Its time to start preparing for Daughters’ Day over the
week-end of July 4.
We have a message from Bengaluru that the City chapter is
celebrating the day with an event at NMKRV College’s Saraswathi Hall.
Mumbai plans to do it along with Lioness Club of Navi
Mumbai. They are talking to some schools for felicitating meritorious and needy
girl students.
Am sure other chapters will also quickly plan.
Apart from meetings and speeches, we can look at
constructing toilet blocks for girls in particular in schools run on low
budgets.
It’s an open secret that the school dropout rate among girl
students from poor families is very high as they face toilet and privacy problems
after the age of 11 years.
We can also look at tapping developers like Shobha and
Prestige. In fact, let us plan to raise funds for such CSR from those whom we
award.
It may not be a bad idea at all to ask all award winners
to donate Rs 1,000 each (at least) for our CSR fund – of course without
connecting the award with the donation. Still better, we can prompt couple of
award winners to announce their contributions which will inspire others.
I request all PRCI office bearers and members to come out
with thoughts on this important issue.
Jayaram breaks the good news that PRCI-I is all set to be
launched on December 04, 2015 at Dubai. He will lead a 20-member delegation
from India. The core committee to look after PRCI-I is now busy chalking out a
programme, topic for discussion etc.,
On other activities, BARC in Mumbai has asked us to work
on a Media Seminar on Nuclear Waste. BARC seems to have developed some new
ways. We are awaiting details. WE shall inform all of you once we get the
details. Let us then plan media seminars in Delhi, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and
Kochi – and of course all other centres. The scientists will make their own
travel and other arrangements. PRCI will have to just provide logistics. We can
tie-up with Press Clubs for this.
I am happy to inform you that PRapport readership is shooting
up by the day! Mr Narendra’s column is extremely popular. Just type Narendra
Prapport on Google search and you will not believe your own eyes!
The latest analysis shows PRapport has crossed the magic figures
of 2,500 in India and 1,200 in the US. Germany is racing towards 200, while UK
notched a half century.
Here is the data as on today at 11.20 AM
Thank you and Keep reading PRapport and spread the good word
Lessons from the
past: wobbly coalition, threats of resignations & pressures on PM
By S.Narendra
(Former
Information Adviser, Principal Information Officer and Govt Spokesperson)
It was
close to 9PM The prime ministerial
delegation was at Palam airport. The special protection group (SPG)
had lined up the convoy of vehicles, at PM’s residence-7 Race Course Road
for taking PM Inder Kumar Gujral to the airport on his way to New York
via Germany. And, then, I was asked to convey to SPG that the PM had
postponed his trip. Read on.....
Contrary to his claim, Gujral was under a tremendous coalition pressure
The United Front government headed by Prime Minister
Inder Kumar Gujral (1997-98) was a wobbly coalition, and had come to be
perceived as a government in transition. On one side the Congress president,
Sitaram Kesari, who was supporting the coalition from outside, was nursing his
own prime ministerial ambitions. Within
the coalition, Mulayam Singh Yadav of Samadwadi party, had a grievance against
Gujral. Yadav had almost become prime minister when Devegowda resigned in Apirl
1997. But the CPM guru, Harkishan Singh
Surjeet had manoeuvred to put Gujral in front of Yadav at the last minute. A
sullen Yadav had to accept the post of defence minister under Gujral. His
tenure as the defence minister (in-absentia) was
mostly spent in Lucknow, plotting against his arch foe, Mayavati ( of Bahujan Samajwadi party), who
was the chief minister of UP. Yadav had vowed to oust Mayavati by hook or crook
and was exerting almost daily pressure on Gujral to dismiss Mayavati government
and impose the president’s rule.
A Foreign & Domestic
Crisis: The coalition
was lurching from crisis to crisis and was literally living on borrowed time.
The central government employees had threatened to go on strike over a pay
dispute arising out of the 5th pay commission. The prime minister had told the
settlement negotiating team of cabinet ministers that the strike should be
averted at any cost as he was scheduled to address the annual UN General
Assembly and also meet the American president Bill Clinton in September. The
government had reached an expensive settlement (that cost over Rs 10,000 crore,
over and above the pay hike recommended by the pay commission) with the employees,
by virtually ignoring the finance minister P. Chidambaram who had the difficult
task of balancing the budget. This expensive give away upset states’ finances
as well, as the latter had to extend similar pay benefits to their employees.
