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APCO to Kotler – The Artificial Glossing of Modi’s Image

Fri, 18 Jan 2019 09:17:38 +0000

Narendra Modi is the first mainstream Indian politician who has tried to build his image rather assiduously. But the acceptance of an award with dubious connections does not add to the glory of the Prime Minister’s post.

Image Coutesy: The Indian Express

Narendra Modi, the present incumbent to the Prime Minister’s chair, had a little break the other day for an award ceremony. Well, little different from the usual award ceremonies — where the Prime Minister presents awards and gives some pep talk, here Modi himself was presented with the ’First-ever Philip Kotler Award’.

Perhaps looking at Modi’s much-publicised workaholic nature (if one is to believe what is written about him, he is reported to work 18 hours a day without any break) the organisers had seen to it that people who were to be presenting the award were flown in to save his time.

As expected, not only the bhakts but many of Modi’s cabinet colleagues could not hide their glee with this ‘first-ever’ award and went on overdrive to shower praise on him. Soon it dawned upon them that (thanks to The Wire report, which merely posed a few basic questions about this award) there was not much to be elated over this award, so they preferred to suddenly turn mute.

A little search on the internet revealed to them that this man, Philip Kotler — whom the American Marketing Association described as “the most influential marketer of all time” is basically a management guru (it would be opportune here to remember what Peter Drucker, a well-known management consultant from the earlier generation, had said: ‘People use the word “Guru” only because “charlatan” is too long) who has written many books on the subjects which are read by students all over the world and is a consultant to many corporate houses, has instituted this award in his own name and Modi has been selected for this in a ‘very confidential manner’.

It is as if some management consultant in India, a darling to many corporate houses and also taking courses in some elite colleges, one fine morning decides to institute an award in his name and confers it on the President/Prime Minister of a country, to further his personal/professional interests.

By evening of Monday (when the award was announced), it was the turn of the Opposition parties to congratulate the Prime Minister for this ‘unique achievement’ with a tongue-in-cheek comment.

“I want to congratulate our PM on winning the world famous ‘Kotler Presidential Award’! In fact, it’s so famous it has no jury, has never been given out before & is backed by an unheard of Aligarh company. Event Partners: Patanjali & Republic TV :),” Congress president Rahul Gandhi tweeted.

A day after, it was also discovered that this award had some Saudi connection to it and a particular Saudi company, which plans to spread its network in India, was behind this. Another media group even found out that one of the sponsoring companies, Suslence Research International Institute, to this award had given a fake address from Aligarh.

Whatever be the case, all these details, definitely do not add any glory to the Prime Minister’s post.

Imagine the head of any other country receiving such an award with dubious connections and questionable motives without an iota of transparency behind it, who goes on tom-tomming about it. What impression could this create about him/her in the rest of the world? This is an act similar to the one when US President Barack Obama had come to India and Modi had welcomed him wearing a suit that repeatedly spelled out his name in gold pinstripes, becoming the second leader in the world — after the disgraced Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak — to do this and inviting ridicule all over the world.

All these details about the award were readily available in the public domain and must have been known to close officials of the Prime Minister. They must have verified these details and later shared these with him. And he must have contemplated on these and then given his consent.

The question then arises as to why the Prime Minister readily agreed to accept an award that does not have any international credibility and even shared the news on his official Twitter handle as some ‘big achievement’, thus effectively becoming a ‘poster boy’ for the likes of Philip Kotler and his people, providing legitimacy to what he stands for?

PM @narendramodi received the first-ever Philip Kotler Presidential award.

The Award focuses on the triple bottom-line of People, Profit and Planet.

It will be offered annually to the leader of a Nation.

Was it because of the Saudi connection to it, as argued by some, or was it part of some quid pro quo which was being envisaged with the marketing firm, where Kotler and his expertise could be used to further boost the image of ‘Brand Modi’ which is in rough weathers these days?

The fact is that Modi’s charisma is fading — which has become evident with his party, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s loss in three Hindi heartland states and reaching on the margins in two other states – and he is keen to add some artificial gloss to his image.
How careful Modi is about building his image, using all possible means available, is widely known.

