I was in the kitchen when the ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ speech started. By this time, I was bored with the drama surrounding the PM’s speeches during the lockdown. Yet, the speech started to pique my interest within the first few minutes. Here was a man, talking about the greatness of India, the promise of our 21st-century dominance during a crisis that had brought the world to its knees. Either I was listening to Modi, one of the greatest storytellers of all time or Modi, the worst spin doctor. Sometimes it’s difficult to tell one from another.
While most of corporate and startup India have been talking about the doom and gloom of Covid, the PM chose to set the narrative with a story of his own. As a student of storytelling who helps SMEs and startups get their stories right, I thought it would be a good idea to deconstruct the story and the storyteller’s performance.
Probably there are a few lessons we can learn from the speech and hopefully implement in our personal or company brand communications.
In this blog, I am not looking at any of the other aspects, such as delivery of promises, emergency plan, the government’s hold on the situation, etc. Also, I am keeping my personal politics out of it(and so should you while reading this).
So let’s start:
Making a hero out of India and Indians:
PM Modi did not waste time in sobbing about the crisis that is the CoronaVirus. Early on into his speech he talked about the fact that humans do not like being stopped from progressing. And that we have been told that the 21st century belonged to India.
At this point, you would imagine that the PM might say that crisis has impeded our progress and that of the world. But great stories build hope and dreams, and that is exactly what he delivered(people like you and me evaluate these things rationally but most of India does not).
‘That the 21st century belongs to India is not just a dream, but our responsibility’.
Most people would find these words inspiring. That an every day Indian has the chance to build an India of dreams – this statement can change many a people’s outlook.
And to me that was the best part of the speech, making the common man a hero. In the past, while BJP has always been great at storytelling, Modi has been credited for, or blamed because he ends up making himself the hero and Congress the villain. But this particular speech had very little of that.
Modi, Yoda to the Luke Skywalker i.e everyday Indian.
Modi may not be the hero, but he definitely positioned himself as every Indian’s guide and mentor. He is the one who has shown India the way in the past six years.
The example of how many Indians rose up to his appeal to make Khadi popular, was used as case in point. He also has a plan.
Authority. Check.
Credibility. Check.
Will we follow him? Check, maybe.
Atmanirbhar Bharat – the guide’s plan that the hero must implement.
The Yoda…er I mean PM Modi presented his plan to the country. To look at this adversity as an opportunity. And that rather than fighting Corona Virus, we start working for a greater India.
Enter ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’. The five pillared plan to make India self reliant, also filled with catchphrases like ‘vocal for local’.
So far so good. The PM definitely knows how to set the agenda rather than chasing someone else’s. I am sure BJP’s social media ecosystem was ready with creatives for ‘vocal for local’ and the Twitterverse didn’t take time to come up with ‘Atmanirbhar’ memes.
People dreamt, people laughed, people debated. The storyteller delivered yet another time.
Like every great story, this one too has its critics. And I am not even talking about the government’s action or performance during the crisis. Most artists know that you cannot please everyone, you need to hit your target audience with the right messages, and let others have a field day.
Because in politics, it is a win when your detractors repeat your words. You don’t lose when you are wrong. You lose when you aren’t memorable.
Where the story, and the storyteller failed.
For most parts, I think this speech was a good effort, and provided it is backed with tangible action it has the ability to become a story that India can ride on for the next couple of years.
Where I think the PM failed is: the overall outcome of ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ was not clear. Does it mean I wont be using google and hence the internet? Are we going to ditch foreign brands? Maybe it was by design, but the audience(and the hero) was left to figure out how this new story is meant to end.
Also, no matter how great the story, there are points for delivery. The PM’s speech was too long and drawn out with a long opening, unsatisfactory middle and a weak end.
Like my friend and editor of a popular marketing media website, Saloni Surti said on Twitter,” I liked how he(Modi) set the tone & used relevant milestones to project India’s strength. Quite a few keywords used. But it went against the golden rule of storytelling – never breach the attention span & end strongly. If you create a 30 minute long story, it has to be that interesting.”
No matter what you think, there are some lessons for founders, marketers and anyone interested in communications.
- Think of how you can turn your audience or customer into a hero
- Give them a unique solution(your product) to the problem at hand
- Define the end or the outcome(and what getting there actually means)
- But keep it short – low attention span is a thing. And even the PM cant take the audience’s attention for granted.
That’s it from me in this blog. Feel free to share feedback, always more interested in counterpoints. Stay safe.
