challenge was to keep focus on the central message.

Respect for Professional Advice:  When a prime minister addresses a press conference, he is the national political leader and his body language throughout the session conveys an unsaid message. Body language and stage manners in this age of visual media assume great importance and therefore, certain DOs and DON’Ts have to be notified. The PM cannot afford to squirm or be cagey or parry questions. Many political leader think that they  know the fine art and the rocket science of dealing with media, especially in a press conference situation and do not like to take professional advice. Fortunately for me, PM Rao sought and respected professional advice. For instance, he sought inputs for all his major speeches, and, instructed   me to listen to them during delivery and give him frank feedback.

I designed a plan for the sessions with the PM by dividing the government into broad sectors and asking my teams working with ministries/ departments to come up with  about 10 topical questions relating each sector policies and programmes. I wanted them to particularly focus not so much on achievements but on policy and action gaps, and controversial issues before each ministry.

It was clear from an analysis of media reports and commentaries that the reaction to economic reforms and liberalization was mixed. The stock market scam (involving about RS 8000 crore) had cast a big shadow on the government’s performance and reforms. The media and the opposition were accusing the government of going slow in its investigations. There were hints of involvement of government in the scam. There were demands for probe by a Joint Parliamentary committee or by a high level judicial investigation. It did not require any special knowledge to anticipate that the press conference would begin and end with questions on the scam.

Anything to Hide? In the first one or two rehearsal sessions, Rao tended to be distracted. But once a session was held about his  own portfolio-ministry of Industry- and I posed some tough questions for which there were no satisfactory answers, the prime minister began to appreciate the usefulness of such sessions. For example, in the session on his ministry, I asked him why he had kept the foreign direct investment board (FIPB) under himself  and not given this responsibility to Dr.Singh. Rao was taken aback.

The most critical session held related to the stock market scam. He had called senior PMO officials, finance and commerce ministers. I had sought PM’s permission to ask the questions in the rudest way - the same manner the media tends to shoot questions. Often people in positions of authority who are used to be treated deferentially tend to be offended by awkward questions. I wanted the PM to get used to some direct attacks.

In the preamble to the Press Conference, I drew attention to the raging controversy over the Harshad Mehta scam and the opposition demand in Parliament to hand over the investigation to a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC), and media hinting at PM and ministers’ link with scam.

Then I shot the question: ’Mr. Prime Minister; why are you running away from JPC probe? Has the government or any one in government anything to hide?’.

Some persons in the meeting were upset and said: “Narendra should not be allowed to ask such questions”.

PV Respected professional advise and addressing the media

Narasimha Rao just smiled and told them: “It is not Narendra who is asking this question. It is the public that is asking such questions…I don’t have anything to hide. If anyone else has anything to hide, I do not know. This is the time I should know”. He then turned to the ministers present.

The rattled ministers explained that the finance ministry had set up a probe  machinery in the Banking Department. This was headed by a very senior officials and he was not only trying to investigate the scam but attempting to get back the money lost by the banks.

One of them said: “Setting up a JPC or a judicial enquiry was considered but such a course would delay the investigation. Such delay could prevent recovery of the money lost. Also, earlier experience of JPC probes was very disappointing, as they tend to be political witch hunts with no results”.

PM turned to me and asked: “Narendra, How will this reply sound? Will your media friends be satisfied?’

I submitted that the reply was a technical one. Though it was a correct course of action, it lacked credibility. Then I said: “the media is recalling the Mundhra scandal ( Jayanti Shipping Corporation  in which LIC had invested, Firoze Gandhi, MP,(Indira’s late husband),  had spear-headed the attack on Nehru government in 1960s)  and Justice  M.C. Chagla enquiry (this had led to the downfall of finance minister T.T.Krishnamachari and his finance secretary H.M.Patel). If Nehru could set up a high level judicial enquiry, why is this government shying away.

“Sir, we need a political answer, not a technical one”. I added. 

Rao: “Please take it from me. I do not have anything to hide. If Parliament wants JPC enquiry or a judicial enquiry, the government will accept that.”

I pressed further with my questions: “Sir: will you sack any minister and any others if it s found that they are  involved in the scam?”

Rao: “If the enquiry finds any one guilty of involvement, no one,   no one,  will be spared.”

(It was my understanding that once the prime minister showed his intention to accept JPC, the finance minister gave him his resignation letter. The PM kept it with him, but never accepted it. Rao’s inclination towards JPC probe also caused Chidambaram to submit his resignation).

India destined to walk on the razor’s edge: The preparatory sessions were being held with utmost secrecy. The PM did not want me to even hint to media that he was thinking of holding a press conference. I was under strict instructions to issue the media invite only after his final clearance. As the government was completing its first year, I had prepared a brief about the government’s achievements which were impressive, especially the economic turnaround, and set out the challenges before it. Rao wanted an opening statement to be made at the press conference and he personally vetted both the documents. To the draft s opening statement, he added: “India is destined walk on the razor’s edge’.

On the morning of June 29^th, he asked me: “when do you have to issue the media invite”. Time was running out for me but appreciating his concern, I informed him that the invite must  go out by 6 pm. (those were the days when we did not have the luxury of emails and mobiles and invite had to be hand delivered to about 600 accredited media persons physically). Around 5 pm, I got his clearance to send out the invites.

The prime minister was a stickler for punctuality and he arrived on the dot. I had submitted to PM that no one other than himself (and myself slightly away from him for conducting the proceedings) should be on the dais. No official (including his security) should sit behind him. An exception was made in the case of I &B minister Ajit Panja, who had called me the previous day and asked me to seek PM’s permission to seat him with PM during the press conference.

Media Erupts: As anticipated the media almost erupted in unison to shoot the first question: “Hershad Mehta scam...government a silent spectator...Is your family involved... Opposition demand....JPC...Supreme Court  judge probe......Will you sack ......RBI..involved....Dr.Manmohan Singh said.....

The prime minister calmly said : “”I will answer all your questions on the scam. I am not running away, nor my government, from any kind of enquiry. If parliament wants JPC, the government will accept it. Neither  me nor my family is involved....’

“Sir,Sir..... Mr Prime Minister..Harshad Mehta....Finance Minister. said..Publc Sector banks...Communist party has....Advani has ..... “

I tried to intervene to bring some order into the deliberations.

Rao interrupted me: “Narendra, I have not finished my reply yet.” And he continued “Let me tell you. Please take it in a box. Neither me, nor my family is involved. If any of my ministers, any one is involved; they will not be spared.”

Most of the media persons rushed out of Vigyan Bhavan to file their stories.

Later, the PM remarked to me: “Narendra, your rehearsals made me know my own government departments much better than before”.