As one shadow on the PM’s proposed
trip to the US, preceded by a two-day visit to Germany, was removed, another
dark shadow was hovering above the coalition. The defence minister Mulayam
Singh Yadav wanted the prime minister to dismiss the UP government of Mayawati
before his departure. The central home and Law ministries and the UP governor,
Romesh Bhandari were under considerable
political pressure to find some valid reason to destabilise the elected UP
government in order to accommodate a rebellious ally.
PM sandwiched: The most complicating
factor was that the parties forming the Janata government , while in
opposition, were vehemently critical of the way the previous Congress governments had misused the Article: 356 for dismissing non-Congress state governments. Such misuse
of had also been taken to the Supreme Court and the latter had now laid
down strict guidelines to be followed
before dismissing any state government .
The prime minister was really in
quandary because of yet another reason. A new President, K.R.Narayanan, was now
in Rashtrapati Bhavan and he was reputed
to be a stickler for constitutional propriety. Any recommendation made by the
Prime minister and his cabinet to dismiss Mayavati government had to have a
legal basis and fulfill the Supreme Court guidelines as well.
Mulayam - Hard Stand
Among other things,
the Supreme Court had laid down that the state governor recommending the
dismissal of a government must establish with facts that the government in power
had lost its legislative majority. And the only way the governor can come to
that conclusion is after the government seeks (and loses), a vote of confidence
in the Legislature. In this case, Mayawati had solid majority behind her. The
PM was between a rock and a hard place.
Shadow Play: The PM convened cabinet
meeting after cabinet meeting and some of them were huddled inconclusively for
several hours. Such meetings were mere shadow plays. Ministers and we officials who attended such meetings knew
the futility of such exercises, However, the
meeting kept Mulayam Singh Yadav’s hopes alive and the PM was buying time. The
governor, an adroit political player, who was under pressure from the defence
minister would send copious faxes narrating the on-going horse trading in
Lucknow but would not contain the crucial recommendation for imposition of the
President’s rule. The Home Minister Inderjit Gupta (of CPI) was deadly opposed
to imposition of the president’s rule, without the governor’s recommendation.
After each inconclusive meeting, I was required to brief the media about the cabinet
decision (without mentioning the deliberations and differences of opinion).
Mayawati - had the last laugh!
PM Cancels Foreign Trip: The day of PM’s departure
had finally arrived. The cabinet met intermittently from morning till about
7.30 pm. In his private conversation, Gujral had told me that he was inclined
to recommend the President’s rule and pass the buck to the Rastrapati Bhavan. But
his home minister Inderjit Gupta of CPI was strongly opposed to it. The day’s
cabinet proceedings were mostly devoted to persuading Inderjit Gupta to bail
out the PM, who was to board the plane around 10 pm.
Gujral summoned me to 7, Race Course
Road and I went to meet him around 8 pm. I conveyed to PM that the latest media
gossip indicating that the defence minister
had planned to announce his resignation the next morning, when the PM was
stepping into Germany on the first leg of his visit abroad. The PM got greatly
agitated by this piece of news and we discussed the possible course of action
available in the circumstances. While discussing the political mess, I
submitted to him that since the centre piece of his trip was the address to the
UN General Assembly, and the scheduled meeting with the US President Clinton,
he should try to save that end of the trip. It was possible to buy some time by
skipping Germany. The halt at Germany halt which was a little more than a
refuelling stop, en-route to New York. The available time could be used to explore
the possibility of using the good offices of the CPM chief minister, Jyoti Basu of West Bengal and others to bring
round the Communist party’s home minister Inderjit Gupta to agree to recommend the president rule over
UP.
.
PM’s Delegation Disembarks at Palam: This
suggestion appealed to the PM and he readily instructed me: “inform the Special
Protection Group that I have postponed the visit”. The SPG officials who were waiting outside with the convoy to take PM to
Palam airport could not believe their ears when I told them that the PM has
postponed his trip and they should inform the PM’s principal secretary and
others who were waiting to board the plane at Palam about the decision.
I was told that the external affairs
ministry was very upset about the cancellation of the visit to Germany. The
principal secretary N.N.Vohra, however, appreciated my suggestion to PM to sort
out the political knot before his departure for a more important diplomatic
engagement.
The Author (sunarendra@gmail.com)
President says ‘NO’: To complete the story, the
following day, after day-long deliberations, the Union Cabinet recommended the
imposition of the President‘s rule in UP, and I was instructed around 1 AM to
announce it to the media. Everyone knew that this recommendation would be
returned without approval by the President. Before daylight, K.R.Narayanan had
sent back the cabinet recommendation for reconsideration, raising some
questions for which the government had no satisfactory answers.
