Mihir S Sharma's column "The kid's not all right" (Ticker, October 12) offers good advice on how to package the intent and content of a political message. Natural spontaneity, emotional sincerity, matching of words and deeds and understanding the target audience are hallmarks of effective communication, not its literary flourish. Rahul Gandhi's labelling of the Ordinance on convicted politicians lacked spontaneity and sincerity since it came too late after the event and his storming into a press meeting looked more contrived than natural. His use of literary phrases may have appealed to the intellect, but not the heart.
Messages such as Martin Luther King Jr's "I have a dream" and Subhash Chandra Bose's "Tum mujhe khoon do, main tumhe aazadi doonga (Give me blood and I will get you freedom)" were simple words but electrifying in effect because they stirred up emotions.
Due to his lack of fluency in any non-English Indian language makes Rahul heavily dependent on his speech writers who do not prepare the speech according to the composition of the audience. The wide gap between his high-sounding claims (such as placing people's power ahead of individual authority) and the actual practices of his party deprives his messages of the desired impact.
Y G Chouksey Pune
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