Jayshree M Sundar spills the beans on her book ‘Don’t Forget 2004’ during a conversation with Yasmin Kidwai

Jayshree M Sundar’s tell-all book ‘Don’t Forget 2004’ recounts the fascinating story of Indian National Congress’ remarkable victory in the 2004 General Elections. An advertising professional who worked with clients like Cadbury, Maruti Suzuki, ICI, Gillette, and Parker, among others during her 17 year stint at Lintas, Jayshree also spearheaded the Congress’ 2004 campaign. After about 18 years, Sundar, now a brand and marketing professor, finally reveals the chain of events that had taken place, starting with the phone call she received from the Congress’ office on a cold January morning in her Delhi office to the final victory that put an end of Atal Bihar’s Vajpayee’s tenure as the Prime Minister of India and paved the way for a new era of political stability under India's fourteenth Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh.

During a recent launch event in Delhi, Sundar was in a conversation with the documentary filmmaker Yasmin Kidwai wherein she shared interesting facts about the book. The conversation touched upon the Aam Aadmi campaign of the Congress party in 2004 against the India Shining campaign of BJP. It explored points like political advertising, role of research and strategy in creative outcomes, women in leadership positions and the importance of counter narratives in a democracy.

Sundar’s book takes the reader behind the scenes of an electoral victory that created history. In the memoir, she retells the story of the electoral triumph which is a brilliant case study of advertising and marketing. The book’s foreword is written by the senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh who served as minister in various ministries under Dr Manmohan Singh. “Atal Bihari Vajpayee is said to have remarked that the 2004 Lok Sabha election verdict was one which the winner had not expected, not the loser anticipated. It was undoubtedly a huge surprise, for the Congress was not expected to emerge as the single largest party, let alone be the anchor of a ruling coalition that would be in power for the next ten years,” writes Ramesh in the foreword to Sundar’s book.

What really triggered the Congress’ victory over the BJP helmed by stalwarts like Atal Bihari Vajpayee, L.K. Advani, and Murli Manohar Joshi? “Many explanations have been offered for the verdict. Hubris and over-confidence on the part of the BJP certainly played a role. Political decisions that Mr Vajpayee apparently wanted to take but finally did not may have cost him. But to my mind the Congress’ political strategy of seeing the national election as an aggregation of state-level elections and having the right alliances with regional parties proved to be the decisive factor. The campaign style of its leaders, especially of its president, that stressed public outreach and not just rallies added to the effectiveness of the political strategy,” adds Ramesh.

‘Don’t Forget 2004,’ published by Vitasta Publishing, offers some enthralling insights about how a modern-day election campaign is run. The book allows the reader to have a good taste of real conversations that Sundar and her team had with senior Congress Party leaders. “Salman Khurshid and I interacted with her and her team on a daily basis. The consumer research and insights that were presented by them formed the basis of a powerful creative strategy. Her narrative is a valuable contribution to understanding how one of the most stunning upsets in recent Indian political history was engineered,” sums us Ramesh.

It was at the end of a family zoom call back in July 2020 that Sundar first floated the idea of the book she was planning to write the 2004 elections. But why did she choose to tell the story so many years later? Sundar explains, “I believe it’s a story that had to be told and from various perspectives. Living and working on one of the greatest case studies in India and not telling the story would have been a disservice to the profession. If you love history and politics then this is a story for you. If you are an MBA student then this is an inspiring case study for your reading with key learnings about the power of winning ideas, research, hard work and not giving up.”