On the Road before E Day

Day 11: Junket journalists

Long-drawn election campaigns can be gruelling and can tell the real stars from the amateurs, the truly big politician, with a lion’s heart and an iron constitution, from the poseur. They can also expose the hollowness of some media commentators and talking heads.

This past week, I encountered one such person on a television programme. He sauntered into the outdoor venue, and while the others – all politicians – waited patiently, sipping cups of tea or in one case a diet cola, our man helped himself to three quick glasses of whisky. Then, as soon as the cameras were on, he took off. Mamata Banerjee was an embarrassment to Bengal, he said. The CPI(M) was also an embarrassment. The BJP, under Modi or otherwise, was a national embarrassment. The Congress, under the Gandhi family, was a national embarrassment as well.

In other words, as he digested his beverage of choice, he concluded India was in a mess, these elections were not worth it, and the country may as well as go to the dogs. Ultimately, the bile and cynicism was directed at the voter and citizen.

I was livid. First, I was angry because of the insulting words used for Mamatadi. Frankly, though, that was not the only reason for my anger. Commentators and media-persons are given a platform – television or print – to add to the weight of public discourse, to analyse and assess election trends, to smell the grain from the dust, to help voters make an informed choice.

Parachute journalism, fly in-fly out commentary – where the so-called commentator makes occasional visits to Bengal, or seasonal visits to India, and comes to instant and lazy judgements based on pre-conceived notions and old biases – insults this process. It tarnishes those journalists who actually travel to the ground or work hard on their assessments, and back up their opinions and political preferences with logic, whether one agrees or disagrees with the logic.

Sadly, there are too many people in the media – and the whisky-drinking fellow I found myself with the other day falls in that category – who haven’t outgrown college or even childhood and are perennially chasing transient glibness. Not only do they refuse to age gracefully, they refuse to mature. The result is silly rhetoric floating around as meaningful analysis. Does this fool anyone? The media needs to ask itself.

Derek O’Brien
Member of Parliament
Chief Whip in the Rajya Sabha and National Spokesperson, Trinamool Congress

On the Road before E Day

Day 10: 360° Communication in Politics

Politics is an impulsive, emotional phenomenon – but elections are planned and cautious campaigns. At the heart of an election is communication. A party has to communicate internally and externally, to opponents and workers, to loyal voters and fence-sitting voters, to the media and to the general public. These groups are all very different and hence the communication strategy not just varies but changes and gains or loses intensity over time.

At the Trinamool Congress, we refer to this as a ‘360° of Communication’ approach. We often speak of an election campaign resembling a pie, with 12 arcs of communication: 360° split into individual segments of 30° each. These 12 arcs resemble not just different tasks and target groups, but also a chronology. They begin with the revision and study of the electoral rolls and end with the day of polling, and exhorting and bringing voters out of their homes to actually vote.

What are the 10 arcs in between? They range from kormi (worker) sabhas that are in-house huddles (to borrow a term from football or cricket) before the Trinamool team goes into the field. Then come wall paintings, which as I explained in an earlier blog are taken very seriously in West Bengal and seen as almost an art form. Closely behind are the hoardings, the flex boards that highlight our party and its message.

Now the campaign hits the ground. Arc five comprises road shows as the party and its key functionaries and workers alike take to the streets, in processions and marches. Gradually, this devolves into a more focused door to door campaign, moving from the main road to the narrow by-lanes and individual dwellings and hutments. Finally, the chairperson – Mamata Banerjee – addresses meetings, growing from smaller meetings (arc seven) to massive, show-stopper public meetings (arc eight).

Simultaneously and complementarily, there is communication through several media platforms. This takes care of three arcs and includes:

• Mass media
• Direct media
• Social media

Trinamool is not unique in this. Many other parties adopt very similar strategies if not near identical mechanisms. Where we stand out, I believe, is in recognising and institutionalising the ‘360° of Communication’ approach and hardwiring it into our systems. This has made it easier for us to categorise our duties, and to undertake a job specialisation exercise within our human resources, whether workers or spokespersons, wall-painting artistes and wordsmiths, or logistical planners.

In short, it has made Trinamool an effective and efficient machine, and made election campaigns that much more methodical.

Derek O’Brien
Member of Parliament
Chief Whip in the Rajya Sabha and National Spokesperson, Trinamool Congress