A few months ago, the Consortium of Petroleum Dealers, an apex organisation of petrol-diesel pumps spread over the country, disclosed how state-owned marketing companies (OMCs) had issued a verbal advisory to petrol pump dealers to display pictures of Prime Minister Modi at their outlets ahead of the 2019 elections and reportedly even threatened them with cut in supplies if they refuse to comply.

Not many have forgotten the uproar in the media when the Mukesh Ambani Group launched its Jio mobile phone services. It freely used Modi’s image, without any formal permission from the Prime Minister’s Office – in its advertisements. What did this ‘free’ use of his image signify? Here was the Prime Minister of a country, elected democratically, acting as ‘brand ambassador’ of a new mobile phone launched by the biggest corporate house in the country!

Digital payment gateway, PayTM, was a similar case. A day after demonetisation, leading newspapers flashed full-page advertisements of PayTM welcoming this step. Here, too, Modi’s face popped in from the advertisements.

Remember, Modi is the first mainstream Indian politician who has carefully tried to build his image rather assiduously. More than a decade ago, when he was still Chief Minister of Gujarat, he had embarked on building his image by roping in a US lobbying firm, APCO Worldwide, at a monthly cost of $25,000 (2007). A lobbying firm which in its own words

..[o]ffers “professional and rare expertise” to governments, politicians and corporations, and is always ready to help clients to sail through troubled waters in the complex world of both international and domestic affairs.’

That was a period when none from the class of politicians had even heard about such a firm and had not even thought of using their services. It was also the period when Modi was particularly worried about not getting a US visa because of the Gujarat carnage of 2002. This was a direct fallout of the communal killings in Gujarat that had followed the tragic Godhra train fire incident and had been widely covered in the national and international media. Very keen to build a positive image and attract foreign investments, Modi roped in lobbying firm, APCO, which had earlier serviced clients like former Nigerian dictator Sani Abacha and President for life of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev. This was the same period when APCO was lobbying for its most recent client, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a Russian billionaire with mafia links.

American tycoon, the late Steve Jobs once wrote: “To me, marketing is about values. This is a very complicated world, it’s a very noisy world. And we’re not going to get the chance to get people to remember much about us. No company is. So we have to be really clear on what we want them to know about us.”

It is possible that Modi and his team are rather keen to project a different image this time which would facilitate ‘what we want them to know about us’ and hence the good offices of “the most influential marketer of all time”.

The writer is a senior journalist. The views are personal.

Courtesy: Newsclick.in

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Improved ratings? How Gujarat Babus in PMO “worked out” Strategy to Lobby with Washington Institutes: Insider

Sun, 19 Nov 2017 13:37:10 +0000

Did Narendra Modi’s top bureaucrats from the Gujarat cadre, currently in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), work out a well-planned strategy to lobby with three top international institutes, all headquartered in Washington, World Bank, Moody’s and Pew, for ensuring a sharp image make over of Modi ahead of the Gujarat elections, after all three last year seemed least cared to show India under Modi in good light?

It would seem so, if a top insider of Gujarat government is to be believed. According to this insider, he knows how at least one of the closest Modi aides, who is a Gujarat cadre retired IAS bureaucrat and has been one of the most trusted Modi men ever since the 2002 Gujarat riots, was the key person who worked out a complete plan to ensure that the three institutes change their “approach”.
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“Those who have been in the Gujarat government under Modi have had enough experience about how lobbying works in the US”, this insider, who did not wish to be identified, said, adding, “When Modi was Gujarat chief minister, top world consultants would be hired with the financial help of Indian American supporters of Modi in the US.”
Consultants hired not just included Pricewaterhouse Coopers, Ernst & Young and KPMG, all of whom helped Modi in getting publicity for his Vibrant Gujarat biennial global business summits, ensuing appointments with well-known business and political leaders across the world; they included one of the best known American lobbying firms, APCO Worldwide, whose white officials were even stationed in Gujarat and directly interact with Modi and his aides.

Hired by Modi in 2007, APCO established a contact point in Ahmedabad. Considered the largest known foreign agent of Israel, the reason behind Modi’s particularly rising popularity and larger than life image in 2013, ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, lay in “dedicated efforts” of this global Public Relations giant, founded in 1984 as a subsidiary of one of Washington’s premier law firms Arnold & Porter.

