“Utho, Jaago, Badlo” , “Umeed ki Cylce”, “Chad vipaksh ki chhati par, Mohar laga haathi par”
No we are not murmuring any titles of Bollywood potboilers. We are getting these for you from one of the most anticipated & important political battlefield: UP Elections 2012. This is a battle every political party & observer is closely watching expecting one of the closest & fiercest contests in recent times. In addition to the various dynamics of caste, religion & political imaging & posturing, this fight will be remembered for the Marketing carried out by various leaders to project why they deserve to get the priced chair at Lucknow. Whether it is a “Jai Ho” or an “India against Corruption”, marketing has become a key to promote political brands & ideologies and now the communication programmes undertaken are as extensive as marketing wars between top cola brands to outshine each other.
If you pull out the newspapers for recent past, you would notice that a sizeable chunk would be covered by the advertisements/news stories related to political outfits projecting the development programmes they have covered in the interest of the nation (Though readers generally wonder if so much effort was actually made for real development!!). It is not just the central government which is boasting about its efforts now; state Govts are equally active in getting their share of limelight. Thus you would find a Mayawati competing with the star leaders Rahul Gandhi & Narendra Modi having full pages in leading dailies highlighting the achievements of the BSP Govt in last 5 yrs of their rule in UP. Her 3-4 minute documentary on the state Govt’s success on channels seems a challenge which even Birla’s & Tata’s would not be keen to accept. Behenji’s Delhi counterpart Sheila Dixit is not far behind in addressing the different media to share her “success stories”.
Even social groups like Anna Hazare’s civil society seek marketing as a tool to take their cause to the heart of the masses. Irrespective of the intentions & manner of their forcing government to take affirmative action against corruption, the success of Team Anna’s movement was in the well planned and executed marketing blitzkrieg by its team which used the media machinery in the best possible manner to give the political brass a run for their money & insomnia in form of “Jan Lokpal”.
There are few clear reasons for this trend which form a vicious circle of sorts. Firstly it is important to take your promises & ideologies to the masses in this hi-tech age of ever expanding media. There are leaders whose mission is to wrestle power from the clutches of “corrupt, ill-governed & ruthless regimes”. For that they have a vision which is aptly translated into a mission by advisers. But even they realize that without marketing blitzkrieg they will not be able to realize this mission.
Thus whether it is Civil society against the ruling Congress at Centre or the Congress against ruling BSP in UP; everyone tries using this tool effectively. Not surprisingly Congress has hired as many as three agencies: Percept, Crayon & JWT to help them with their Mission 2012 in UP to nurture their heir apparent Rahul G’s dream. Even parties like Samajwadi party who used to be against concept of computers are fully supporting the need to use technology & marketing plans to project their “Umeed ki cycle” overtaking the elephant. You may have excellent development plans on paper, but is very important to sell those to the electorate to get a mandate to implement them.
Then the story doesn’t end there. Incase chosen to power, it becomes equally important to let the electorate know what you have done for them, or at least have “intended” because “actually doing” is pretty difficult most of the times! It is very important to tom-tom about the implementation of the achievements to tell masses how right they were in getting you to power! Whether it is Sheila, Narendra Modi or Mayawati, all are well versed with it.
As a constructive opposition, for attacking the Govt and broadcasting their scams, their ill-deeds & taints, media campaigns are a must or else the entire 2g scam would have died a natural death without any sounds reaching the masses. Hence it equally important to market Advani ji’s Rath yatra against corruption! On the other hand as the defense mechanism, the same marketing provides a tool to the state to defend self from the supposed “wrong doings or the debacles” the mischievous opposition has attributed it with! The beauty of your campaigns is in its flexibility to alter as per the changing circumstances, changing opposition stances & changing public opinions, the faster it adapts to these, healthier would your political standing be.
Yes if there is one thing which remains constant in all these: Politics remain at the heart of all such marketing advents. After all it is the politicians & social leaders who are at the helm of such media circus strategizing how every word can be turned into an award in their kitty and a sword for the opponents! General public just wonders: How if these leaders had actually planned & executed the development plans as good as their marketing ones :) But then the politicians would complain that even when they carry out development, they will still need to market & highlight it or else you will again end up not voting for them :) :)
“ Takaluf uthane se zyada, Takaluf dikhana zaruri hai
Kuch karei na karei hum, Tumse vaada karna majboori hai.
Hakumat ki yeh kahani azab hai, Isme har kirdaar ki jagah ghazab hai
Har labz mei dava aur zeher saath hai, Kahi kamal, Kahi haathi to Kahi haath hai! “
