Making MP marvelous

By Rakesh Dixit

Madhya Pradesh doesn’t have much to write home about, if one considers its poor social indices and other parameters. But chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan would beg to differ as he feels that MP’s “growth story” deserves grand marketing at both the national and the international level.

But first, the stark picture. MP has 31 percent of the population living below the

poverty line, while 60 percent of its children are malnourished. It is also among the

10 poorest states in India. Though it has 20% growth rate in agriculture, this has

not checked the spate of farmer suicides. While the consistent 11percent growth

rate in the State Gross Domestic Product shines when held against the 5 percent

growth rate at the national level, it is marred by a drop in the industrial sector in

2013 — from 4.9 percent to 2.8 percent. Also, the much-vaunted Ladli Laxmi

Yojana for upliftment of the girl child has done precious little to obliterate the

stigma of MP having among the worst infant and maternal mortality rates. There

are also doubts about the state’s seriousness in tackling corruption after scores of

Lokayukta raids on many officers. Worse, admission and recruitment scams (to

medical colleges and for state government jobs respectively) involving BJP leaders

have led to disillusionment about this government.

FOLLOWING MODI

It is no wonder that the thrice-elected chief minister is keen on an image makeover.

His Man Friday and commissioner, public relations, SK Mishra, on his directive,

has launched a hunt for a PR firm of international repute with a minimum turnover

of Rs 50 crore to “position Madhya Pradesh as a leading state in India across

sectors”. Chouhan, apparently, is tired of his low-profile, humble farmer image.

Having ruled MP for over nine years, he wants to be seen and talked about as a

development man, a la Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Incidentally, even after the new PR firm is engaged, the Department of Public

Relations will remain intact. It has 50 members, including a commissioner and a

director. Till 1980, this department was low-profile, but after the late Arjun Singh

became CM, things changed. He appointed his closest confidant, IAS officer

Sudeep Banerjee, as director, public relations, who changed the PR department

into a high-profile one with lavish funds. As for Digvijay Singh, he hardly needed

a PR department as his infectious guffaws were enough to charm scribes. He was

also rather thick-skinned about criticism in the media.

Coming back to Madhyam (as the Department of Public Relations is called), on

December 1, it released the Request for Proposal document for selecting a new PR

firm on its website. The document is almost identical to the one issued by the

Gujarat government in June 2013, when Modi started pitching himself as BJP’s

PM candidate.

The tender floated by Madhyam has sought monthly targets for guaranteed,

favorable coverage and all-expenses-paid trips for national and international

journalists. Like the Gujarat government, it has a monthly target of “two major

stories in national newspapers and TV channels and one story in national

magazines”. Though Chouhan denies having ambitions at the national level, he has

resolved to market the MP growth story as aggressively as Modi.

PR BLITZKRIEG

Madhyam’s managing director, SK Mishra, says: “This is the first time we are

engaging a PR agency on this scale. As many state governments were hiring PR

agencies, we did not want to be left behind.” He admits that Modi’s PR blitzkrieg

inspired the move. According to the RFP document, the PR firm will need to

deploy a core team of 11 subject experts dedicated to MP. They should be based in

Bhopal and New Delhi and include two social media experts and three media

coordinators. The government will provide office space to the firm and a one-time

grant of Rs 10 lakh for setting it up.

The timing of this PR exercise is significant. According to his media advisers,

Chouhan feels now that he is all set to break the 10-year record of his predecessor,

Digvijay Singh, his achievements deserve greater exposure at the national and

international level. He feels that while the national press have mainly focused on

agriculture growth in MP, other achievements have not got due attention. That, he

feels, only a professional PR agency can do, say his media managers.

Chouhan, however, is wary of comparing himself with Modi or Madhya Pradesh

with Gujarat, given the delicate relations between the two leaders. Frequent

comparisons between them in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections still weigh

heavily on his mind. The fulsome praise of his government by BJP patriarch LK

Advani last year at the expense of Gujarat has made Chouhan more cautious.

