Social media went into a frenzy on Monday after the entire machinery of the Centre’s Narendra Modi government embarked on a full-blown self-publicity drive to flaunt a relatively unknown ‘first ever Phillip Kotler Presidential Award.’
From Railway Minister Piyush Goyal to Textiles Minister Smriti Irani, almost every member of Modi’s cabinet took to social media to congratulate the prime minister for his ‘achievement.’ Even the publicity wing of the government, the PIB, was brought into the social media campaign to drive home a point about Modi’s recognition abroad.
PM @narendramodi received the first-ever Philip Kotler Presidential award.
The Award focuses on the triple bottom-line of People, Profit and Planet.
It will be offered annually to the leader of a Nation. pic.twitter.com/RPoQrB56e6
— PMO India (@PMOIndia) January 14, 2019
The Philip Kotler Presidential Award adds to a long list of prestigious accolades received by PM @NarendraModi from the International community, reflecting the effectiveness of his style of governance and the far-reaching impact he has made throughout the globe
— Piyush Goyal (@PiyushGoyal) January 14, 2019
Congratulations to PM @narendramodi ji for receiving first-ever Philip Kotler Presidential award. It is a matter of great pride for India that the award focusing on triple bottom-line of People, Profit & Planet is conferred to our PM for outstanding leadership & selfless service.
— Smriti Z Irani (@smritiirani) January 14, 2019
PM @narendramodi receiving the first-ever Philip Kotler Presidential award in New Delhi today.
Details▶️ https://t.co/kjxRvpBBwu pic.twitter.com/Du323lPcCu
— PIB India (@PIB_India) January 14, 2019
Taking a potshot, Congress President Rahul Gandhi tweeted, “I want to congratulate our PM, on winning the world famous “Kotler Presidential Award”! In fact it’s so famous it has no jury, has never been given out before & is backed by an unheard of Aligarh company. Event Partners: Patanjali & Republic TV :).”
Gandhi wasn’t alone in embarrassing Modi for flaunting an award, which had never been presented to any other heads of states in the past. As the Congress President rightly pointed out, the ward did not even have a jury. This was presented by a group of Aligarh Muslim University alumni, who’ve now acquired the permission to use Kotler’s brand to host marketing and advertising conclaves in India for the next three years.
The first marketing summit in India was held in Delhi last month, when they gave away the awards recognising top executives having excelled in the field of marketing and advertising. Among those felicitated at the December event was also Amitabh Kant, the Niti Aayog CEO.
A report by The Wire said that it spoke to Tauseef Zia, who said that ‘it’s a very confidential award,’ when asked to share the judging process for the ‘first ever Phillip Kotler Presidential Award.’
Gandhi wasn’t the only politician, who took a potshot at Modi for presenting an obscure and irrelevant award as the biggest ever accolades won by an Indian prime minister. RJD leader and former deputy chief minister of Bihar, Tejashwi Yadav, tweeted, “Plenty of congratulations to our honourable Prime Minister for winning an unprecedented, unique and remarkable award.”
परम आदरणीय प्रधानमंत्री जी को अद्वितीय अनोखा, अनूठा और अद्भुत अवार्ड मिलने पर कोटि-कोटि बधाई।????? https://t.co/A4XFSXqnjE
— Tejashwi Yadav (@yadavtejashwi) January 15, 2019
Among those sponsoring the December event of the Kotler’s World Marketing Summit, held at Pride Plaza Hotel in Aerocity were Arnab Goswami’s Republic TV and Ramdev’s Patanjali.
