Desperate for image makeover, Akhilesh govt launches massive media blitz

Lucknow: The Akhilesh Yadav government is going for a massive image makeover and how! Look at the newspapers and you get a feeling that an era of prosperity and development have dawned upon Uttar Pradesh out of the blue. The only problem with it is though there is no election round the corner. Till just about a month ago, newspapers and television news channels in Uttar Pradesh were full of nothing but incidents of crime, rape, murder and police inaction. An environment of lawlessness and spurt in crime was sought to be promoted which helped create a sentiment against the ruling Samajwadi Party.

But in the aftermath of the result of the by-election which gave an unexpected eight out of eleven Assembly seats to the SP, the environment in the media has changed as if suddenly. Major newspapers in Lucknow and elsewhere have been carrying several pages of state-funded advertisements. These announcements, interestingly, are not always related to a particular day or event, but more in the nature of a general sounding board talking about various schemes that the government has launched so far and how a great change has been brought about in the lives of the people. Such advertisements, according to media watchers, are generally issued before an election or on some special occasion like a commemorative day, birth anniversary or scheme announcement. But the manner and frequency with which these advertisements are being given out indicates a strategy behind it. Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav had, after the Lok Sabha verdict and during the by-election campaign, had said several times that his party had suffered because of “bad publicity” for which he blamed the media also. “A lot of good work that we have done is ignored and instead news about incidents of crime are highlighted in such a manner that everything else is drowned in it,” he had told a gathering in Lucknow some days ago. Learning a lesson from the past, the Akhilesh government has now embarked on a publicity spree that includes much more besides mere newspaper advertisements. It is learnt that funds worth several lakhs have been released for running visuals and messages across huge LED screens installed at strategic points in Lucknow, Rampur and some other cities. Not only messages related to running schemes, but also announcements made by the chief minister are displayed on these screens which have turned out to be traffic-stoppers in Lucknow. Huge hoardings along the main streets in Lucknow announce the government’s schemes and achievements. While in many cases, there is some relevance to them such as the investments promised by the government of Netherlands and the launching of the Metro train project in Lucknow. But otherwise, even routine welfare schemes are also being publicised even though if there is no specific day involved. On the social media front too, the state government has become quite active with the Twitter handles ‘yadavakhilesh’, ‘UPGovt’ and ‘ChiefSecyUP’ posting regularly on the social media site.

The state’s information department, it is learnt, is likely to be overhauled soon with the government looking out to engage a public relations firm to take care of its image-building exercise. The necessary paperwork for such a hiring had been started in August itself and tender notice was issued last month. This, according to sources in the information department, is part of a new media policy which Yadav himself had formulated in consultation with some bureaucrats and others considered close to him. The catchline of the media blitz is ‘Rising Uttar Pradesh’ and among the schemes and achievements being publicised are the 1090 Helpline for Crimes Against Women, the ambulance service, old age pension, loan waiver for farmers, assistance to children of poor families for education, the lion safari, Metro train in Lucknow and promises of investment. As for the sudden disappearance of news related to worsening law and order situation in the state, such news are now confined to inside pages of newspapers and that too in much smaller size than before. “It is for the people to understand how and why an environment to create distrust in the Samajwadi Party government was sought to be created in the months before the Lok Sabha election and also prior to the recent by-elections,” said a Samajwadi Party leader. Many SP leaders like him believe that it was part of a strategy by rival political parties to discredit the SP. The ongoing media blitz, according to them, is to ensure that the good work being done by the Akhilesh Yadav government also gets wide publicity. Many former editors and veteran journalists also say that a campaign-like coverage to incidents of crime and law and order issues is not confined to Uttar Pradesh alone. “Which party doesn’t take advantage of media reports? In many states where elections could be months away, such a sustained campaign could give a certain twist to public opinion,” said a former editor of a major English newspaper in Lucknow. Uttar Pradesh, according to him and many media veterans, has not been a stranger to such campaigns in the past also.