Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said his piece. Not as an address to the nation, or a speech in Parliament, but to a group of television editors, and through the miracle of live television, to the country as a whole. The object of the exercise was to demonstrate that he is still the most honest Prime Minister despite being surrounded by not so honest Cabinet colleagues. Was that object achieved, are we now more convinced that the Prime Minister is more sinned against than sinning? The verdict is not encouraging, the country saw the Prime Minister publicly admit to having had no say in the appointment of his Cabinet, being forced to accommodate a man ? who is now in the custody of the CBI ? and accused of unprecedented graft. Is being considered helpless an advantage?
But for students of political communication, what is more stunning are the little things that ruined this choreographed event.
Right off the bat, press conferences and statements of any kind, especially during a crisis of some sort, benefit most when there are no counter questions asked. In William Shakespeare?s Julius Caesar, the Roman world would have tread a different path, had Brutus had the last word over Marc Antony, since Brutus was, after all, an honourable man. The Prime Minister, too, appeared to be having a good run, till in a desperate bid for a news point, the questions became pointed, tougher and appeared to have departed from any agreed boundary lines.
In spin doctoring during a crisis, it never pays to be defensive. The government?s steps on corruption, the arrest of Raja, the removal of Ashok Chavan and the pursuit of cases against Suresh Kalmadi were never once mentioned by the Prime Minister, in the things that he has done to combat corruption. He didn?t even mention the fact that the president of the BJP, Nitin Gadkari, had termed the corrupt actions of his party?s chief minister BS Yeddyurappa as being ?immoral but not illegal?, a howling exercise in cheese paring if ever there was one.
The third big mistake in Wednesday?s exercise was the timing. In life, as in politics, timing is everything. To hold a press conference at 11 am in the morning, especially one where the Prime Minister is desperate for a particular kind of message to be disbursed, is nothing short of criminal. While the press conference wound up at 12 noon or thereafter, the Opposition had the entire day in which to attack the Prime Minister, punch holes in his statement and generally diffuse any good that might have come of it.
Spin doctors in the Prime Minister?s Office (PMO) say that he will be speaking again, this time in Parliament, on February 22. His previous speeches in Parliament, peppered with Urdu couplets and grand historical sweeps, have been more successful in portraying him as a scholar-politician, far removed from the heat and dust and compromises of electoral politics, and yes, as the only honest man in the government trying hard at a tough job.
A shining example of that was the speech he delivered at the end of a debate on the Indo-US nuclear deal, where he had been accused of selling India?s strategic interests down the river. His words had bellowed his outrage at the suggestion, silencing the Opposition.
In a reply to a question today, Manmohan Singh said that he did not look at his previous career as a scholar and bureaucrat as being opposed to his current one as a politician, as he considered his life to be one of ?learning and relearning things?. If not for him, then for those looking for a career in the budding field of spin doctoring, Wednesday?s exercise has lessons galore.
nistula.hebbar@expressindia.com