It was a full page ad that reproduced the
previous year’s agreement between VHP, mahants and the home minister, along
with their signatures. Below was the government’s message stating that the
government was fully committed to allow worship at Ayodhya as per this
agreement. I had personally over-seen the final version and given
it to the chief of the creative team who was to get the pulls printed. Somehow
at the printers end......Read on
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By S Narendra
(Former
Information adviser to PM. Spokesman of Government of India)
Every
year, July–August months usher in the festival season that concludes around
Deepavali. While Muslims and Hindus are in a festive mood and some may be praying
in religious fervour (Chaturmasya, according to Hindu Panchangam), officials
entrusted with the responsibility for ensuring security and public order spend
sleepless nights and tense days. Their prayer is for this season to quickly
pass off without any violent disturbance to public order. It was one such
festival season in 1990, overly heated up by
Ram Janmabhoomi movement spearheaded by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
and its leader L.K.Advani. The latter had announced his Rath Yatra that was to
enter Ayodhya in Faizabad district in UP around Dussera festival-also observed
as Navratra.
To
refresh our memories, BJP was extending outside support to the Janata coalition
government headed by V.P.Singh. BJP, along with its supporting organisations
like Vishwa Hindu Parishad (Ashok Singhal), Bhajarang Dal, mahants of various
Ayodhya temples had vowed to begin
construction of Ram temple at Ayodhya at the place where Babri-Masjid stood from the 16th century.
This
was fiercely opposed by the Babri Masjid Action committee. The dispute over its
ownership and whether it was a Masjid or a Temple had reached the UP courts,
including the Allahabad high court. The Central governments consistent stand
for long has been that pending the courts’ verdict in the dispute, the two
sides should respect the
status quo.
It was the constitutional responsibility of both the centre and UP government
to ensure that no one was allowed to alter the status quo, as the matter was
sub judice.
In
fact, in 1989, the Ram Janma Bhoomi movement (had mobilised thousands of
worshippers or kar sevaks to bring ‘holy’ bricks from different parts of India to
Ayodhya for starting the construction
of Ram temple at the disputed Babri site.
The Home Minister Buta Singh in the Rajiv Gandhi government had used his political
skills to persuade the BJP and its supporting organisations to sign a document
agreeing to offer worship and conduct a token temple construction (kar seva) away
from the disputed site. The parties to the agreement had further committed
themselves that they would not try to alter the status quo, as the matter was
sub- judice. However, this time round in 1990 September –October, BJP and its
supporters had decided to offer worship and undertake temple construction only
at the disputed site, in violation of the previous year’s agreement. It was obvious
that electoral politics, not so much religious fervour, was motivating
L.K.Advani’s Rath Yatra.
Between Scylla and Charibdis: V.P
Singh government was in a quandary. BJP was extending support from outside the
government and any interference with Advani’s Rath Yatra was sure to result in
its withdrawal of support. Negotiations with BJP and its allies to honour the
previous year’s agreement ( not to enter the disputed site and conduct worship
away from it ) that bore the signature of leaders of VHP ( Ashok Singhal)
,Bhajran dal, some mahants of Ayodhya and the Union Home Minister were
unsuccessful.
BJP Ad Brinkmanship: BJP
and its allies had begun to run a newspaper advertising campaign in support of
their case for a temple at disputed site. A worried government wanted to
counter this and tell the people that BJP and its allies were violating their own
agreement of the previous year and could violate the court orders. The
government could not oppose construction of Ram temple, nor could it alienate
the minority community by allowing ‘kar seva’ at disputed site. And, it was
decided to put the facts before the people in order to gain support for its
stand. I was heading DAVP, the government’s advertising agency and was instructed
to run a newspaper advertising campaign for the purpose
Counter Campaign: The
government’s case to be put across through the Ads rested centrally on the
Agreement, and the signatures of main people behind the temple agitation. The
other message was that the government will be in contempt of the courts if it
allowed any ‘kar seva’ in the disputed
area, but it was allowing ‘kar seva’ a little away from the site. The focus was
on the legally untenable position of BJP, especially Advani, and to put the
onus of the government going out of power on the party. The time given to me for designing and
running this campaign, like most such campaigns, was less than 24 hours! As the
advertisements were dealing with a politically explosive subject that also
touched on matters of faith and fervour, the contents of the Ads had to get
political clearance at the highest level. Assisting the minister P. Upendra, the
then I&B minister, I got the ad
design and messages cleared by
the prime minister late in the evening prior to Deepavali festival day.