And this paved the
way for the PM to board the plane for New York.
As information adviser and Government Spokesperson,
sometimes one had to stray into the role
of a political consultant as well - because, information, media and politics are first
cousins.
A PR storm is raging over Maggi noodles with media saying
Maggi in thick soup!
We have all handled – and keep handling – crisis in our
companies and with our clients.
In this context, I invite all of you to take part in this
debate: If I were to handle Maggi….
It may sound like an essay competition. But it is not!
Let us discuss the following issues arising out of the
Maggi Soup:
1.What
do you think of the action taken by Nestle?
2.What
would have been your recommendation the day the negative story broke in UP?
3.What
could have been done to prevent spread of negative stories about Maggi in other
centres?
4.Finally,
what the lessons for us Communication professionals from this entire episode?
Kindly rush in your responses so that we can compile all
comments and come out with a PRCI Case Study on the crisis.
Now, getting back to other issues, I am sure all of us
are excited over the prospects of launching PRCI-International. PRCI HQ is
eagerly awaiting confirmations of participation in the delegation to Dubai from
all Chapters.
Please refer to my previous note – Shining Local, Going
Global – for details.
The new academic year for Communication colleges will
soon start. Let us start compiling a list of our Guest Faculty Pool with professionals
who can be nominated on a voluntary basis to impart practical training to
students of BMM and other communication/media/PR students.
Journalism-related
subjects like Editing, Feature writing, Business of Journalism etc
I have been
teaching these subjects at MET College Bandra for last 7 years and at
Welingkar’s WeSchool Matunga since last 1 year
Mumbai
The eligibility for the Guest Faculty pool is minimum 10
years of professional experience and ability to connect with the students.
So, let us be careful while nominating faculty members to
colleges and universities.
It is also our responsibility to check feedback on the
faculty that we nominate for which we need to be in constant touch with the colleges/universities.
We can do wonders, as a team PRCI!
Meanwhile, please keep working on the Daughters’ Day
programme – as detailed in my previous mail – with focus on Sexual Harassment
at Work Place.
Sure, you have all seen the mail sent on May 24, 2015 on
Sexual Harassment – Compliance @ PRCI.
Between us and Ms. Geetha Shankar, the Chairperson of the
Internal Compliance Committee as per THE SEXUAL HARASSMENT OF WOMEN AT
WORKPLACE (PREVENTION, PROHIBITION AND REDRESSAL) ACT, 2013, we shall work out a draft plan for implementing at all Chapters.
The idea is to make sure that our daughters will be able
to work in a congenial atmosphere.
Please do not hesitate to throw questions which we shall
get answered by our honorary consultant – Vishal Kedia – whom many of us have
seen addressing a session at the 9th Global Communication Conclave
at New Delhi.
PL check the video link.
As I key-in this message, the viewership of PRapport –
your favourite emag – has crossed the 4,000 mark. Mr Narendra’s column is a big
hit, recording over 225 page views in just two days.
(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 50th 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 50th 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 3rd and 4th 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.
In a further development in the case of PR professional Misbah Quadri accusing her broker of forcing her to evict an apartment on the grounds of her being a Muslim, on Saturday the Public Relations Council of India (PRCI), the premier body of public relations practitioners across the country, took serious note of the issue. It has sent an email to Mumbai police commissioner Rakesh Maria, requesting him to conduct a high-level and thorough inquiry into the incident.
On Wednesday, when The Asian Age reporter had visited the building in which the flat is situated, it was found that there was a Muslim family of six members living in the building and so was another Muslim girl who was part of a group that lived there as tenants. However, Ms Quadri claimed that the other Muslims were allowed in the building because they were “influential” people.
The supervisor of the society, Rajesh Nasnolkar, had denied any such bias and pointed out the other Muslims living there, who claimed to be staying in peace.
Meanwhile, the broker whom Ms Quadri has accused, who is known only as Bansal, said on Saturday, “I have been very upset as her accusations — however false— have affected my business.”
In a letter dated April 16, 2015, nearly 10 days before Ms Quadri made her claim, Mr Bansal had written to the Wadala police station seeking action against her for “staying in the flat without lease and license agreement registration.”
