THE joke doing the rounds in Thiruvananthapuram these days is that the ideological difference between the West Bengal and Kerala Marxists has finally been resolved. Just as Jyoti Basu was charged with fostering the entrepreneurial skills of his son Chandan Basu a decade ago, Kerala Chief Minister E.K. Nayanar is now mired in a controversy for promoting his son K.P. Krishnakumar's fledgling advertising agency.
Consider this. Krishnakumar's agency, Drishya Chitra Dimensions, or DCD, was set up a mere 10 months ago but has already acquired accounts worth over Rs 1 crore. And as many as 10 of the 17 accounts have come from various departments of the state government itself. As other ad agencies point at the irony of the Marxists opting for a capitalist tool—advertising—and hiss about downright nepotism, the number of stories about how Nayanar's office is functioning as the marketing wing of DCD mounts. In Kerala, where there is no manufacturing base, the government remains the major advertiser. Of the total Rs 25 crore spent on advertising, the state government accounts for nearly 70 per cent and the rest is shared between retailers, builders and jewellers.
But Krishnakumar attributes his phenomenal rise to hard work. He told Outlook: "My growth is a product of my work. My father or his office is in no way connected with my company." The denial carries no conviction in the face of facts. Take these instances: DCD has been included in the panel of advertising agencies for almost all government departments. Further, it has become the only agency to bag a range of contracts—releases for the print media, radio and television, contracts for hoardings and other outdoor advertising, printing of promotional material, interior designs, advertisement films and corporate films. A cursory look around the DCD office makes it clear that it is ill-equipped to handle such a range of specialised creative work.
The issues of probity and conflict of interest do not seem to bother the CPI(M) leadership. Krishnakumar has set up office in the Nayanar home at Kumaramangalam in Thiruvananthapuram. A week after assuming power last May, Nayanar moved into the official residence of the chief minister, Cliff House, making it easier for DCD to use the ancestral house.
The presence of the chief minister and Industries Minister Susheela Gopalan at the well-publicised inaugural function sent out a clear political message. Says a media planner of a Kochi-based agency: "The very address of DCD forces the servile bureaucracy to oblige and transfer accounts to it." Other ad agencies were quick in pointing out Krishnakumar's lack of experience in the field of advertising. "For years, he was distributing Dinesh Beedi, a product of a cooperative controlled by the CPI(M). Marketing a party-produced beedi is different from running a high-profile ad agency," says the spokesperson of a well-known agency which is fast losing out its contracts to DCD. Krishnakumar claims that he has seven years' experience in the field of communications. "Way back in 1992, I produced a television serial, Maanikkan, which won the Kerala government's coveted 'Best TV serial Award'. I got the contract to make a corporate film for the Kerala Tourism Development Corporation for 1995-96 when the Congress-led UDF was ruling the state. Where is the question of using my father's name in these cases?" retorts Krishnakumar.
Ad agencies claim DCD's first-ever release of a press advertisement was for the state government-owned Trivandrum Rubber Works—in May, after the LDF came to power. "Most agencies in Kerala are desktop publishing units with no holistic approach to advertising. I offer a comprehensive service and so I am growing. They feel threatened by my professional approach to advertising, and hence this malicious propaganda," points out Krishnakumar in defence. Professional agencies disagree. They view DCD as yet another instance of the politicisation of the advertising industry in Kerala, a process started by the Congress in the early 1980s. When E. Ahmed of the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) was the Industries minister in Karunakaran's ministry in the '80s, an IUML sympathiser and family friend, E.M. Najib, floated an agency called Reflections which bagged the bulk of government ad contracts. When there was an uproar in the media, Reflections chose to rechristen itself Chrysalis.
Even today all advertisements of Chrysalis are released through Reflections as Chrysalis does not have the Indian Newspaper Society accreditation. When the UDF returned to power in 1991, and Kunjalikutty of the IUML became the Industries minister, most of the government accounts went to Chrysalis.
Another Congress minister, A.L. Jacob, floated an agency at Ernakulam called Guide Advertising which was backed by his son Lino Jacob. This agency grew phenomenally only to be folded up with the advent of the LDF government in 1987. The electricity minister in the Karunakaran ministry, R. Balakrishna Pillai, patronised Gama, an agency floated by his son Ganesh. In fact, Ga in Gama stands for Ganesh and Ma for his wife Mallika. This agency also lost out with the change in the political fortunes of the UDF.
In the last two decades, various governments have had their favourite agency. Not only are campaigns diverted to it but the agency also releases government ads to poorly circulated magazines brought out by party friends in districts—to ensure that the ad money reaches the right pockets.
Now that the LDF is back in power, it is Krishnakumar's turn to make hay. The Left parties, which had made a big issue of the Congress' manipulations, are not exactly practising what they had preached. Strangely, Susheela Gopalan, who has been critical of Nayanar for denying her the chief ministership, is also rooting for DCD. No one is willing to take on Nayanar, who enjoys the patronage of Left patriarch E.M.S. Namboodiripad. The growth of DCD would have gone unnoticed if the advertisement scene in Kerala had been buoyant. With the return of LDF, there was a Cabinet decision to cut governmental expenditure in a big way. Publications have reported a 40 per cent slump in ad space. But again, the fiscal corrective measure does not seem to apply for DCD. One annual tamasha in Thiruvananthapuram is the flower show, which concludes with the Rose Day celebrations. The entire advertising account for the show went to DCD.
The biggest chunk of government ads are in the form of tender notices. For instance, the Kerala Water Authority and Ker-ala State Electricity Board release tender notices worth over Rs 35 lakh a year. These invisible, but highly profitable, accounts are now with Krishna -kumar (see box). "These government accounts require no strategy or creativity. So what is so great about these tender ads," asks the creative director of an ad agency. The industry is puzzled at the range of services offered by Krishnakumar's outfit. "What is the connection between interior designing and advertising?" an adman wonders.
They also point out that private sector clients have moved to DCD to get favours from the government. "His private sector accounts are mostly construction companies like Muthoot Builders and Heera Builders. They always need governmental clearance. The solution lies with Krishna-kumar—in return for the ads he removes the sarkari hurdles," says one observer.
The CPI(M)'s political allies are terribly upset with this blatant display of nepotism. The CPI has issued a verbal whip to its members in the Cabinet to avoid the DCD as far as possible. "But for the present Ind-rajit Gupta-Romesh Bhandari tangle, we would have raised this issue through our central leadership. The contradictions at the state level should not affect our national equations," said a senior CPI leader.
The DCD is all set to bag a Rs 2-crore multimedia campaign from the state AIDS cell. Probably, Kerala is suffering from another form of AIDS—Acquired Integrity Deficiency Syndrome.
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