The PM’s image manager draws flak
B P Sanjay
A front page piece by Seema Mustafa in the Deccan Chronicle( "Brusque PM aide has an enemy list." DC, September 21, 2006) and a nearly half page letter in the same paper by B Raman, former additional secretary in the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) ("Is Dr. Sanjaya Baru Running the Gestapo.", September 22, 2006) reflect a disturbing aspect of intolerant communication practices between the PMO and civil society at large.
The article and the letter reveal that the prime minister’s media advisor seems to have taken on the nuclear scientists and former bureaucrats for their stance regarding the Indo-US nuclear deal and the recent Havana agreement on a joint mechanism to counter terror between India and Pakistan.
Mustafa notes that Baru’s email was sent to Parthasarathy, former diplomat and well-known media panelist on bilateral and international issues wishing him luck in continuing his career with the BJP. The email was also marked to others including (reportedly) the former national security advisor, Brajesh Mishra. Baru’s email was in response to an article by B. Raman criticising the joint counter terror mechanism that was sent to him as a mail attachment. Baru’s email while describing Raman’s piece as utter nonsense sought to explain the growing strength of the Prime Minister. "For two years people have been betraying (sic) the Prime Minister as an innocent babe in the woods…but he has grown from strength to strength." Making the accusation that the criticism comes from persons close to Brajesh Mishra and Narendra Modi, Baru goes on to wish them luck in their political career with the BJP.
Parthasarathy responded by expressing surprise as to how a journalist could metamorphose into a bureaucrat at such a fast pace. Former nuclear scientists who were critical of the Indo-US nuclear deal were also at the receiving end of such communication (albeit off the record). However, according to Seema Mustafa, they refrained from taking up the issue publicly.
B Raman alludes to this in his letter which was carried under the headline, "Is Dr. Sanjaya Baru Running the Gestapo." Calling the media advisor’s actions as nothing short of character assassination, the former RAW official elaborates how his crtical views have had tolerant responses from the past and present political and state establishments. Enumerating his stand he describes the numerous instances where past prime ministers have not only been appreciative of his criticism but also sent officials to discuss them. The letter can be appreciated in the context in which it is written but the pains which the official takes in explaining why he is at various forums and functions smacks of a defense that is not warranted. Civil society events and functions invariably have some group or the other behind it and if all of us were to engage in carefully screening where we go and what we do it does not augur well for democracy. Stretching the argument further would mean that political correctness in the present situation should mean non-participation in any event or function remotely connected with the opposition.
To return to the PM’s advisor, when Dr. Sanjaya Baru assumed office he is reported to have said, "I will be an interface between the Prime Minister and the media. I will be the communicator between the two." But over the past year he has ended up being under attack for consistently targeting journalists. SMS messages to correspondents critical of the PM’s policy are part of his media strategy.
Some months back he wrote a letter ticking off economic editors whose papers picked up an erroneous story from CNBC. His latest missive on August 24th asks editors, " I would like your advice on what actions you feel, as an editor and senior colleague, we should take when journalists misbehave and use foul language when dealing with PMO/PIB staff and security officials. Do you think it is fair to seek their transfer out of the PMO beat or withdraw their accreditation? Or would you prefer that I merely report such instances to the editor concerned in the hope that the organization to which the journalist belongs will take necessary disciplinary action." We don’t know what the editors replied but the Asian Age reported that the Delhi Union of Journalists (DUJ) had issued a strong statement against the letter. DUJ president, S.K. Pande stated that the threat to cancel accreditation was reminiscent of the Emergency days.
Mustafa’s article, Raman’s letter and Baru’s letter are indicative of the pressures on the PMO office to constantly portray the PM in a positive frame. Although communicologists are prone to compare the governments with corporations in their efforts to manage the media, the fundamental truth is that governments represent the people’s will and unless we learn to live with diversity and dissent we cannot claim to be democratic.