New Delhi: The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has decided to form a coordination committee to ensure that alliance partners speak in “one voice” and do not get swayed by the “Opposition’s narrative”, ThePrint has learnt.
The committee has been tasked with reaching out to the public with highlights about the programmes and schemes of the Modi government.
Comprising representatives from all alliance partners, the panel — informal in nature — will meet every 15 days and discuss the progress made on the public outreach.
The decision was taken at a meeting of NDA spokespersons held Friday. The main aim of the one-day media workshop was to ensure better coordination among the alliance partners.
The workshop was attended by Union ministers Piyush Goyal and Smriti Irani, Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) chief Chirag Paswan, Nishad Party chief Sanjay Nishad, and Arun Rajbhar of the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party, among others.
According to multiple alliance sources who spoke to ThePrint, it has been decided that irrespective of the issues raised by the Opposition, the NDA’s agenda would be development.
“Our core agenda for the 2024 elections is development and all the alliance partners have to be in sync and coordinate with each other,” said a leader who attended the meet.
“To ensure there is better coordination, a team of NDA partners would be made that will meet every 15 days and review the progress.”
Another participant said they had been asked to have better coordination between the central and state levels, for which coordinators will be assigned.
“We have to ensure that the spokespersons who attend the news debates are quite thorough with the subject and also have a good understanding of the state that is being talked about,” said the leader.
Citing an example presented by a BJP minister at the workshop, the leader said it had often been found that national spokespersons who lacked knowledge about local issues and a particular state ended up participating in debates at the regional level, and were “not able to put their point across”.
“This is the reason coordinators will be assigned and they will ensure that those who have knowledge about local issues are sent to regional channels, while those who have a command over national issues represent the alliance on national channels,” the leader added.
All the alliance partners, said a third source, “have been told to identify ‘talent’” — members who are “quite articulate and have a thorough knowledge of the subjects in question apart from a grip on government schemes and programmes”.
Even at the state-level, meetings of NDA coordinators will be held every month to decide on the subjects to be raised and to assess the progress made.
One suggestion made by an alliance partner was to have a WhatsApp group for all the spokespersons to share ideas and information. “We also suggested that more frequent meetings of the spokespersons should be held so that we can have a freewheeling discussion and be better prepared to counter the Opposition,” said the second source quoted above.
‘Refer to INDIA as ghamandia’
The alliance partners, it is learnt, have also been told that if they find viral videos — especially related to violence — that are “old” or fake, they should immediately react and not allow it to become an issue.
“It happened in Manipur as well as in Nuh. We can’t give any opportunity to the Opposition,” said a fourth alliance leader. “Through Manipur and Nuh, a fake narrative is being spread by the Opposition, and the alliance partners have been asked to counter it effectively.”
As far as the name of the new Opposition alliance [INDIA] is concerned, the NDA partners have been told to refer to the Opposition as “ghamandia (a play on the Hindi word for arrogant)”, a term coined by PM Modi,
“As far as our agenda is concerned, we have to highlight the schemes and programmes of the government meant for the OBCs, SCs, STs and poor sections of society,” said a leader.
“We have to counter the allegations of the Opposition more aggressively. If they try to make the caste census or Rohini commission report [on sub-categorisation of OBCs] an issue we have been told to highlight all the welfare programmes that have been initiated by the Modi government,” the leader added. “We have to reach out to the public and ensure they understand that there is no other alternative except the NDA.”
The NDA partners were told that while they have a “popular leader like PM Modi whom the public trusts”, the Opposition doesn’t have a stable face.
“They will keep fighting among themselves as to who should be projected [as alliance leader],” said a source.
(Edited by Sunanda Ranjan)
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