APCO has been offering “professional and rare expertise” to governments, politicians and corporations, and it’s expertise comes from a 70-odd member Advisory Council, which includes a former president, many lawmakers, administrators, bureaucrats and captains of industry from various parts of the world. It undertakes a range of activities meant to influence public opinion and government policy in favour of its “clients”.

Media reports say how the top firm in 2010 offered to start an image-improvement campaign for the US finance industry. It and handled grassroots campaign against smoking regulations for tobacco giant Philip Morris, worked to counter the harassment accusations against Hewlett-Packard Company’s CEO, as also Ford’s troubles with Firestone tyres. It also “helped” shield Kazakhstan’s President-for-life Nursultan Nazarbayev from attacks by his former son-in-law, and British Prime Minister Tony Blair gain support for his decision to enter the Iraq war.
Said to be directly involved with the American military-industrial complex and its war machine, in May 2003, APCO helped launched a task force to help American companies win contracts for the rebuilding of Iraq, led by a former US Ambassador to Morocco, Marc Ginsberg; and early this decade it was instrumental in preparing a report meant to provide a legal basis for attacking Iran.

“If Modi could do such lobbying as Gujarat chief minister (2001-14), it is not difficult to surmise what he might be doing, at a much larger scale, when he India’s Prime Minister, especially when he found that the World Bank showed, in 2016, India slipping to the 130th position in Ease of Doing Business, Moody’s reaffirming its Baa3 issuer rating last year for India, saying the government’s efforts had not achieved conditions that would support an upgrade, and Pew began showing Modi’s popularity slowly sliding from 87% to 81% in 2016.

While the Gujarat insider didn’t have exact details of who all were hired to lobby for Modi over the last one year for his makeover, he claimed, they got enough indication starting with mid-2017 that “something was brewing”. Things began clearer in August with the appointment of S Aparna, an IAS officer of 1988 batch, who worked in the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO), as Executive Director, World Bank, to represent the “constituency of India, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Sri Lanka for three years.”

“Aparna was Modi’s choice in the World Bank. She wouldn’t have got the job without Modi’s direct approval”, the insider said, adding, “Ever since she was sent to Washington on deputation, the buzz was strong in the Gujarat Sachivalaya that this was done to get a feedback about things happening among lobbying circles around Modi and India in Washington.”
“An official close to Modi in Gujarat even commented, the first thing you would notice is: India’s ranking in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business would now drastically improve’. This exactly what happens. India’s World Bank ranking improved by a whopping 30 points, to 100”, the insider said.

As if this was not enough, a retired ex-IAS bureaucrat from Odisha, a batchmate of Modi’s top aides from Gujarat in PMO, was given a team of five persons and sent to Washington to ensure that nothing went wrong. Their mandate was, come what may, Modi should get clean chit from international agencies, especially when economists at home had begun to say that the Indian economy was in a shambles.

As expected, following World Bank, Moody’s upped India’s rating to Baa2 from Baa3, and changed its rating outlook to ‘stable’ from ‘positive’, the best in 13 years, going so far as to suggest that demonetization and Goods and Services Tax helped things stabilise. This was followed by 9% jump in Modi’s popularity in a Pew International survey, to 90%.

The Pew survey, which has come under criticism for speaking to just 2,464 respondents in India between February 21 and March 10, admits that though it’s “primary sampling units are urban settlements and rural districts stratified by region and urbanity”, and it’s sample was “disproportionately urban.”.

As for Moody’s, its methodology was questioned by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, it upgraded India’s sovereign rating after 13 years as ‘belated recognition’ of reforms undertaken, amidst facts coming to light that that Moody’s was fined in the US, in Europe and in Hong Kong for ‘rating fraud’ during the last year and a half.

In January 2017 Moody’s agreed to pay a fine of $864 million to escape criminal action for its inflated rating of banks and securities in US. In June, 2017 Europe’s markets watchdog imposed a penalty of 1.24 million Euros on Moody’s for “not adhering to the correct rating protocol”. And in April 2016, a Hong Kong tribunal upheld a penalty of 1.4 million HK Dollars on Moody’s Financial Service for similar reasons.

Courtesy: Counterview

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