June 1, 1998

Spin doctors work overtime to give the PM a facelift

Prabhu Chawla

For the first two months, it was too little , too slow. But for the past two weeks it's been too much, too fast.

The sudden avalanche of press briefings and selective leaks last week by mandarins of the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) have jaded even the ever-hungry journalistic palate. Rarely in recent times have scribes covering the PMO and the Ministry of External Affairs been wined and dined in the manner that the movers and shakers of the BJP-led coalition have been doing. The sumptuous meals were accompanied by an overdose of India's nuclear case and the Government's resolve to frustrate global attempts to isolate India. The hidden agenda behind this excessive interaction with the fourth estate: to change Atal Bihari Vajpayee's image from that of an indecisive prime minister to an assertive chief executive.

For much of last week, journalists were called, sometimes thrice a day, by the Government's spin doctors for "exclusive" briefings on nuclear policy. Especially chosen pointmen told journalists about the number of letters written by the prime minister to various heads of government, besides leaking various important economic decisions taken by the Government to neutralise any adverse fallout of the tests.

What is perhaps striking about the new dispensation is its style and choice of personnel. Instead of fielding cautious civil servants, Vajpayee has drafted a highly motivated group to project him and to protect his Government. It is this team which has decided to add a little glamour to Vajpayee's meetings with the press, which are now expected to become more frequent: so you have a Rose Garden-style press meet venue on the lush lawns at 7 Race Course Road, complete with a teak rostrum, behind which the tricolour is artfully draped. For the first time, the prime minister has put together a team which comprises people with ideological commitment to the ruling party. Headed by Pramod Mahajan, a former general secretary of the BJP and now the aggressive political adviser to the prime minister, the entire PMO is now managed by members of the Sangh Parivar or family friends of the prime minister. For example :

• Brajesh Mishra, principal secretary to the prime minister, is a former diplomat who was a member of the BJP National executive before his induction into the PMO,
• Shakti Sinha, a low-profile Union Territory cadre IAS officer with impeccable integrity, is married into the prime minister's adopted family,
• Ashok Tandon, a senior editor with the Press Trust of India who joined the PMO as officer on special duty in the rank of an additional secretary, was a leader of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the RSS student wing, in the early '70s.

If excessive media blitzkrieg was aimed at neutralising an orchestrated anti-Government sentiment, the crack PMO team did deliver handsomely. Within a week, most of the Indian newspapers and fringe armchair intellectuals were bending over backwards in joining the jingoistic chorus. But as the nuclear euphoria evaporates, the Vajpayee fan club will have a very difficult task on their hands: convincing the middle class that this prime minister has a recipe for economic recovery as well.

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