MUMBAI: Talk of a paradigm shift in politics is often rubbish, but young interns in the backroom of campaigns are just part of it. But you won’t see them at rallies or on TV screens. These graduates are heavily hired by consultancies specializing in communications and public relations and are deeply entrenched in politics.
Till 2014, polling strategies evolved through trial and error based on public opinion. After the BJP came to power in 2014, they started realizing that there was a need for people who can collect data and analyze it for professional use,” said an employee from a top consulting firm.
Elections were still months away. Teams from political consultancy firms engage voters on issues as diverse as economic issues and welfare. This understanding about ground sentiment is fed into campaign strategy. Additionally these companies support other areas such as media management, logistics handling, research and data analysis.
An NwN employee told TOI that “During the run-up to the polls, we had three teams within NwN- CWR (Campaign War Room), PWR ( Political War Room) & GPI (Governance, Policy & Intelligence). CWR’s role is client facing…”it designs activities for clients…giving them hundred solutions if any so that they can implement themselves” he stated. In contrast,GPI analyses data and prepares the manifesto”.
The largest group is PWR which involves staff on sites.“Rajasthan Assembly has two hundred seats with about eighty people collecting data physically on site as well.” If each one of us talks to just ten people daily then we have eight hundred responses per day translating to twenty four thousand per month “he added.
Recruitment will be huge given the size of their work force. Most of them are freshers looking forward to getting some break may be from B-schools or NLUs even Indian Institutes of Technology too. However most of them are employed under contractual agreements thus once elections are over CWR and PWR will be dissolved. NwN has two types of employment – Short-Term Members (STM) who are contractually hired and Full-Time Members (FTM), who join the Graduate Impact Leadership Program (GILP). The FTM team has an in-depth induction program. For those who signed the contract, “they were thrown straight into the abyss”.” It is however worth noting that employees in both groups are well compensated but STMs cannot access bonuses, benefits etc with limited chances of becoming FTMs.
An engineering graduate said: “Before the vote, NwN intensified its recruitment drive and came to my campus. However most of them were temporary staff only. Although I would have preferred something more permanent, I applied because their job description was interesting. There is also no good job market so you just accept whatever comes your way”.
The salary offered determines whether or not many people would take the job. The employee further stated that the average salary among his colleagues on campus is nine million rupees per year. Full-time positions at NwN pay up to 18 Lakhs in salaries. However, this doesn’t mean our other respondents don’t have a view about it.
According to the placement cell of Delhi Hindu College, political consultancy firms seem to be hiring more aggressively with regard to summer interns. “However, one of the main reasons why we have seen an increase in applications …is not because of interest in politics… but due to lack of opportunities in comparison with other fields.”
A former Varahe Analytics employee said that for employees within industry, the average age was between 24 and 27 years while a major part of recruitment was through campus internships. “Young professionals are more efficient, more motivated and can work longer hours,” he added. Additionally, there is another advantage where young people are concerned: they tend not to take sides on matters of public opinion by a large margin compared with their seniors at work; nonetheless such behavior may be beneficial even though it is not required since clients or roles may change.
They were also selected because they were young so they had less social lives as pointed out by Aakansha Patodia – who used to serve as a consultant for one leading political consultancy firm. There are two reasons why she thinks candidates run for office. “Certainly, pay based competition decides some things.” However it’s also about what you get done.
Nevertheless, most only stayed here for a short time period as most interviews indicated. That is just how these places operate sometimes . “A good semi-corporate environment at best.” Work is hectic; you could do it at midnight…you got to finish it on time without fail.
