PR discussions: Re: [prpoint] Debate: Why blame only politicians? What about officials, corporates and lobbyists?

Dear Friends: How do you rescue reputation of PR from the Telecom scandal? My second mail had brought out this aspect,in response to a mail asking seniors to use PR to fight corruption.
It is being used as a mask by corporates and PR firms are very willing to play that role.Yesterday Times News channel fielded Vinod Mehta and Suhel Seth.The latter wanted Lobbying to be made legal and said it is part of legitimate PR.where do you draw the line?
Also we need to debate the mask Public Affairs provides to Lobbying.
The media that is exposing corruption,PR profession,Bureaucracy,Chambers which criticism political corruption,along with various other institutions have got contaminated by greed.Thats becasue the price to be paid when discovered in corruption cases is very poor and slow and rehabilitation is easy.
S.narendra

On 18 November 2010 10:08, Prime Point Srinivasan <prpoint@gmail.com> wrote:

dear friends

When I started a debate two days back in prpoint group on the mega scam, we got more than 20 responses for that thread. All the responses were from senior members. I wish younger members also share their views, as they will be the future of our nation.

From the earlier debate, I could see the concern of all the members for the nation and for the professional integrity. Almost all our members were blaming only politicians. Today, Times of India and other channels have brought out the un-holy nexus between the politicians, officials and the corporates through lobbyists. Even some of the senior bureaucrats are also involved in this mega scam.

Media reports reveal the alleged role played by Nira Radia, a lobbyist and a PR professional in this mega scam. She seems to be under multi-agency investigation now. Times Now channel, tonight, was highly critical of PR profession itself. Few such professionals, have brought shame to the entire profession.

When I visited her company site, (http://www.noesis.in/nira.htm), i found various companies of Tata Group, Kotak Mahendra, Confederation of Indian Industry and many more as her clients. She has also claimed in the site, "Under her direction the company has striven to enhance the value add to its clients and pioneered new areas of development".

It is surprising that such reputed organisations like Tata Group, kotak and CII have continued to get her advices, even after her name was debated for her alleged involvement in the 2G scam in the Parliament, one year back. Their action may lead even the investigating agencies like CBI and ED to suspect those institutions also, whether they would have got any benefit through illegal ways through Nira Radia. Is it not the responsibilities of the corporates to engage consultants without blemish? It is ironical, that Mr Ratan Tata made a remark two days back, that somebody wanted 15 crores to give aviation license. On the other hand, Tata Group has engaged a person as a consultant, whose credentials are debated in Parliament.

Politicians are alone not the culprits here. We need to blame the nexus between the officials, greedy corporates and the unprofessional lobbyists turned fixers.

Probably, members may recall, that our October 2010 issue of ezine, PreSense, focussed on the 'Public Affairs' and we even went to the extent of suggesting formulation of code of ethics for such Public Affairs / Public Relations professionals, when they deal with the Government. Very sadly, when we sent mails to some CEOs who practise Public Affairs seeking their views, they did not even acknowledge our mails.

It is also unfortunate, industry bodies likes CII, FICCI and NASSCOM have not come out openly against the scam. They are supposed to be neutral bodies, to protect the interest of the nation and the corporates. I am unable to understand their prolonged silence.

When the PR profession itself is being debated in media in this scam, why none of the CEOs of the big PR / PA Agencies have come out openly condemning the unethical practises of the profession? Why none of them have appealed for ethical and value based profession? When they are doing image building for their clients, why they are not coming out openly, when the profession is suffering image crisis, due to a single individual?

Even if one drop of poison falls in a pot of good milk, the entire milk becomes bad. Same way, because of the few people indulging in unethical, illegal practises, the PR / PA industry is being mistaken.

Instead of curing the disease, we need to cure the symptoms. We need to identify such unethical professionals and isolate them. As I wrote in our earlier issue of ezine, we need to follow transparent, ethical and value based profession.

I request members to share their views.

Srinivasan

Prime Point

91766 50273