Don't shoot the messenger: Modi should spare media, focus on work instead

Why is the NDA government appearing so defensive in its body language, of late? The NDA leaders are blaming the mainstream media for the growing perception that the land ordinance is anti-farmer. Never mind that the media is merely capturing the sentiment of the farmers! The media is also being held responsible for fuelling the perception that Christians don’t feel safe under the present regime. The Intelligence Bureau selectively leaked official papers– NSA AK Doval had no problem with this leak– giving cold statistics suggesting that churches were vandalised as much during the UPA period. Yet, BJP leaders say, the media is bent on creating an impression that minorities are not safe. The most interesting aspect of this rapidly changing narrative is only nine months ago Prime Minister Modi, a master of everything he surveyed electorally, had specifically devised his government’s media strategy. The strategy simply was that he would ignore the private mainstream media as far as possible, and go over their heads to directly communicate with the people who voted for him. In short, he wanted to show the media its place and convey the message that the PM had his own means to reach out to the people. If this was indeed the case then why is the government blaming mainstream media for the growing perception that the NDA is not pro-poor or it is not making minorities feel safe enough? As per his original strategy, Modi is free to use the vast social media network or the official media like AIR or Doordarshan to put across the government’s views to the millions who voted for the BJP. So why give the mainstream private media so much importance now by suggesting that it has created a negative perception about the government? In short, what has happened to Modi’s earlier confidence that he would communicate with the people directly? This indeed is the most important change in the battle of perception the BJP is fighting. [caption id=“attachment_2192979” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] PTI image[/caption] It is not for nothing that the Prime Minister, in his first full-fledged interview to the Hindustan Times, has said the government does not make policies for businesses. He said policy is made for the people at large and businesses are free to benefit from it. He specifically pointed out that reform of labour laws cannot be seen as benefiting businesses. It is meant to essentially benefit labour. The PM’s language sounded so clarificatory that it seemed he was in the dock. Modi also appeared very defensive when he argued that the businesses were complaining the government was not doing enough for them and the “Congress is saying I am pro-business. Both can’t be right”. However, the truth is both the businesses and the poor have heightened expectations of Modi. The NDA government is completing one year next month and the growing perception indeed is that the big promises made by the BJP are nowhere near being realized. The other truth is media cannot create public perception from thin air. Therefore, the BJP must not go to the other extreme of attributing so much power to the mainstream media. Media merely captures certain sentiments that already exist on the ground. Instead of shooting the messenger, the BJP is well advised to study more carefully why such negative perception about the party is getting created, especially on issues such as farm distress, land ordinance, insecurity among minorities etc. The two day national executive meeting of the BJP had also delved into some of these issues. A better strategy for Modi would be to just ignore the media for sometime and remain focused on the critical tasks that the government has to perform over the next six months. The agriculture economy is in a shambles as the growth rate is likely to dip to zero in 2014-15, according to Dr Ashok Gulati, well known agriculture economist. In the past decade and a half, whenever agriculture growth rate has fallen to zero or negative, the overall GDP growth has been sub par, around 5 percent. This is because agriculture,with just about 15 percent weightage in a GDP, has a disproportionate impact on industry and services. The NDA’s big challenge is to fix the near collapse of the farm economy. This has been happening for about six months now following the global commodity price collapse. The unseasonal rains only aggravated it over the past month. Modi has announced some relief measures for farmers. But the NDA needs to come out with a comprehensive plan to fix issues in the farm sector. After several months of near anonymity, one actually saw the agriculture minister Radhamohan Singh, speak to the media on the growing distress in the farm economy. After returning from his tour of France, Germany and Canada, it might make sense for Modi to take an extensive tour of India’s damaged farm sector and learn at first hand what is happening to the rural economy. There is no substitute for working quietly on the ground and producing results which are experienced by the people. If this is done, the perception about the government will automatically change. The media is equally adept at capturing sincere work being done on the ground. The BJP spokespersons need not constantly claim that the Centre is attempting in a short period what governments have failed to do in 60 years. Such hyperbole normally doesn’t help. This is the moment to reduce talk-time and increase work-time. The author is Executive Editor of Amar Ujala Group