Of silence, salesman and communicators
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: June 12 2015 -

Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s recent comment that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a "more adept salesman, event manager and communicator than me" is an admission of a fact which has not been readily accepted by followers of his own party during the Congress led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) regime.

Manmohan Singh while addressing Congress Chief Ministers' conclave in New Delhi said that he has acknowledged his successor is more adept at handling the media and of course selling dreams to the masses.

Here, it is worth recalling that Manmohan Singh had been often mocked by critics including Modi for his silence on key issues confronting the nation during his tenure.

This acceptance of the fact by the former Prime Minister is not likely to boost the image of the Congress anytime soon because Rahul Gandhi who had been projected as the Congress’ Prime Ministerial candidate in the last Lok Sabha election, has not learned the impact of the predicament of silence nor has he been able to find ways to express the party’s position with conviction.

This is despite the fact that Congress President Sonia Gandhi’s effort to shore up the party’s image via improved communication skills.

Over a year later, Sonia Gandhi has to state that one of the lessons the Congress has learned from the last election is that the party need to vastly improve communications and marketing skills.

However, one is not sure whether or not Sonia Gandhi’s message has been noted seriously by the party stalwarts – supposedly all claimants to the legacy of skilled communicators of the past.

The Congress should now act to recover its own position and emulate the examples of good communicators within its own ranks instead of preaching the necessity of conveying party principles.

The party is old enough to know that the test of a true democratic order lies in implementing party policies rather than selling momentary dreams to the people.

And for the Congress, its assigned role as the opposition at the Centre should be re-locating the party’s line with convincing arguments.