While speaking to this newspaper, he accused her of “fake stunt for publicity” and playing the minority card for the “betterment of her career prospects.” According to him, “a broker has no role in taking the decision of who stays and who doesn’t.” He also went on to say that, “She has told me that she’s harassing me so that she can go to Big Boss (a popular reality-based television show).”
He added, “Otherwise why wouldn’t she go to the police and file a statement instead of giving a new statement to the media every other day?”
He further said that only after she gives a statement to the police would he speak in detail. Meanwhile, the roommates who were also allegedly forced to leave with Ms Quadri were unavailable for comment.
Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu unveils Special Booklet of “Top 100 Articles of
2014”
Eminent journalist TCA
Srinivasa Raghavan conferred with Lifetime Achievement Award
Author and columnist, AV
Rajwade conferred with Hall of Fame
NEW DELHI: Shriram
Sanlam Awards for Excellence in Financial Journalism for the 3rd
year in succession was conducted in a well attended glittering function held here on May 15, 2015.
The
highlight of the event was the key note address delivered by Gideon Rachman,
Chief Foreign Affairs Commentator, Financial Times.
For the first time ever, the top 100 nominations
found its coverage in a special booklet released on the occasion by Railway Minister Suresh
Prabhu.
(From L to R): Ian Kirk, T N Ninan, Atmadip Ray, N Madhavan, A V Rajwade, T C A Srinivasa Raghavan, Ajay Piramal, Aarati Krishnan, Goutam Das, Debashis Basu, M Rajshekhar, Devangshu Datta
TCA Srinivasa Raghavan was conferred with the prestigious
Lifetime Achievement Award and Mr. A V Rajwade was conferred with the special Hall
Of Fame Award at the 3rd Edition of the Shriram Sanlam Awards for
Excellence in Financial Journalism by the Chief guest, Hon. Union Minister of Railways, Government of India, Suresh
Prabhu in the presence of Mr. Ajay Piramal (Chairman, Shriram Capital Limited)
and Mr.Ian Kirk (Deputy CEO, Sanlam Group) amongst others. Winners and Runner
Ups in various categories are:
3.Financial Institutions –
Winner: Raghu Mohan, Runner Up: Atmadip Ray & M. Rajshekhar
4.Sectoral Issues –
Winner: Aarati Krishnan , Runner Up : Goutam
Das & N. Madhavan
Mr. G. S. Sundararajan, Wholetime Director, Shriram
Capital Limited said, “The winners of Shriram Sanlam Awards for Excellence in
Financial Journalism 2014 represent the best of that fraternity. Shriram Capital and Sanlam recognize that the potential
of Financial Journalism and the positive impact it can create to the economy as
a whole. These awards are aimed at encouraging a transformational approach to
Financial Journalism in the medium term.”
Institute for Financial Management and Research
(IFMR), Chennai played an important and independent role in the selection
process by scrutinizing the nominations and making them available for the Jury
Members for their consideration.
The distinguished panel of independent jury members comprised of Mr. Gopal Srinivasan (Chairman & Managing Director – TVS Capital
Ltd.); Mr. Srinivasan K. Swamy (Chairman & Managing Director, R. K. Swamy
BBDO); Ms. Ashu Suyash (MD & CEO, CRISIL); Mr. Adit Jain (Chairman, IMA
Asia), Mr. Swaminathan S. Aiyar, Consulting Editor of Economic Times and Mr. T.
N. Ninan (Chairman, Business Standard).
About
Shriram Capital Ltd.
Shriram Capital Limited (SCL) is the overarching
holding company for the Financial Services and Insurance entities of the
Shriram Group, created with the primary objective of optimizing the synergies
across the Group’s entities. Established in 1974, Shriram Group is one of the
most respected Groups in India with a predominant presence in financial
services. Shriram Capital Limited (SCL) is the overarching holding arm of all
the financial services entities of the group. Currently its financial service businesses
include commercial vehicle (CV) financing, retail financing, chit fund,
equipment financing, mortgages, life insurance, general insurance, stock
broking, distribution of financial products and wealth advisory services. The
Group manages assets of over US$ 13 billion. The Group has been promoting
Financial Inclusion of low income families and small businesses. SCL and its
operating entities, have an overall customer base in excess of 10.2 million,
more than 42,000 employees across 2,400 offices.
About
Sanlam Group
Sanlam Group established in 1918, is a financial
services group based in South Africa. The Sanlam Group conducts its business
through Sanlam Limited, the corporate head office and four business clusters.
