gov talk
Nirupama Rao Foreign Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs, Govt of India
Advocating Brand India By listening and by engaging, public diplomacy voices stand better chances of being heard and social media can help much
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ublic diplomacy relies as much on the spoken word as the written word, and therefore it very much depends on the clarity of presentation, and the ability to persuade, influence and mould opinions in a manner that is not propaganda but rather presents the case for any given aspect of foreign policy in a clear, cogent, factual and communicative manner. We live in a communications environment and if our policies are to be well understood, we will have to interact in a real time and virtually on a constant basis with the media and audiences, both at home and abroad. Public diplomacy is also a process of reinvention for many of us as bureaucrats, because of the value it places on communication skills. The need to feel the popular pulse and the requirements of innovation, using the latest information and communication technologies, of moving beyond precedent-driven approaches, requires us to think out-of-the-box, be alert to countering negative information and stereotypes, and also to be ever-vigilant of information vacuums that will be filled by our adversaries.
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Getting heard is not easy It goes without saying that the contours of public diplomacy are being constantly expanded. As our foreign policy interests and strategic perspectives become more sharply honed, as our global presence becomes much more visible, as India’s re-emergence grasps the world’s attention, and as our economy becomes one of the international frontrunners in terms of its accelerated growth rate, India’s voice must be heard in multiple situations and before diverse audiences. The task to fulfil this will be that of its diplomats who must be ever active in the tasks of advocating and explaining the Indian ‘brand’ as it were, because this is a compelling narrative surrounding the world’s largest democracy that must be heard. Of course, the challenge we face today is because there is a plethora of voices outside the government that speak on foreign policy. It necessarily follows that we are not heard so easily. Our message may just not get through. The way to address this is to provide higher definition to the debate by presenting the government’s case as clearly and factually as possible, being quick to correct misrepresentation, bridging gaps in infor-
mation, and by understanding that by hesitating to speak we only compound the lack of understanding of a particular policy in the public domain. It is important to pay attention to feedback, and to engage with a broad spectrum of audiences. By listening and by engaging, we stand a better chance of being heard. Public diplomacy, we all know, is no abstract term—it is a real world phenomenon, and, it overlaps with our cultural diplomacy, our outreach to academic institutions, the promotional work that our chambers of business and industry engage in to promote Brand India, and the works of the ministries of Information and Broadcasting, Culture, and Tourism. The projection of India’s soft power is very much a part of the processes of public diplomacy, and so is the use of social media including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. This is because we also need to understand the demographics of the audiences we address—the idiom must be tailored to cater also to the language that the younger sections of our population speak.
World should know how India contributes The promotion and projection of India is furthered by our Public Diplomacy
Domestication of foreign policy is vital for creating a more informed discourse on foreign policy issues within our own country