Jairam Ramesh has failed to collaborate with the AICC leadership, state units and spokespersons to ensure alignment in communication strategies and responses. There has also been bickering between Jairam Ramesh and Pawan Khera.
New Delhi: With the failure in building effective narratives in the Haryana and Maharashtra Assembly elections, the system of Congress party’s communication department is seen to have become broken. Notably, since the appointment of Jairam Ramesh in June 2022, the party has failed to introduce a new list of spokespersons and media panellists under his leadership.
According to multiple party members associated with the communication department, Ramesh has failed to collaborate with the AICC leadership, state units, and spokespersons to ensure alignment in communication strategies and responses across all levels of the party.
A source said, “The communication department’s leadership has failed to groom the young speakers within the party. And they have damagingly faltered in engaging the top leadership of the party on narrative building. Strangely, Jairam Ramesh, Pawan Khera and Supriya Shrinate have conducted more than 90% of all the press conferences, leaving no space for others. On the contrary, BJP has been successful in changing its media strategy in every phase of political war.”
As the wing which oversees the party’s social media platforms and ensures consistent messaging across digital channels to engage with the youth and the tech-savvy electorate, the social media arm of the party is said to be working in isolation, with its chairperson, Supriya Shrinate having little communication with Jairam Ramesh.
Not only that, the three seats of power that shape the direction of the communications department- Pawan Khera, chairman of the Media and Publicity department, Supriya Shrinate, chairperson of social media and digital platforms, headed by Jairam Ramesh, are seen to be working at cross purposes. There is also infighting over the distribution of power.”
Word is that there has been internal bickering between Jairam Ramesh and Pawan Khera, the latter being the immediate subordinate of Ramesh in the media department’s hierarchy. The bickering was over the extended role being played by Khera. Party insiders allege that Khera used to give positions to young leaders without officiating the appointments through the authority of Ramesh which angered the latter and led to the department’s disarray.
Experts say that he is the one who can create a “butterfly effect”, as his statement would get amplified down the hierarchy.
A political observer said, “He should be capable of countering the BJP’s narrative, but his artillery is only filled with tweets who thinks that every political rocket from the BJP can be tweeted down with a few crafted words on social media.”
Although the party insiders suggest that Ramesh has already been asked to step down from the position, the high command has yet not been able to take decision on who would be the successor of Ramesh. Pointing that the Congress’ decision makers are not serious about prioritising the appointment on important positions which would help the party manage its affairs sufficiently and be a force against the ruling BJP. Parallelly, there are voices emerging within Congress claiming that there are some people trying to protect him.
A senior Congress leader said, “If there are two big powerful positions in the organisation that are responsible for the progress of the organisation, it is Media General Secretary and Organisation general Secretary.”
An MP while responding to the recent victories in Jammu and Kashmir and Jharkhand called the two Assembly wins as “baadh ka paani” (flood water) and questioned that how one can drink the flood water. He emphasised that the party should be capable of winning on its own.
He added, “There was no narrative the party had built. There was no homework done on that. The victories are not our own. It was the regional parties in both the states because of whom we won seats.”
A journalist who has been covering the Congress party and visiting the AICC regularly for more than a decade said, “Ramesh hasn’t been to the AICC office much since the Lok Sabha elections, he hasn’t engaged with the media like he should have. It is the responsibility of the Media General Secretary to shape the narrative of Congress positively and share it with the media. He has held just two press conferences since the Lok Sabha elections.”