Disappearing Greenery

Ababy howls. Incessantly. Annoyingly. Co-passengers wait for the wretched green train to move. Outside the sun scalds. Inside, the air stifles. Suddenly, the sound of a whistling engine. But it is another train, a saffron one, and it rushes past them.

A background voice asks, “Can a train move without an engine?”, as visuals show the green train without one. “How can a government,” it adds, “function without a strong leader?”

This short commercial is one of the many that the BJP has unleashed on the Congress. There is also a series of TV ads that feature two kabaddi teams, one each for the Congress and the BJP, and where the former is shown as treacherous and worn down by the lack of a decisive leadership. A video on the successful BRT corridor in Ahmedabad, commissioned by the good governance cell of the central BJP unit, is also part of Modi’s re-election campaign, now bolstered by the use of 3D technology reportedly costing over Rs 200 crore.

A personal touch to Modi’s campaign helps him connect—whether the photograph of him seeking his mother’s blessings, or some rare shots of Modi in his younger days. This is combined with other elements, including Namoleague.com, masterminded by BJP leader Maulik Bhagat, and the newly launched Namo TV. Other than this, the state government has also hired two leading PR agencies.

Mutual PR will manage the image of the Gujarat government nationally. Part of its mandate is to arrange meetings between journalists and  state officials and to pre-empt adverse reports about Gujarat in the national media. APCO Worldwide has been roped in to touch up Gujarat’s image abroad and sell it as an investment destination not just to business and industry, but also to the media, educational institutes and multilateral bodies. The timing of the next Vibrant Gujarat summit (January 2013), for which APCO Worldwide is a partner, also fits in well with the polls.

Meanwhile, the Congress campaign  hardly inspires. Not only does it prefer to boast about what its leaders did for Gujarat 20 or 30 years back, it has also messed things up by using visuals of a poor farmer from Rajasthan and an emaciated kid from Sri Lanka in a campaign ad. The PR battle is one that the Grand Old Party has already lost.