Saturday, September 01, 2007

TOI: Lead India Campaign

Times Of India, a tabloid from India, in an effort to boost its sales, has recently launched a campaign called ‘Lead India’. Everyday, it devotes more than two pages of its paper trying to promote this campaign. Mostly, it is cut/paste of speeches written by eminent leaders, few ads, and results from SMS-polls.

Today, they articulated what they want to do with this campaign. Following a series of debates by young people who usually hang around malls and shopping complexes, they will select one young person, whom they call a leader.

According to TOI:

Lead India is designed to enable the brightest of India to cut short the normally long-winded path up the political ladder.

Doesn’t that remind me you of the quick weight loss programs pasted behind the auto-rickshaws which guarantee you losing 10 kg in 10 days? Is this one of those cheap tricks? I mean, how does one ‘cut short the normally long-winded path up the political ladder’? Someone should inform TOI that the only way one can do this in India is by being born to a political leader (like Rahul Gandhi).

Using the combined weight of all media channels of the Times Group, the programme will showcase the winners’ leadership skills, placing them right at the doorstep of the opportunity to participate in the next Lok Sabha polls.

Is debating same as leadership skills? (That’s why I keep saying that TOI is completely clueless on what Leadership is.)

With the kind of media build-up the winner will receive and the extent of public support the candidates would already have garnered, we believe national as well as regional parties would vie to offer them a party ticket for the forthcoming elections.

Wow! What a promise! TOI believes that a national or regional party would come to offer this young kid, who has debated in malls and shopping complexes taking a break from his SMS-chatting, a seat in their party! Should I be concerned at how idiotic, stupid and naïve TOI is? While they continuing to criticize the corrupt and heinous political parties and its leaders of India in each of its campaigns, it expects them to dole out this membership to one of their SMS-savvy contestants?

20 comments:

  1. Well.. I wouldn't really support the TOI campaign but I still would like to see the *first season* of the show :)

    Reason being, just assume it as a kind of pilot project being funded with lot of money and publicity. Agreed, you don't create leaders out of sms-poll shows but what's wrong in trying something. Everyone knows that middle-class clearly runs away from politics no matter how much it might lament over corrupt politicians. So, just for the argument's sake, let us assume this show be similar to an MBA exam interview and G.D. exercise process which is going to be telecasted to millions of homes.

    All criticisms applicable to MBA entrance process will be applicable here too. However, it might also happen that youths having 5-8 years of social service experience and leadership skills might arrive on the show, and perhaps get a better exposure for their causes. TOI certainly has the muscle in that regard, and might help some needy and sincere NGOs and individuals gain sufficient attention on national centre-page(or, centre-spread, which suits TOI more :) )

    I know that my assertion isn't very strong. However, I'd just like to say that, what else is the kind of initiative you'd propose to bring the middle-class youths come out of their shells to be part of political decision making process of India?

    At least, this show can bring the issue of leadership to the people - what our leaders promise to us and what we get in return. And for the heck of it, The biggest loser in all this charade are TOI and its shareholders who'll lose money. Surely, this is far better than most of the Government's programmes which hurt the taxpayers as well as everybody.

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  2. Himanshu:

    Agreed, you don't create leaders out of sms-poll shows but what's wrong in trying something.

    Imagine we don't have good examples, and then you go about creating bad examples. The chances that you will ever revisit it to set good examples has now gone slimmer.

    What I mean is- if this attempt falls on its face, which it is bound to, the young generation gets even more disillusioned with all kinds of leadership. What TOI is trying to do is tell the youth that this is how leaders are made. The youth which seems to have no clue anyway MAY start believing that this is how it is done. And when they won't succeed in setting the examples, they may shy away from it in future.

    I AM NOT saying that one shouldn't try. TRYing something is not trying short-cuts, and easy paths. TRYing something involves taking the hard path even though you know there have been many failures on that path.

    I do not agree with TOI in this respect at all. They are making a mockery of Indian politics, more than what politicians do. They are making a mockery of leadership.

    Imagine, I create big competition saying that I will send astronauts to Moon. I will conduct some simple events, such as high jump, bungee jumping, parasailing, etc, and PROCLAIM that the winner will get enough publicity by which NASA will select this guy for sending him off to Moon.

    Am I delusional or realistic?

    So, just for the argument's sake, let us assume this show be similar to an MBA exam interview and G.D. exercise process which is going to be telecasted to millions of homes.

    I disagree with that model. Most educated Indians have started to believe that there should be some kind of an entrance to become leaders. That there should be some test. That's NOT how leaders are made. They should abandon that false hope, and we should not perpetuate it (TOI is cashing in on that false hope).

    All criticisms applicable to MBA entrance process will be applicable here too.

    Sorry, IIMs have no clue what leadership is - they may rank as low as TOI itself.

