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Showing posts with label rahul gandhi vice president of the aicc. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rahul gandhi vice president of the aicc. Show all posts

Tuesday 22 October 2013

Ahead of 2014 polls, Rahul Gandhi ropes in Rajiv’s Media Man

Rahul Gandhi Speech
Ahead of 2014 polls, Rahul Gandhi ropes in Rajiv’s Media Man
NEW DELHI: Ahead of parliamentary elections, Congress has changed tack on its media strategy. It is no longer relying solely on senior leaders for briefing and training its spokespersons.

On party Vice-President Rahul Gandhi’s insistence, the party has brought in media strategists to provide professional inputs at brainstorming sessions. Apart from daily morning discussions on political issues, these strategists have been sharing the industry’s point of view on important economic issues.

The induction of professionals into the party’s media strategising has seen the comeback of Rajiv Desai, founder of I-PAN public relations agency, who used to advise exprime minister Rajiv Gandhi on media matters during parliamentary elections.

Desai had gained considerable influence in Congress and found a place in the party’s media committees headed by Pranab Mukherjee, Shivraj Patil, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Ambika Soni. But gradually he fell out of favour with the Congress high command.

Over the past two months though, Desai has been a regular in the communication department sessions, giving feedback on articles on new media, performance of party’s spokespersons in news briefings at Congress headquarters and economic issues, a person familiar with the matter said. The strategist has won Gandhi’s trust especially because of his adeptness at new media and social networking sites.

Rahul Gandhi Leader
AP Parigi, a well-known telecom, media and entertainment industry professional, is also helping the party in its media strategy. The strategists have been providing an invaluable outsider’s perspective on complex issues such as projecting a PM candidate and economic issues such as sharp depreciation of the rupee.

“It is like opening a new window for exchange of views,” said a senior Congress leader. “In the party there is a certain way of looking at things. When we are involved in a project we look at it in a unidimensional way, the way we have been dealing with it for years. Professional inputs from media strategists help us in looking at issues differently.”

These strategists have brought about a complete change in the way the party’s communication department is functioning. Earlier, Congress spokespersons used to have just a formal briefing with the general secretary in-charge minutes before the press conference at party headquarters.

In case of major political issues, these briefings would take place slightly earlier in the day and the party would specify its stance to the spokespersons. Now, a written brief is prepared after scanning the newspapers.

The party is waking up to the reality of its leaders shooting off their mouths. A gag order has, therefore, been issued and only spokespersons and TV panelists are allowed to participate in debates.

Even so, two party members have been assigned to draw up a list of panelists for each channel every day. “A proper chart is drawn up. So you don’t send an Andhra specialist to speak on Muzaffarnagar riots; you send a Union minister from UP,” said a leader involved in media planning.

Click to know more:- http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-nation

Thursday 1 August 2013

Rahul Gandhi, the future of the congress

Rahul Gandhi vs Narendra Modi
As the newest hot news stories hit the screens as Baba Ramdev dismisses

Rahul Gandhi as of being even a slight competition to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, it is quiet widely known fact that it is not so. The Vice President of the AICC, and the seemingly future leader of the congress party itself, Rahul Gandhi is not a person who someone should be underestimating. However, recent comments from Modi confirms the level of excessive confidence that his party and he is apparently sharing. With his latest taunts of "burqa of secularism" clearly points to it.

Unfortunately, there lies the undeniable fact of how the congress party has achieved nothing in the Uttar Pradesh elections despite spending years trying, all they could manage was to win 6 more seats than they did in 2007. This stands uncomfortably as a smudge on the image of Rahul Gandhi.

But the person himself, always dressed in the pristine white kurtas, with the earnest looking glasses, is nothing but the future promise to not only the congress party, but also to the country. Even though his efforts in UP didn't bear fruit as much as he would've liked, he indeed was successful in attracting the eyes, when he visited the Dalit huts and ate food from there. 

He had infact succeeded, though in smaller proportions, to get the public attention which they dearly needed in the state where previously, the existance of the party was nearly nonexistent. He also succeeded to reasonable measures to attract public attention with his recent "padayatra" organized in the state. But as it turned out the bulk of the attention he attracted didn't seem to have converted into votes.

Despite his efforts, Rahul Gandhi still stands out as an outsider to the common people of the state of Uttar Pradesh. To them, he's just the outsider barging in occasionally just to collect their votes. This could probably be the reason of the less than impressive result the Congress party got from the recent elections in the state. 

The fact of him being an outsider stand heavily on the failure of the party when it gets to be compared to the charisma of leaders like Narendra Modi or Nitish Kumar of the NDA. It is also a troubling fact for the Congress party, that the local Congress leadership in the state is so inefficient that they manage to ruin any positive effects Rahul Gandhi was able to build up and develop through his yatras and campaigns.

With the combined effort from local as well as the national leadership, the Congress and Rahul Gandhi hopefully will succeed in UP. His success in the national arena is something to be anticipated. The great leader as he is, he just can't be blindly ruled out as a not enough competent competition for political giants like Narendra Modi. It's a game of wits and selflessness, not just strength and dumb luck. And when the time is right, the rich political ancestry he has will be a helping factor in his future growth in the politics.