Advertising in Stone-age: Those
were the days before the PC era. The
present generation in advertising have
no idea of how tortuous and time consuming was the job of Ad designs by hand
and getting pulls (bromides) for manual dispatch to media. At the media end, it
was equally a time consuming process to print the Ads. In the case of Urdu and
small papers, DAVP had to get wooden blocks prepared (Now an Ad design can be
prepared even on a smart phone and broadcast instantly to any number of media. Any
number of iterations can be done in a jiffy). We had booked space in several
hundred newspapers in various languages in several parts of the country. As the
midnight hour approached, the newspapers began calling us frantically. I left
office early morning, after seeing the final proof copy. My colleagues were
entrusted with the job of getting the pulls from the press and dispatching them
to newspapers.
What? Happy Deepavali?: I
was woken up around 5.30 AM by a phone call. It was from P.Upendra, the
minster. “Happy Deepavali, Sir”, I said. ”What bloody happy Deepavali. What
have you done? Have you seen the newspapers? Do you know I cannot show my face
to my colleague? Meet me at 8’O clock”, was the minister’s Deepavali greetings.
The
newspapers had not yet come to my house. When they arrived later, I saw what
had happened to our Ayodhya Ad campaign. It was a full page ad that reproduced
the previous year’s agreement between VHP, mahants and the home minister, along
with their signatures. Below was the government’s message stating that the
government was fully committed to allow worship at Ayodhya as per this
agreement. I had personally over-seen
the final version and given it to the chief of the creative team who was to get
the pulls printed. Somehow at the printers end, the most vital part of the Ad, namely
the signatures of the VHP, Mahants and of Home Minister appended at the bottom
of the agreement were missing. Without
the vital signatures the Ad was a dud. Thus, the first round of our campaign
had bombed.
As
instructed I met the minister at this residence. The I&B secretary (late)
Suresh Mathur was also present. Upendra was seething with anger and his voice
showed: “What have you done about the mistake. Sack the officials responsible”.
I submitted a hand written letter in which I had sought voluntary retirement,
and spoke: “Sir: a grave mistake has occurred and embarrassed the government. I
have let you down. I take full responsibility for this mishap. All my officials
had worked very hard on the campaign and they are not responsible for the
error’. Suresh Mathur, who was in no way involved in this also spoke: ’Sir, if
Narendra is resigning, I will also put in my papers’. The minister was taken
aback and his voice changed: ’Alright. Alright.
What can you do now to correct the mistake’? I informed him that I had already
stopped the second round of the campaign and” I will personally go to the press
to ensure .....”.
“Sir:
Appeal for Peace and National Unity, and Go Out”
Advani’s
Raht Yatra was stopped at Samastipur in Bihar by Laloo which led to violent clashes between the ‘kar sevaks’
accompanying the Yatra and the police in which several people died. Immediately,
Atal Behari Vajpayee conveyed to the President that BJP had withdrawn support
to V.P. Singh government. That meant the days of the government were numbered.
BJP
began hitting back at the government with a new highly provocative display Ad campaign.
The full page Ads displaying facts focused on how the governments were
discriminating against the majority community, while favouring the minorities
(‘appeasement’ to use BJP words). They focused on subsidies to Haj pilgrimage,
official grants to minority institutions and similar facts. The Ads were meant
to rally the majority and sure to divide people and spread disaffection
among them. A war room conference was
held by the Janata leadership - V.P.Singh, M.M Syed, Upendra, Madhu Dandavate, George
Fernandes, Ramakrishna Hegde. I was instructed to come up with a counter
campaign, to be implemented from the very
next morning .I politely pointed out that the facts given in BJP Ads needed to
be countered with facts and the government has to get me those facts .The Home
Ministry officials were entrusted with the job of collecting those facts. In
the mean while, R.K. Hegde offered to send me a well - known Ad agency
representatives from Bombay to assist me in designing the ads.
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The Author
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Time
was running out for me. To make matters worse, the Home ministry
admitted by the evening that the government had no facts to counter the BJP
campaign. Meanwhile, the private Ad
agency had met Ramakrishna Hegde and the PM with their own campaign design that
in no way touched upon the BJP facts. The design was replete with political
messages attacking BJP and had content which could offend the majority
community. As a government agency, I could not carry out an political campaign,
and therefore, I came up with DAVP’s own messages emphasising the need for peace
and communal harmony. It contained an appeal from the government leadership for
cooling the political and social temperature. The minister Upendra took me to
the PM, where other ministers had already assembled. I submitted that the
moment was not conducive for further confrontation through Ads. As the government was almost on
the verge of demitting office, I said: “Sir: before going out of office, It will be very dignified if the government
issues an appeal for peace and national unity”.
Further,
I suggested that the political campaign could be implemented through the party
machinery. V.P. Singh quickly averred: ‘there is no need for any war in the
media.”
In
the next 24 hours, he left office!