    However, it might also happen that youths having 5-8 years of social service experience and leadership skills might arrive on the show, and perhaps get a better exposure for their causes.

    Yeah, that could be the case. But are we going to select them? I am not sure if 'experience' was any criteria. From what TOI writes I am not even sure they are looking for that kind of experience.

    TOI certainly has the muscle in that regard, and might help some needy and sincere NGOs and individuals gain sufficient attention on national centre-page(or, centre-spread, which suits TOI more :) )

    Sorry, but everyone around is believing that PUBLICITY ALONE matters. It does not. Even if it does, it is ephemeral.

    what else is the kind of initiative you'd propose to bring the middle-class youths come out of their shells to be part of political decision making process of India?

    Roll up the sleeves and DO something - which is more realistic and tangible.

    1. Roll up the sleeves, and spend a weekend to clean up streets of Bangalore.
    2. Roll up the sleeves, and spend a weekend to clean up suburbs of Bangalore.
    3. Roll up the sleeves, and spend a weekend to clean up parks, natural sanctuaries, etc.

    Remove plastic, clean up the trash, cover the patches, set up plants, etc.

    And once that is done. We can come up with more.

    The biggest loser in all this charade are TOI and its shareholders who'll lose money.

    I don't think so. The only winner of this charade would be TOI, conning people into believing that leadership can be achieved through short cuts.

    If Ekta Kapoor can dupe billion Indians on a daily basis cashing in on Indian idiocy, why shouldn't TOI? :)

    Surely, this is far better than most of the Government's programmes which hurt the taxpayers as well as everybody.

    :-)

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  3. yup i agree with you.
    I just subscribed yesterday to see what it has.
    The worst thing i found is that this also runs on public SMS voting system like any of those entertainment shows in the TV.

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  4. Ha ha ha...

    Lead India show is over even before it started. Too much of fireworks at the start and FUSS AT THE MIDDLE...
    It wouldn't even make a noise at the final day!

    They thought People of India are too fool...

    ToI may have realised, although people do not trust politicians, at least there is lot of craze in general elections. But lead India could even generate the remarkable awareness.

    Ultimately, as it was well known, eight people selected. And thousands of those who nominated were not even contacted.

    Well...

    What if some one challenges the leader elected by them?

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  5. hi sujai,
    this is neha from IIT delhi

    i dont understand why are u criticising TOI for its genuine efforts.
    OK i do agree that one of the motive behind d campaign may be to boost its sales but it should not matter 2 all of us as far as they are doing it for a good cause. Being a press of a democratic nation, this is what is expected out of them: to create awareness about the system, to spread the message to every nook of the country, and they are going a step further , bringing out young leaders or at least providing a platform for someone who is willing to serve genuinely.
    Common u shouldn't expect them to clean the streets, the parks, the sanctuaries.
    if they do it , i wud say "IT IS GREAT, THEY ARE GOD" but if they dont do it and rather carry out their CORE responsibilty as a press, i wud say "ITS GOOD. AT LEAST THEY ARE HUMAN"
    and why worry about their increase in sales, dont YOU want to reach out to more people, more readers...
    this is what evrybody wants but the thing is the core motive behind the action.
    just tell me honestly, had you been in their place wud you not take care about your sales before taking up any (gud/bad) campaign. They are an organisation and have to take care of the interest of their shareholders, their employees. Why go into all these things when the campaign they are carrying out is at least providing us a few energetic, enthusiastic, willing to do work people.
    even if it fails to provide a pan india leader, it is at least a starting, a boost to all of those out there doing work selflessly.


    warm regards
    neha

    PS: sorry if i have offended you. i just want to say, NO situation is negative, its upto you, how you look upon a situation, negatively or positively.

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  6. Neha: Welcome to this Blog. I agree with you. Criticizing just for the sake of criticizing and not accompanied with any action does not get you anything. Once you spend enough time on this Blog you will start "learning" :)

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  7. Hey Neha,

    Hi, this is paras from Somaiya college Mumbai. MBA.

    I am totally agree with your point, but the only point I would like to add is "is it the appropriate or the only way to achieve their social objective?"
    There are some strengths and many weaknesses; belive me TOI is only focusing on tier 1 & 2 cities, then what about the rest, leaders are not necessarily from cities or metros. You will find more synergy among the people in villages than cities, and there is always a leader who guides them.
    Again if TOI is using 'English Proficiency' as factors to evaluate then its not true justice.....
    I can write long story on this...
    But some other time....

    Regards,
    paras.s.gandhi@gmail.com

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  8. Lead India is a good initiative - to try and highlight the critical need of able leadership in India. It is pretty evident that our political process has failed in identifying, grooming or mentoring the kind of leadership that we need in India, to step outside our “shell” of the “developing nation” or a “third world country”.

    However, I am very concerned about the overall approach of making a “tamasha” out of this whole process of identifying leadership.