Sanlam provides financial solutions to Individuals and Institutional clients in
the form of individual, group and short-term insurance, personal financial
services such as estate planning, trusts, home and personal loans, savings and
linked products, investment, asset management, property asset management, stock
broking, risk management and capital market activities. Sanlam operates
throughout South Africa, and has business interests elsewhere in Africa,
Europe, India, Malaysia, USA, and Australia.
The Queen's third, and supposedly the last, trip to India
would be remembered for wrong reasons!
By
S.Narendra
(Former Information Adviser to PM and
Government Spokesperson)
Queen Elizabeth Regina of Britain
visited India, the erstwhile ‘jewel in the crown’ of British empire, in 1997,the
year India was celebrating her 50th anniversary of independence.
This third visit (she had come to India in 1961 and 1983) of the present
British monarch was supposed to be her last. Unfortunately, this ceremonial visit
became the most memorable for the wrong reasons.
The sour points of the visit began with
the itinerary itself, as she was to arrive in India after a visit to Islamabad.
India has always frowned upon the big western powers linking the two nations
with a hyphen India-Pakistan. As I said in my last column, the then ruling
labour government of Tony Blair and its foreign minister, Robin Cook, had taken
the stand that Britain as a former ruler of the subcontinent had a mediator’s role
in the bilateral Kashmir dispute. Further, the Labour Government had reiterated its support for holding a plebiscite
in J&K, a demand of Pakistan that had been long ago rejected by India.
The officials of the Buckingham palace
who had arrived in advance for making
arrangements for the royal visit had irked the Indian side, thanks to their
overbearing behaviour. Like most ceremonial visits, this royal one was a big
lens photo op, mainly to be presented to the people in both the countries
through pomp and ceremony feeding the visual media
This story concerns the Queen’s proposed
visit to Jalianwalabagh martyrs memorial near Amritsar, that was included in
her itinerary. The British government had suggested this visit as a political gesture
to the Indian, especially the Sikh community back home, who form an important
political constituency. This proposal had run into considerable controversy as
the sections of people in Punjab had demanded that the Queen tender a public apology
for the atrocity committed in Jalianwalabagh in 1929 and the media in Punjab
had taken up this call. It will be recalled that
General Dyer had used his troops to shoot
on a peaceful assembly of people on Baisaki festival day, April 13, in
which thousands had been killed, although the official records showed only 329
as dead. It became a turning point in India’s freedomstruggle.
After the independence, India has built
a martyrs memorial at the site. The entire national media, particularly the
visual media (about 60-80 strong in Delhi and their brethren in Punjab) were
keen to be present for covering this historic visit by the Queen.
In the normal course, it used to be one
of my responsibilities to oversee media arrangements for such visits but for
some reason I had not been involved in this instance! It so happened that when
prime minister Inder Kumar Gujral was attending a function in Delhi, the visual
media association representatives complained to him that the arrangements being
made for the Queen’s visit to Jalianwalabagh were inadequate and they were
bring excluded. The prime minister then and there took me to task (I did not
mind it because it was more for effect) and instructed me to take a helicopter
and visit Jalianwalabagh, accompanied by the office bearers of the Visual media
association and officials of the External Affairs ministry.
I held a preliminary meeting with
representatives of the ministry of external affairs, visual media, British high
commission, and officials of the Buckingham palace. The latter were very
reluctant to revisit the arrangements they had planned. I, with my journalistic
instinct, had earlier suggested to the visual media representatives that they
should threaten to boycott the entire visit if they were excluded from the
Jalianwalabagh coverage. When they aired this threat, it had the desired effect.
Accompanied by representatives of the British government, MEA and visual media,
I visited the site. On arrival, the officials of the Punjab government poured out the
difficulties they had faced in dealing with the London officials on the one
side and from the protests they were facing from the local media on the other.
On site what I found was a small
platform built at a height of six feet that could hardly accommodate about a
dozen people. The British representatives had insisted on accommodating all
British visual media, leaving barely room for the Indian official media. The platform itself had been placed about 30
to 40 feet away from the actual memorial where the queen was to lay a wreath
and spend a few minutes. The platform was positioned at the back –end, instead
of facing centre point of the memorial where visitors pay the floral tribute.
I made notes and a sketch of the site
and the platform’s position and informed the accompanying Indian and foreign
team members that I will apprise the prime minister of what I had witnessed and
recommend my plan. On return I submitted my conclusions to PM and requested him
to direct the MEA to invite the senior officials of the British commission and Buckingham
palace for a meeting with me in my chamber.
