On Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was honoured with Philip Kotler Presidential award for his leadership qualities. The award is named after Philip Kotler, a renowned author and consultant, who is currently serving as the professor of Marketing at Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, USA.
The award citation mentioned that “Shri Narendra Modi is selected for his outstanding leadership for the nation. His selfless service towards India, combined with his tireless energy has resulted in extraordinary economic, social and technological advances in the country.”
Expectedly, this international honour and recognition from the Prime Minister of India did not go well with some people, who are known to hate everything about Narendra Modi, the BJP or the Hindutva ideology. Within hours, this set of people tried to downplay the honour received by PM Modi.
Leading the pack was the leftist propaganda website and serial fake news peddler The Wire. The website carried an article that heaped scorn at the award, insinuating that the award was of no significance and perhaps not even officially associated with Philip Kotler.
The article was immediately shared by Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Twitter in a bid to take a jibe at the Prime Minister.
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 🙂https://t.co/449Vk9Ybmz
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) January 15, 2019
Soon after, many media outlets carried this ‘jibe’ of Rahul Gandhi in a bid to downplay the award received by Narendra Modi.
Within hours, the award received by the Prime Minister of India, which in a normal case would be appreciated by the country as the PM was the first-ever recipient of the honour, was termed ‘suspect’.
However, the propaganda and happiness of Rahul Gandhi and his cohorts at The Wire were short lived as Philip Kotler himself endorsed the award and its maiden recipient. The marketing guru said that the award to Narendra Modi “raises the bar for future recipients”.
Professor Kotler put out this public message via his Twitter account:
I congratulate PM @narendramodi for being conferred the first ever Philip Kotler Presidential Award. He has been selected for his outstanding leadership & selfless service towards India, combined with his tireless energy. (1/2)
— Philip Kotler (@kotl) January 15, 2019
2/2 @narendramodi‘s efforts have resulted in extraordinary economic, social and technological advances in India. His winning the first award raises the bar for future recipients.
— Philip Kotler (@kotl) January 15, 2019
Kotler has also praised PM Modi in his interview in The Marketing Journal, published a day after PM Modi was presented with the award. He has stated that his organisation has just presented the Philip Kotler Presidential Leadership Award to PM Narendra Modi and the idea behind the award is to honour a leader who has given a new life to democracy and economic growth to his/her nation.
Kotler had also identified the leadership qualities in a leader that the award recognises:
- Believes in representative government and in social justice.
- Believes that a good society will build a healthy business climate.
- Encourages businesses to practice the triple bottom line, namely to balance profits, people, and the planet in their deliberations.
- Sincerely and wholeheartedly works for the Common Good.
Kotler added that PM Modi stood highiest in these criteria and he has improved India’s image and visibility on the global stage.
This is not for the first time that Narendra Modi has got appreciative comments from Philip Kotler. A few months after Modi became the Prime Minister in 2014, Kotler had said that he was ‘high on Modi’ and that the Prime Minister of India was like ‘a breath of fresh air’.
Despite such history and context, propaganda website The Wire went out to downplay the award and assist Rahul Gandhi to attack the Prime Minister and belittle his achievements.
As Lok Sabha elections approach, the level of politics is going down and it is expected to fall only further in coming days. Congress is known to use fake news websites to further its propaganda. While small leaders use websites that host soft-porn content, Rahul Gandhi has been seen relying on party mouthpiece National Herald or propaganda websites like The Wire.
