Congress’ new found aggression in its communication strategy

‘Every single day. And every word you say. Every game you play. We’ll be watching you,’ new head of the media and publicity wing Pawan Khera tells the media in a tweet

Days after a prominent news channel presented Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s comment on the activists of the Students Federation of India (SFI) as his views on the killers of Udaipur tailor Kanhaiya Lal, new head of the media and publicity wing Pawan Khera tweaked the lines of an all-time hit ‘ Every breath you take’ to hold out a warning to the media.

"Every single day. And every word you say. Every game you play. We’ll be watching you". This July 4 tweet of Mr. Khera displayed the new found aggressiveness in the Congress' communication strategy.

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The channel had apologised and ran several clarifications about the context of Mr. Gandhi's comments. But the Congress was not impressed; police complaints against the channel, TV anchor and four BJP leaders including former Information and Broadcasting Minister Rajyavardhan Rathore were filed across six States.

As the police from party-ruled Chhattisgarh landed at the anchor's home in Noida to arrest him, the matter reached the Supreme Court that restrained Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan police from making any arrest. But the Congress sent out a clear message — that it will not take things lying down.

"We are aware that many of the liberals are unhappy that police were sent to the TV channel and there are different views within the party as well, but the important thing is that our workers are happy. This [countering the channels] should have been done much earlier," said a Congress functionary who did not wish to be named.

On Saturday, this new assertiveness was on full display as the party held 23 press conferences in as many cities to expose BJP’s alleged links with terrorists, including one of the Udaipur killers, Riyaz Attari, and Talib Hussain Shah, an alleged Lashkar militant who served as the social media head of BJP’s minority morcha in Jammu.