Narendra Modi impressed India's ad folk, but didn't inspire them

Mumbai: Last evening, Narendra Modi addressed a gathering of advertising and marketing professionals on his vision for Brand India. Because he spoke (largely) in Hindi and, as a consequence, this translation may not be 100 percent accurate, but I am confident this captures the essence of what he said or intended to say.

To begin with he said that Indians needed to believe in themselves. He made the distinction between communicators and orators. “Communicators are few, orators are many.”

He then went on to say that Mahatma Gandhi was the greatest Indian communicator. For example, the symbolism that Gandhi embraced. He “never wore the Gandhi topi” but got millions of Indians to wear one. (Not true, Mr. Modi. Gandhi often wore one):

More from Politics

Is Shashi Tharoor’s breakup with Congress inevitable? ‘Naxalism will end in India by March 2026’: Amit Shah at CRPF Raising Day parade

[caption id=“attachment_1145063” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Mahatma Gandhi wearing a topi: Getty images[/caption]

He said that one way to build brand India was for a committee formed by professionals in advertising and marketing to put together a book called “Gandhi the great communicator” and ensure that the book is read.

If the ‘Gandhi the communicator story’ became a case study, all leading colleges around the world would study it and through Gandhi’s story, India would become a brand, he said.

If only life was so simple, Mr. Modi.

He then focused on our mindset, where we saw the outside world as being superior to India. For example, when we compare Shakespeare to Tulsidas, we make Shakespeare the benchmark that Tulsidas should aspire to. The same with Bismarck and Sardar Patel, he said.

He said that we fail to market Gandhi and said that Martin Luther King was better known globally than Gandhi.

Hmm. I doubt that, Mr. Modi

Then he moved on to our heritage. As long as we called the Ganges ‘Maa’, we had protected it. The moment we saw it as ‘H20’, we stopped caring. Similarly, we, as Indians, used to pray to trees, animals and all of nature, but we’ve stopped doing so. When we did, we were automatically protecting the environment and protecting ourselves from global warming - two areas that the world is struggling to deal with.

He then said that we do not see things in context, for example, in architecture. When we think of great architecture, we think of France, he said (we do?!). France is easy, according to Modi, because it is a small country and, therefore, all the great architecture is easy to see. If all our great Indian architecture were encompassed in a small area, we would be the greatest in reputation, he said.

At this point came the sucker punch: great nation brands are built not through military power and economic power but through soft power.

Then he listed examples of soft power:

Music

Yoga.

Ayurveda.

Indian food (for example, he says, Indian curry is very big in Japan. I checked. It is!)

Organic Food.

Bollywood.

He said that the government had failed to brand India through these available ‘soft power’ resources. However, he gave us no idea of how he would do it.

What a lovely phrase. Soft power. Where did he get it from? From Shashi Tharoor?

This is a verbatim transcription of a talk Shashi Tharoor delivered at TED in late 2009:

“And so wondered, could, what the future beckons for India be all about, be a combination of all these things allied to something else? The power of example; the attraction of India’s culture. What, in other words, people like to call “soft” power.

Soft power is a concept invented by Harvard academic, Joseph Nye, a friend of mine. It is essentially the ability of a country to attract others because of its culture, its political values, its foreign policies and lots of countries do this. He was writing, initially, about the States but we know the Alliance Franaise is all about French soft power. The British council, the Beijing Olympics were an exercise in Chinese soft power. The Americans have “The voice of America” and the_“Fulbright Scholarships” but the fact is that probably Hollywood, MTV and McDonald’s have done more for American soft power around the world than any specific government activity. So, soft power is something that really emerges, partly because of governments, but partly despite governments_.”

There wasn’t very much original in his speech. The phrase ‘soft power’ is certainly not his. It isn’t even Tharoor’s; it’s Joseph Nye’s. The list of possible soft power resources is hardly original either.

Beyond this, Modi guarded the audience against taking the short cut and ending up ‘impressing’ people instead of taking a longer route and ‘inspiring’ them.

Yesterday, Modi impressed. But he didn’t inspire.