“Chouhan is so afraid of Prime Minister Modi that the MP government is unable to

even summon courage to demand translocation of Gir lions to Palpur Kuno

sanctuary in the state despite the Supreme Court order to this effect having lapsed

almost a year ago,” said a senior minister. “The chief minister also meekly

surrendered to the center’s unilateral decision to raise the height of Sardar Sarovar

Dam on the Narmada.”

Moreover, Chouhan easily succumbs to RSS diktats in matters of governance,

unlike Modi, the minister revealed. The same chief minister who sat on dharna

against the UPA government’s “discrimination against MP” in allocation of funds,

is now silent over their release; overdue funds to the tune of Rs 5,000 crore are

pending.

RESTRICTED VISION

While this lack of aggression has endeared Chouhan to the BJP and RSS

leadership, it has prevented him from emerging on the national scene as a visionary

leader. His control over ministers and bureaucrats too is lax. His friendships with

the media and industry outside MP is also limited. His grandiose speeches about

making agriculture a profitable business or projecting himself as a caring uncle to

the state’s daughters shows limited vision. These personality traits are in sharp

contrast to Modi’s imperious, but bold style of functioning.

“Modi’s PR exercise was expensive. Chouhan is shy. Modi had a dozen

hagiographies written of him in the run-up to the PM post. Chouhan’s biography

by a local journalist is an insipid compilation of government press releases,” a BJP

leader said.

On social media too, Chouhan has proved himself inept. Once, he tweeted to

congratulate BJP president Amit Shah on the latter’s “birth anniversary”. In another

instance, he tweeted last month to congratulate newly appointed Railway Minister

Suresh Prabhu. However, it seemed to take a swipe at Prabhu for showing “bhaki”

to the PM. Within minutes, it went viral, leaving the state government red-faced

and pleading unconvincingly that his Twitter account was hacked.

So why was there a need to invest so much in publicity in MP? A senior officer in

the publicity department, explained: “In Madhya Pradesh, we have the media

virtually eating out of our hands. But the national media is a different kettle of

fish.” Most newspaper owners in the state have well-entrenched business interests,

with the biggest newspaper chain having businesses in oil plants, malls, real estate,

etc. So why should they antagonize the chief minister?

ELUSIVE NATIONAL MEDIA

But at the national level, things are different. A media manager of the CM said the

coverage of the recently organized Global Investors Summit (GIS) in Indore was

“far below expectation”. This, despite the government splurging on hospitality of

over three-dozen journalists from Delhi and Mumbai during the meet from October

9-10. Royal food was arranged by the minister for industries and commerce,

Yashodhara Raje Scindia, at a whopping Rs 4,400 a plate for over 5,000 invitees.

Even the presence of Modi and other high-profile visitors such as the Ambani

brothers, businessmen Gautam Adani, Shashi Ruia, Subhash Chandra and Cyrus

Mistry did not work wonders. The national press merely covered the PM’s speech.

However, the show did help the state as the industrialists pledged Rs 2.15 lakh

crore for various projects in MP. But the state government desisted from

highlighting the MoUs , given the poor track record of implementation of previous

such investor meets. “The GIS was essentially for branding MP as a favorable

destination,” the chief minister said. It also helped MP make contact with the

corporate world. “We want to sustain it,” said Mishra, justifying need for a PR

firm.

The Congress, as expected, was critical of the move to have a PR firm. MP’s

leader of the opposition, Satya Deo Katare, mocked it as “Chouhan’s personal PR

pitch”. “When there is no money to pay salaries, there is no point in doing little

work and spending lakhs on PR.” he taunted. True. The revenue deficit of the MP

government has doubled from Rs 4,245 crore (August 2013) to Rs 8,552 crore

(August 2014) and is likely to grow to Rs 25,000 by the year end.

The new PR firm will obviously have a lot on its plate.