Last week's British papers carried the news of the Opposition Labour Party engaging President Obama's chief election strategist David Axelrod. This American will see himself in battle with Lynton Crosby, an Australian, who is masterminding the Conservative Party campaign. And, to complete the triangle, there is one Ryan Coetzee, a South African, who is directing operations for the Liberal Democrats.
It is reassuring that in this day of globalisation, the grandiosely-named 'war rooms' of the main political parties in India's general election are dominated by locally-available talent. Indian elections are increasingly becoming more and more streamlined in that there is considerable importance attached to messaging, campaign advertising and media plans. Advertising and public relations professionals are also engaged to fine tune the message and crafty catchy slogans and jingles. But to date I have never heard of any serious proposal by a mainstream political party to import overseas talent and outsource the campaign to such individuals. By and large, Indian campaigns are run by professional politicians and party sympathisers. (
Full Coverage: India Votes 2014)
The reasons are worth reflecting on. In Western democracies, politics is as much an outcome of beliefs and expediency as it is of 'focus group' findings. Politicians employ professional pollsters to find out what people are actually thinking about an issue, they then tailor the message to suit the occasion so as to have the greatest impact. (
India Votes: Candidates |
Schedule)
In India, however, politics operates more on instinct than on surveys. There is greater poetry (and a peppering of profanities) in the political discourse because the messaging is, on most occasions, truly from the heart. A politician may fine-tune his/her message depending on local situations but these are invariably decisions based on feedback from within the party or sheer gut feel. It is only a very small minority of political leaders who know how to assess an opinion poll and use its findings to modify battle plans. Most politicians seem interested in the answer to one question: who has the lead and by how much? No wonder elections are the time when charlatans and frauds prosper in the garb of pollsters.
Election planning in India this year has been seriously complicated by the Election Commission decision to stagger the election over nine phases and stretching over a month. Delhi, for example, voted on April 10 and Kolkata will vote on May 12. For the strategist this is a nightmare. If a message remains unchanged from early-April to mid-May it will invariably become stale. There has to be constant improvisations, even if the central message is intact.
Narendra Modi, for example, began the campaign asking voters for a Congress-free India. In between he moved to local issues and even dealt with the headlines of the day. Last week, he conjured up the catchy RSVP description for the Gandhi-Vadra conglomerate and even shifted tack from 272+ to 300+, possibly a measure of the BJP's growing confidence in the final outcome. (
Heard about 2G, now we hear about jijaji: Narendra Modi's swipe at Robert Vadra)
To many these appeared as important shifts, possibly even a change of gear. It was nothing of the sort. Constant improvisation has become an absolute necessity to cope with the realities of staggered scheduling.
The Congress has faced somewhat different challenges. It began the campaign projecting
Rahul, fine-tuned it to stressing teamwork over individual leadership and finally junked it all into a no-holds-barred attack on Modi. Here the issue was not juggling within the parameters of a consistent theme but a total strategic shift.
If the Congress campaign has lacked punch, when compared to the BJP's offensive, it is because there has been strategic (rather than tactical) shifts. The Congress has, consequently, given an impression of incoherence on the battlefield.
After May 16, there will be a natural inclination to assess the 2014 with the benefit of hindsight. The drama, the day-to-day twists and turns and the awkward choices that the parties faced will be subsumed by the final results. This would be a shame. The general election of 2014 deserves a detailed documentation if only to inform the world that our swadeshi expertise is, given the complexity of the project, absolutely world- class.
Britain, US and Australian parties should be inviting Indians to manage their campaigns.
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within this article are the personal opinions of the author. NDTV is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, suitability, or validity of any information on this article. All information is provided on an as-is basis. The information, facts or opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of NDTV and NDTV does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.