    Is this something in our culture, to make a competition out of everything?

    Why do we want to know who is the “best” leader in the “times of india - lead india contest”? OK so after a lot of tamasha they will declare one leader to be the “best” - so what? How does it help solve our intractable problems?

    Do you think Gandhiji would have even qualified within your top 25 - by your metrics?

    Why is it that you feel today’s leadership needs to be “glib” or “smooth” when answering questions posed by so called judges?

    We need people who can act..we have enough who can “talk”…if you need the ones that can talk, go to the nearest political party.

    And I believe the top “leaders” will get a budget of 50 lacs or a 100 lacs to implement their pet project!

    Wow, and do you know the Govt’s budget for the social sector alone is 64000 crores?

    So you expect that a paltry 50 or 100 lacs will make a dent, when 64000 crores does not budge the social indices of India?

    Sorry to say, but unless TOI can justify the reason to make this into a tamasha, their overall motives seem suspect. It looks more like building buzz and furthering their brand identity by spending few hundred lacs…and actually getting a lot more via advertisement revenues and SMS charges, from Indians who get duped by this scheme.

    Ultimately the poor Indians, the malnutrished Indians, the suicidal farmers, will stay where they are, while tamasha goes on…and a few leaders bask in the glow and get one more line to add in their resume.

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  9. Sujai k, thanks for your blog. Found all the views very inetersting.Hope I'm not intruding but I'm really interested in what you all have to say.

    Paras, some valid points there and maybe you send in your views to the editorial.You never know, you may even get heard. TOI seems to publish their reader's comments quite often.

    A few points to make here: NGOs for instance today are far flung and many who don't get heard of are doing amazing work,and big cities don't even hear or know of them. Maybe it's time their names get sent in at least in acknowledgement of their work. It's for those who know them and their work to do this.That's how the info bank grows.

    Nor should English proficiency be a criteria, though maybe it is not. What is possible is that only the metros as yet have proper regular access to English dailies and maybe the smaller towns and villages couldn't put up names because of this and maybe that's why we see only the big cities ???? just a thought and I really wouldn't know how the mechanism works.

    The intention behind it seems sincere .Like Neha says, so what if it boosts sales, if real good comes of it?

    Better than sitting around complaining about the Government which we all do,not speaking out, and doing nothing to improve one's own environment!Something we as Indian citizens are all guilty of somewhere or the other!

    On a general note, we as citizens fail even to maintain our own discipline .

    Rich or poor, we throw garbage on the roads,dirty the neighbour's backyard in cleaning our own, chuck plastic in the sea, disregard traffic regulations, bribe police officers rather than pay a fine, blame floods and filth on everyone but ourselves.Expect others to clean loos we have dirtied.

    If any one comments on this the usual answer is "This is India yaar! " Why should we have such a low benchmark?

    We are as responsible for bad or good governance as the Government is. Isn't a Democracy is a Government of the people , by the people, for the people (or vice versa!)? We won our freedom through a discipline we have now abandoned. Freedom was won at such a great price, a price we pay even today.Yet to be truly free is to set limitations on indulgence.

    Gandhiji said "Be the Change". We may or may not subscribe to his methods or agree with his political views, but it is important to remember we all have a responsiblity towards our governance. It is, after all for us all .Some action is better than none!

    regards, Shadow

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  10. It started off on the right note, but maybe we were all sort of misled, and soon it became yet another “competition” - mainly to get eyeballs and advertisement revenues, all the while claiming to meet social objectives.

    And Indians, who are so obsessed with “exams” and “who is the first” etc - got bought into it.

    If the whole idea was to do social good, why not choose the top 50 or so, and give them a budget? Who cares who is the “best” leader of them all? because after all the “best” is not being decided on “action” but mere “words”…for which we we have no dearth amongst the politicians of India.

    The bigger problem is that we are totally ignoring the HUGE MONSTER PROBLEM OF INDIA, and not even debating it to try and find solutions. The monster problem is the totally broken delivery system of the Indian Govt - which by itself could be ignored, if it were not for the “food” it eats. But you just can’t - why? Because thousands of crores of our hard earned (collective) wealth is thrown at it - and the monster gobbles it all, and leaves just crap behind…and asks for more the next year.

    Why do we have such a broken system? Here is the recipe for disaster:
    1. Job for life.
    2. No transparency/accountability
    3. Full pay, whether you work or you don’t.

    There is no “indian element” in this - you put this system anywhere on this planet and it will produce the same results.

    If we are throwing 64000 crores just in the social sector alone in the mouth of this monster - and all we get is crap - should we not be urgently addressing this issue?

    What bothers me is that here is a monster in our midst which is causing mayhem; this is the elephant in the room…and we simply ignore it and try to focus on a few ants.

