The Congress and the BJP are both very unhappy with their PR agencies. Partyapparatchiks have been heard grumbling that in spite of the crores that have been spent on PR and advertising, the image of Rahul Gandhi as a waffling, reluctant king, and of L.K. Advani as a non-achieving has-been, remains intact.

PR firms, however, are sympathetic. “We only put a positive spin on things,” says the head of a major PR firm that has several MNC accounts, “we can’t change the image overnight. It takes time. They started their campaigns too late.”

Politicians in the two parties who are dealing with PR, however, have a different take. “The PR fellows don’t know the difference between image and perception,” says one of them. “It is a subtle distinction, perhaps, but critical when dealing with large numbers of people.”

Another senior BJP apparatchik who has been working with the party for over three decades says that the PR firms adopt a very superficial approach. “They believe their own myth that selling a prime ministerial candidate is the same as selling cornflakes or cell phones. They are unable to deal with the complexity of the product, namely, an idea that alters public perceptions.”

The Congress, for example, wanted to be perceived as a well-meaning liberal, secular, market-friendly, for-the-young-India sort of party. “But if you have been in bed with the sort of allies you had for four-and-a-half years, how do you wipe out public memory,” asks the PR head. The BJP has also failed to change its image because of the company it keeps.

“There have not been any dramatic image and perception changing actions, either,” says an ex-Congressman who had handled the party’s PR in the past. “Sometimes external events do it for you, for example in 1984 (the assassination of Indira Gandhi) or 1999 (Kargil). But that is rare and in any case it is unwise to rely on fortuitous events.”

The proliferation of regional alternatives has also been a problem. “It is nonsense to say that we don’t know what we are doing. But what can you do if you want 26 different images in the 26 States? That makes the public perceive you as vacuous,” says another PR veteran. Unplanned events, like Rahul Gandhi’s press conference also create problems. “How can PR help undo the damage he has done?” asks a Congressman.