I am reminded of a segment relating to a two-minute game-play telecast in a Tamil channel, where the participant will have to give totally irrelevant reply to the questions shot at him in order to be declared a winner. Hardly any one wins. Alas, how Rahul Gandhi, one wonders, could endure 90 minutes, in full flow! Or is it one of those left-brain right-brain balancing exercises?
True, any Congress grassroots worker could have given a better perspective and defended the Party. The interview was a test of humor and patience for Rahul Gandhi & Arnab Goswami, respectively and a hilarious evening for many. It was depressingly and seriously sad for Congress supporters. A historic number of tweets followed. This is merely a trailer. When and if at all he becomes the Prime Minister, you will see the main movie, which by all accounts ought to be more hilarious than a Charlie Chaplin movie.
Well, the theme of pointing fingers at somebody else can endlessly go on and on, and enough has already been said, written and caricatured. What are the simple lessons one can learn from this comical event? Yes, you, me, and of course, Rahul?
Key takeaways:
1. The interview can be used as a case-study for management students on the importance of communications and how it can make or mar a situation.
2. Importance of homework: Even our children will tell us the consequences of not doing their homework. It is said that a boy was once told that there would be a question about a “cow” during the exam. In the exam, unfortunately, the essay was about a coconut tree. The boy didn't give up. He wrote everything he studied about the cow, and at the end he wrote 'such a cow can be tied to the coconut tree'. Pappu’s interview was pretty much on similar lines.
3. Body language: The body language of the candidate must exude confidence and should not show weakness and submissiveness. Rahul, you appeared edgy; at one stage, you were waiting for the interview to end.
4. Value of knowing history: Today's politics is tomorrow's history. If you had studied the politics of your forefathers, you would have been abreast with the knowledge of our history and you would have fared much better in the interview.
5. To become a successful politician, you should be either knowledgeable or manipulative; you displayed neither quality.
6. Leadership: If you are averse to reading books, you could have at least watched the Indian cricket captain, M.S. Dhoni, which would have imparted to you glimpses of leadership traits/tenets and tips about how to handle the most telling and turbulent of situations. Watch the after-match captain comments. You should first learn how to play the game before you aspire to lead the team.
7. Apology: Humility is the prime requisite of every human being. Every parent and every teacher advises children to tender apologies when there are mistakes on their part, and society has accepted this norm as an unwritten law. While you have admitted that some of the Congressmen were involved in the massacre of 1984 anti-Sikh riots, you have refused to even tender a word of apology in order to appease the severely hurt feelings of the Sikhs and people in general. While this is not only a disappointing response, it also sounds unsympathetic and arrogant.
8. Owning responsibility: Every individual, all the more a leader, must own responsibility for all his or her actions/inactions. When you try to shy away from Congressmen’s "involvement" in 1984 riots, it reminds me of a bank clerk trying to bank on excuses like "It is not my job," or "I was on leave that day," or "the previous person has been transferred", for a moment forgetting that he/she, by sitting behind the counter, is a representative of the bank, an ambassador of the institution. Mind you, you want to lead our nation.
9. Anticipation: Even when you drive a car, your natural instincts would guide you to look for an unforeseen crossing of the lane by a pedestrian, a two-wheeler, or an auto-driver; this would help you stay alert. When the interviewer asked you "Why you are avoiding a one-on-one interview with the media?" you were caught unawares. A simple and normal question like this was only to be expected!
10. Preparation: If you had prepared well, not only would you have fared well, but you would also have dominated the proceedings.
11. Excuse of inexperience: If someone attempts to defend you saying that you are politically inexperienced, there are not many takers to this theory. Hereditarily, you hail from the Nehru family, which is perfectly public knowledge. You can ask your own Rajya Sabha member, the maestro Sachin Tendulkar, at what age he stepped into international cricket, the segment that he indisputably dominated during his tenure and was venerated as the God of Cricket.
12. This so-called interview is also a lesson to many parents. If you push your children into an activity in which they are not passionate about, the outcome can be enormously embarrassing.
13. Clarity: It is plain common sense that when a question is asked, say, “what is 1+1,” your answer should be 2 (right answer) or 3 or any other number (wrong answer), or even "I don’t know" (confession of ignorance). Instead if you reply with an answer like “4+5 is 9", it is ridiculous.
14. Two wrongs cannot make a right. Your bid to equate 1984 riots with 2002 riots will only muddy the waters more and infuriate a discerning public.
15. Public relations: At the age of 44, after 10 years as Vice-President of the Congress party, it is unfortunate that this is your first media interview. When you address speeches, it is one-way traffic; you speak and people who are paid to applaud do so. More media interaction and press conferences are imperative for you to stay in constant contact with the public.
16. Interview etiquette demands that you have to respond to the questions raised and not question the interviewers themselves. Also, when you asked about the interviewer's qualifications, it sounded downright silly and childish; the people were more interested in your own qualifications since you being projected as the aspiring candidate. When millions of people are watching you, the element of personality that is in play is paramount in deciding fortunes.
17. Selfishness: When it comes to "apologizing" for the 1984 riots, your inexperience expeditiously took a back seat and you became personally and politically alert. People wonder. When you are not ready to even apologize for a riot organized by your own party which was in government, how are you going to provide justice?
18. Self-introspection: When you come to a media interview like this, you should have delved deep into research on the possible questions about corruption and misuse of power indulged by friends in your own camp and how to undo the wrongs and set right the malaise.
19. Sense of humor: If you had displayed a tiny dose of humor during the interview, it would have added color to the event. In any case, humor should only supplement, not supplant the content; instead, you have yourself become the national laughing stock.
20. Honesty in reply: If you don't know the answer, you can always say, "I don't know or I am not sure. I shall consult the experts and get back to you". Instead, if you give incorrect, irrelevant, and incongruent answers, these will only breed confusion and vitiate the atmosphere.
If you can appreciate the feedback and follow the above suggestions, you may even earn better grades in the next interview and the nation would resound with cries of “Pappu is baar pass ho gaya!”
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http://kmurthy608.blogspot.in/2014/01/congress-then-and-now.html
http://kmurthy608.blogspot.in/2014/07/miles-to-go-before-i-sleep-wake-up-call.html
