Philip Kotler fetes Modi for receiving namesake award; Rahul Gandhi mocks PM, says honour is fake

Acclaimed economist professor Philip Kotler on Tuesday congratulated Prime Minister Narendra Modi for receiving the award named after him . The award conferred upon Modi in New Delhi “focuses on the triple-bottom-line of ‘people, profit and planet”. [caption id=“attachment_5902081” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Philip Kotler. Image courtesy: Twitter @kotl[/caption] Kotler tweeted that Modi was selected for his “outstanding leadership and selfless service towards India, combined with his tireless energy”. He added, “Modi’s efforts in India have resulted in extraordinary economic, social and technological advances in India. “His winning the first Philip Kotler Presidential award raises the bar for future recipients.” A statement from the Prime Minister’s Office on Monday read that the award “will be offered annually to the leader of a nation,”  According to the award citation, Modi was selected for his “outstanding leadership for the nation”. “His selfless service towards India, combined with his tireless energy has resulted in extraordinary economic, social and technological advances in the country,” it read. Kotler — a professor of marketing at Northwestern University, Kellogg School of Management — due to ill health deputed professor Jagdish Sheth of EMORY University, Georgia to give the award to Modi. Kotler hailed Modi for advancing the common good in India. Kotler, in a mail addressed to Seth on Tuesday, said: “I can’t find the words to express how wonderful you have been making it possible to give the Kotler Award to Prime Minister Modi for his public leadership.” “Prime Minister Modi is doing his best to advance the common good in India,” added Kotler, expressing his delight. “It looks like the event went well. I am only saddened that I couldn’t be there. My letter hopefully expressed with deep admiration of Prime Minister Modi and his accomplishments,” said Kotler. Outlining the idea behind the award, Kotler said: “Our idea with the World Marketing Summit is to choose each year a national leader who epitomises the best ideas for advancing their society with democratic values and ideals.” “I talked to a number of people from India and elsewhere who felt that Prime Minister Modi is doing his best to advance the common good in India.” Endorsing further the choice of Modi as the first recipient of the award, he said: “We choose a public leader who encourages companies in that country to pursue the triple bottom line of profits, people and the planet.” Meanwhile, Congress chief Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday took to Twitter to sarcastically point out  that the award has no selection jury or repute. Mentioning that the award was backed by a little-known “Aligarh company,” Rahul said the partners of the event were “Patanjali and Republic TV”.  RJD scion Tejashwi Yadav retweeted Rahul and sarcastically called the prime minister “second to none”. With inputs from ANI