Dalit scholar Rohith Vermula’s suicide and President’s Rule in Arunachal Pradesh having proved to be public relations disasters, the ruling BJP is busy beefing up its media department while simultaneously organising special briefings for the spokespersons for improved communication.

Three new members have been added to the existing list of nine spokespersons for the central party. The new members are former journalist Sudesh Verma, chartered accountant Gopal Aggarwal and former MD of Deutsche Bank Syed Zafar Islam.

The nine other spokespersons of the BJP include Shahnawaz Hussein, Sudhanshu Trivedi, M. J. Akbar, Anil Baluni, Nalin Kohli, GVL Narasimha Rao, Bizay Sonkar Shastri, Sambit Patra and Meenakshi Lekhi.

Gopal Aggarwal is expected to attend to disseminating the party’s word on issues related to business and economy while the other two, Verma and Islam, will deal with all contemporary and general subjects like other spokespersons.

Besides adding strength to the media department, the BJP is organising special briefing sessions for the spokespersons with all the top ministers. On Tuesday, for instance, the spokespersons had a meeting with the Railways Minister Sunil Prabhu. The day before, on Monday, the spokespersons had met the Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar.

The meetings are aimed at preparing the spokespersons for addressing questions related to different subjects. The party feels that the message of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and achievements of the Central Government are not being properly conveyed to the mass media. The background briefings are expected to address this problem.

The BJP will need all the communication resources it has in the coming months especially as the opposition has stepped up its attacks in the run-up to the assembly polls in five states this year. The need is also being felt as all the effective spokespersons – Ravi Shankar Prasad, Nirmala Sitharaman, Prakash Javdekar – have moved to the government.

The most lucid and potent of them all – Arun Jaitley – is holding charge of multiple portfolios in addition to being drafted any time the party faces political turbulence.

In contrast, the Congress is able to mobilise all its former ministers – Kapil Sibal, P. Chidambaram, Anand Sharma, Ghulam Nabi Azad et al – when issues such as the National Herald case, President’s Rule in Arunachal Pradesh or Rohith Vermula suicide are to be raised.

While that is the inherent problem faced by all parties in power, the BJP this time has not been able to create a second line of communicators as it did during Atal Behari Vajpayee’s tenure. From Atal Behari Vajpayee, L. K. Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi, the baton had passed to worthy successors such as Arun Jaitley, Pramod Mahajan and Sushma Swaraj.

This time round, the lack of talent is showing in the party structure with practically no one to take the place of someone like Arun Jaitley or Sushma Swaraj.

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