A meeting was duly held in my room in
Shastri Bhavan where the British Deputy high commissioner along with the
Buckingham palace officials were present. Expressing my dissatisfaction with the
arrangements, I argued for maximum access to national and state level visual
media. One of my suggestions was to totally change the position of the platform
and place it in such a way that it faces the royal visitor.
The memorial consists of a structure
where a visitor has to enter from the from the left, place the wreath at the memorial and move right to
exit. The British team was willing to enlarge the platform to accommodate a
larger media contingent but averse to my suggestion to place it facing the
visiting dignitary. After exasperating negotiations, I explained : “Gentleman, I
am sure Her Majesty would be wearing a
skirt, and while placing the wreath, she would bend, making the skirt go up and
the visual media located as it is at present could capture something we all
don’t want them to capture!”
The Author (sunarendra@gmail.com)
The British negotiating team had a hard
time in suppressing their embarrassed laughter and agreed to shift the
platform. Addressing the visual media representatives, I told them: “Gentleman,
given the controversy surrounding the Jalianwalabagh, our attempt should be to
enable the visual media to get a good view of the Queen and the expression of
her eyes. I am sure Her Majesty would also slightly bow her head while standing
for a few minutes in front of the site. Such visual coverage would convey the
intended message more than any words’.
The Queen’s floral tribute at
Jalianwalabagh went down very well with the people and the media. Here is a
headline from a British newspaper: In India, Queen Bows Her Head Over a Massacre in 1919.
The queen’s
consort, Prince Phillip, who had visited the Jalianwalabagh site before the
Queen, had put his foot in the mouth by questioning the casualty figures. But
the Queen’s bow made amends for her husband’s indiscretion.
I hope you have been noting our activities on PRapport
and via mails from Jayaram.
This week, I have a lot to talk about!
PRCI-International
First and foremost, we are all set to see our dream of
going global coming true. PRCI-International will soon be a reality, and not a
mere promise or announcement.
With our dynamic Vinay Kumar, Director –PRCI-I, getting into
action, we shall open our UAE Chapter in December.
Dubai is calling us! Let’s go there in good numbers and
spread the PRCI movement.
Please indicate your confirmation to join the team to
Dubai so that we can block your tickets. You are aware as to how airfares shoot
up as we get closer to the travel date. We are negotiating with travel agents
to do bulk booking at concessional tariff. The tickets can be blocked ex the
city of your choice.
To give you an idea of return airfare by Indigo to Dubai:
Rs 16,800 (ex-Bangalore)
Rs 19,600 (ex-Kochi)
Rs 23,800 (ex-Mumbai and Kolkata)
RS. 15,700 (ex.Delhi )
VISA expenses
come to another Rs 5,000 each
So, please rush with your confirmations latest by May 31, 2015. We can make the
payments within a month. PRCI HQ is compiling the list.
Other details have been mailed to all Chapters.
Our next international destination can be either
Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Oman or Sharjah.
We are also working aggressively on PRCI-I USA (with
multiple chapters), Australia and even SAARC.
Daughters’ Day
Getting back to India, suggest we plan for our annual the
Daughters’ Day programmes for July 03, 2015 (coinciding with PRCI formation day)
onward as per local convenience.
This year, our focus can be in sexual harassment at work
places.
We have decided to set up a Compliance Cell which is
mandatory for any organization with more than 10 people working. It is
applicable to organizations like PRCI and even sports events and clubs.
We are happy to inform you that ComplyKaro – an organization
spearheading awareness about meeting the compliance – has agreed to be our
honorary advisor in setting up and running the Compliance Cell @PRCI. Please
check Vishal Kedia’s interview (Comply or face Jail) to PRapport for details - http://prapport.blogspot.in/2015/04/comply-or-face-jail-must-comply-with.html
The Cell details will shortly be announced in consultation
with the GC.
We can plan activities related to preventing sexual
harassment at work places and Vishal Kedia will be happy to guide us.
Chapter, YCC Activities
I am sure we are all working on and conducting local
level activities. Please flood us with reports and pictures for PRapport.
Soon, we will have the PRCI mag Chanakya and YCC mag Kautilya
out.
Please send in your contributions in the form of:
Activity reports
Planned activities
Opinion pieces
We shall soon float a topic for your and other PR
professionals’ opinions which we can carry in Chanakya. Till then....
