New Delhi: After the results of the 2014 elections, the Congress is looking like a Tsunami hit house. Many in the Congress are blaming the ineffectiveness of its media cell and spokespersons for its near total decimation. The Congress has not only lost more than 160 Lok Sabha seats, but its vote share has also gone below 20 per cent for the first time.
According to an insider, the communication department of the Congress has collapsed completely. He said, "What else explains the inability of the department, which failed to defend even Rahul Gandhi when he was being targeted both in the main stream media as well as social media for not attending outgoing Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's farewell dinner hosted by his mother Sonia Gandhi at 10 Janpath."
A longtime observer of the Congress has listed out following issues which led to the collapse.
Communication department always slow
The fact is Rahul Gandhi did meet Manmohan Singh and informed him of his absence on the May 14 and thanked him for his services as Prime Minister. But this was not communicated to the Congress beat reporters. It was a senior official from the PMO who ended up clarifying that Rahul had indeed met the Prime Minister. Rahul was also scheduled to return to Delhi on May 15, when he would have a meeting with the Communications department and spokespersons. Yet while all channels and even social media panned Rahul, there Congress Media department or Communications department remained absolutely a mute spectator.
Clueless communication department could not even defend Gandhi family
A senior minister said, "That has been the problem with the party, it's not simply about the coverage Modi got, we were late in responding to any allegations against us and the perception has stuck." A few weeks ago, when the BJP held its press conference targeting Robert Vadra by releasing its video 'Damadshree', that on a Sunday, which would have alerted even the most politically naïve persons, the Congress leadership was extremely displeased that the Communications department could not anticipate it and prepare spokespersons in advance. Their press release defending Vadra was finally issued later in the evening and by that time the damage had been done." The Delhi based leader also said, "The fact is the AICC media department is being used to settle personal scores in Delhi by those who head it. Talented people, senior voices were sidelined and voices that suited some equations were got on to brief the press. Seniors like Sandeep Dikshit, Kapil Sibal and Manish Tewari hardly got to brief the press and Ajay Maken's close friend Randeep Surjewala was promoted disproportionately.
Factionalism in Communication department
It is believed that several leaders complained to the Congress leadership about the misgivings in the Communication department and the leadership, too, has expressed its displeasure quite openly. An assessment of the failures of the communication department is expected to begin soon under the leadership of a media savvy leader, who has been tasked to identify why Modi could manage more air time, better social media coverage and attract attention even on polling days entirely to himself. The changes in the Communication department likely to follow after this assessment.
Spokespersons came from dynasty
Many spokespersons appointed were sons, daughters, relatives not necessarily most talented and articulate. For example Randip Surjewala's (Ajay Maken's friend) father was a Congress leader, CR Keshavan is grandson of C Rajagopalachari, Rajeev Gowda is son of a former Karnataka Speaker, Salman Soz is son of Saifuddin Soz, Ragini Nayak is wife of former Delhi Youth Congress leader Ashok Basoya. The first generation leaders who were more articulate were left out by Ajay Maken, who himself is a dynast and relative of slain Congress leader Lalit Maken!
They also attribute the total collapse of the party to spokespersons like Sanjay Jha whose tweets and utterances on TV channels cost the party dearly even before the elections.
An angry leader of the Congress with grassroots level contacts said, "Some of these people know nothing about real politics. You can't make page 3 types spokespersons. They will finally make the party a third class organization."
They also blame leaders like Mani Shankar Aiyar whose class bias and 'chaiwala' comment helped Narendra Modi in a big way to turn the people against Congress. They claim that Rahul Gandhi's laughable media interaction with media is also responsible for the wipe-out.
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