    We need to get our priorities right and we need to get a sense of the scale. We are doing this big tamasha for 50 lacs, which is 0.00078125% of 64000 crores…and we award 64000 crores and more to this monster called the “broken delivery system” of the Indian Govt … without a whimper, without a debate, without anyone asking “what will we get in return”?

    What, are we blind? stupid? or is this a “holy cow” that can’t be questioned? so we just have to shut up and accept that the elephant will always be in the room and we will simply have to work around it, with our inane schemes of 50 lacs here, 25 lacs there…whereas crores and crores of our wealth is being frittered away.

    I agree that we the people have a responsibility too - and a very big one now, because our own money is being gobbled up, under one scheme or another by our Govt. This does not absolve us of own personal responsibility - but even there, its the lack of enforcement that encourages poor civic sense. Otherwise how is it that people saying "It is India yaar" - don't say the same thing in NY? We are paying a heavy price (taxes) to get civic services in return - it is as simple as that. If the municipality can't deliver the services they are in breach of this trust - and should stop asking us to pay. It is like you employ someone and have to keep paying his full salary whether he does work or not. If we don't do that with our own money - why do have to accept this, just because it is our collective wealth?

    Got any ideas to slay this monster? Pls share it with us.

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  11. coolvyakti:
    Thanks for writing.

    I really liked the three things that need to be reformed in the government jobs:

    Why do we have such a broken system? Here is the recipe for disaster:
    1. Job for life.
    2. No transparency/accountability
    3. Full pay, whether you work or you don’t.


    Thanks for listing them. I would like to include these in my future articles.

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  12. Abhi:

    I don’t know much about the state of Brahmins in Tamil Nadu. I do know a little but not enough to opinionate. I know one thing for sure that Tamil Nadu is a pioneer in lifting its downtrodden. In their zeal, if they have trampled upon the upper caste, I do not know. Many friends have said that this is the case. But I do not know enough to actually write about it.

    Coming to Kashmir. It’s more complicated than how we want to look at it. I have put my thoughts in few articles about Kashmir. I am not sure if you would agree with them, but I do invite you to read them.

    I have an article- Duties of the Majority and the Privileged. I write my thoughts there.

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  13. Some observations on Times of India's Lead India program:

    1. ToI didn't invite any of the life-long champions in social work to be candidates. Arvind Kejriwal, Sandeep Pandey, Aruna Roy, H. Sudarshan, Trilochan Sastry...(over 2-3 dozen in India) most decorated with nat'l and int'l awards (like Magsaysay Award), and have brought us great laws like RTI, electoral candidate's full disclosure...

    Why? Because these wouldn't have made interesting 'talk-shows' and thus their revenues from ads and circulation would not have increased significantly. Or, maybe some of these activists rise up against govt. injustices so ToI didn't want to support any major voice that was critical of the govt. (as that would cut their ad revenue from the govt).

    2. 340 million Indians go to bed each night without food. 10K Indians die each day from hunger. How many of you reading these statistics knew them before? Not many. Because media like ToI does not give importance to them to bring them in lime light each day to make them national priorities. Cricket, half-naked stars, stock market, city news, ... that's what's published more.

    3. I tried to post comments for "Dipayan Dey" on his blog as my best choice among the candidates but ToI did not post it (they should have indicated on the blog page that posts are censored).

    4. The SMS voting system encourages regionalism in a country that is already divided on every conceivable way you could divide humans - language, religion, states/region, culture, caste, even skin color! I've heard even educated people say, 'Let's vote for ... he/she is from our city!' (Wasn't it enough to watch the SMS wars between two NE states on a recent "Sa Re Ga Ma Pa" show, and see the most populous or SMS-savvy state candidate win (not the most capable)?)

    ToI could have easily made the SMS system where people could not just vote for their own city's candidate (i.e. a peer voting system), which would have been better.

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  16. hi frnds i m yogesh hre. i m true follower of the lead india campaign.

    well i m a syudent of final yr engg at MSU, baroda.

    i m planning of charuty movement among a mass 500000 in my university for the welfare of WAR WIDOWS.

    CAN ANY BODY GUIDE ME ON THIS PLSSSSS..........

    MY MAIL ID IS yogesh_2121986@yahoo.com

    09427251428

    hoping for responses from u people.

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  17. i really wanna join this campign...im 17 wid loadz of dreamz that we shall over come someday....someway...be it gandhigiri or bhagat singhgiri.....i wanna c a change in my country...so im ready 2 join this..can sum1 help me move 4rward wid this plzzz

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  18. Like everything else related to the Indian media, this campaign was mired in sensationalism which is anathema to proper thinking. Anybody knows what happened to the winner?

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  19. TOI did not do bad job on this. Somehow they have created enough news reports on their candidates to actually place them in the political parties.

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  20. and with all reason the coutry need a program like this, well I mean this because in countries Like India the governments always fail, so if someone want to join to this cause is totally welcome.

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