It’s been close to two years since the Modi government stormed to power in Delhi. The Congress Party insists that the government has singularly failed to deliver on the promises made to people. As far as the people on the streets are concerned, they find it only partially true. They still want to give the benefit of doubt to Prime Minister Modi as of now and believe that we’ll have to wait for some time in order to pass an informed judgement on whether BJP’s punchline of ‘Five Years versus 60’ has only been a rhetoric and nothing more. Having said that, we can still make informed judgement based on statistics, and they don’t lie, say the naysayers. Congress supporters mention that liquidity has dried up in the market. It is another fact that the March 2016 money supply figures released by RBI show an above 12% yoy growth of liquidity. Yet, Congress supporters reiterate that in the sectors that are facing the slowdown, people have started to miss the UPA, and claim that under UPA, there was a proper system of doing thing, in spite of corruption, whereas things are just not moving under the present political dispensation.
The situation in the infrastructure sector is apparently even worse. The inventory remains unsold. Newer projects are not being launched. The liquidity, both black and white, has gone out of circulation. There is a prevailing fear. The so-called Black Money lobby, which was patronised by the previous government, is running scared and is biding its time. Although this lobby has nothing to do with the Congress Party, it apparently found the environment conducive during Congress’ reign. The lobby has started to spread the vibe that this government has run out of ideas and its agenda has long gone stale; that it is singularly incapable of mounting a success story. Its whisper campaign got an unexpected boost because the party lost the elections in Bihar in spite of its high-pitch campaign. The lobby is now predicting that BJP will score poorly in the upcoming assembly polls as well and that it will start to go in a downward spiral movement. If the results really match this lobby’s campaign, this will only boost the lobby’s prestige.
In the run up to the next poll, Congress has started echoing a similar campaign. Randeep Surjewala, in charge of the Congress’ Media cell, says, “Congress is planning to mount a media offensive against the government. We will not resort to lies and misinformation, but we need to inform people about what is this government up to. This campaign of ours will prove to be this government’s demise.”
Taking nothing away from Surjewala, one needs to understand how the Congress works. Every time a campaign strategy is finalised, a committee is set up. However, after a brief period of enthusiasm, many a time, the committee loses focus and enthusiasm and the campaign runs out of steam. This started back in the days of Narasimha Rao when talking points were decided, reading material was published and field publicity was synchronised. And that was it. The Manmohan Singh government took several wonderful decisions and implemented them, but it got lost in the campaign cacophony of Sonia Gandhi’s pet projects such as Right to Information, Right to Education and MNREGS.
“Several projects of the Modi government are actually UPA projects that have been presented with a new name and campaign. Naturally, we made a mistake not projecting our achievements in a way that would have struck a chord with the public,” concedes ex-Cabinet Minister and Congress leader R. P. N. Singh, while talking to The Sunday Indian.
He believes that the way the Modi government has made use of advertising campaigns, should have been done earlier by the Congress-led government.
