Verbal face-off between Rahul Gandhi and Narendra Modi gives a flavour of a US prez debate

NEW DELHI: The recent face-off between Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi gave off a flavour of a US presidential debate.

Speech writers from both camps recognised the events had a ‘US presidential debate’ potential and messages were tailored for this. Team Rahul even had an interaction with Stephanie Cutter, US President Barack Obama’s deputy campaign manager when she visited Delhi recently.

Gandhi is said to have conferred with Mohan Gopal, chairman of the Rajiv Gandhi Institute for Contemporary Studies, technology maven Sam Pitroda, minister Jairam Ramesh and aides like Sachin Rao in giving shape to his ideas (but ignoring the team’s suggestion when it came to discussing China). Modi is said to draw factual inputs from his staff, but leaves the actual framing a last-minute surprise.

According to Sanjaya Baru, former media advisor to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, “ghost writing a speech is an art, not everyone can do it. Initially, I used to spend a lot of time with PM discussing his speeches. As I got to know him better, and understood his views, I was able to write without discussing even once. On many occasions he has just read out whatever I wrote, because I would write what I knew was in line with his thinking,” says Baru.

Sudheendra Kulkarni, who was a member of the Atal Bihari Vajpayee PMO, and doubled as his speech writer, had an even tougher job working for an orator. Kulkarni says he worked out a simple formula of being “factually correct,” leaving the verbal flourishes to Vajpayee.

He cited the example of when PM Vajpayee went to Kashmir for the first time: “Vajpayeeji was asked whether the Centre would begin talks with Kashmiri groups within the framework of the Indian Constitution. His response was: “The talks would be held within the framework of humanism,” winning over hearts and minds.”

Playing around a written script and catch phrases is the art of packaging political messages. “Yes, this should be done, but only for important speeches, and with an eye on media headlines and popular perception,” says Baru.