New Delhi, July 12 (Inditop.com) Move over Press Information Bureau (PIB), Twitter’s here! It seems web’s latest micro-blogging sensation could be the best public relations tool yet for ministers. Showing way is the polished and tech-savvy Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor, a former UN information executive.
Tharoor has recorded his first words in parliament for posterity. “Spoke my first words in Parl today. Alas, they were formulaic: “I beg to lay papers on the table of the House”. One has to start somewhere!” he tweeted July 8.
His tweets are sure catching attention in certain quarters. “Two MPs have come up to me in parlmnt today and asked about tweeting — might encourage a trend here!” he told his 14,000-odd Twitter followers the next day.
It’s a far cry from the practice of ministers pursuing their information officers to get their blandest utterances into the media through the government’s PIB.
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Call it the buzz for Beijing. After Nirupama Rao’s appointment as India’s next foreign secretary, the buzz is all about who will succeed her as India’s ambassador to China, an important diplomatic posting.
Rao takes charge Aug 1, the second Indian woman to become the country’s chief diplomat. This is also the second time in a row that a former Indian envoy to China will get the top diplomatic post. Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon served in Beijing and Islamabad before getting the top post nearly three years ago.
S. Jaishankar, currently India’s ambassador to Singapore, is likely to move to Beijing as India’s envoy after Rao comes to New Delhi at the head of the foreign service. The grapevine at the ministry of external affairs (MEA) has it that Jaishankar will be a leading contender for the foreign secretary’s job after Rao’s tenure ends in December next year.
Incidentally, Jaishankar is the son of K. Subrahmanyam, the guru of India’s strategic community.
Is it a mere coincidence that Nalin Surie, secretary (west) in the MEA and a former envoy to China as Nirupama Rao’s predecessor and Menon’s successor in Beijing, was also in the reckoning for the foreign secretary’s job?
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Old habits die hard for new media adviser
Harish Khare, the new media adviser to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, is yet to come to terms with his new avatar, having been a dyed-in-the-wool journalist for over 30 years.
The former journalist from The Hindu, who joined the Prime Minister’s Office last month, was accompanying Manmohan Singh to the G8-G5 summit in the quake-hit town of L’Aquila in Italy.
At a briefing by Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon and special envoy of the PM on climate change Shyam Saran, Khare quietly took a seat among journalists. The chair meant for him on the dais remained vacant till one official ushered in Khare there. The reticent Khare left his seat among his old tribe with some reluctance.
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To be or not to be Rajya Sabha MP
Aveek babu – as Kolkata media baron Aveek Sarkar is popularly known – has turned down an invitation to be MP on the so-called presidential quota. He was to replace journalist Chandan Mitra, who was nominated by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government and whose term runs out in August.
Last heard, Sarkar, after some deep cogitation, decided against taking up the offer as he did not want to be identified with the ruling establishment that sends its recommendations to the president.
It is not yet known which mediaperson the Congress will invite to take up the Rajya Sabha slot. Mitra, meanwhile, is said to be trying hard to seek an extension but H.K. Dua, the editor-in-chief of the Chandigarh-based newspaper The Tribune, could give him a run for his money.
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Divestment yes, empty vessels no, says Pranab
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee evidently believes in getting things done without trumpeting them. Although his union budget did not go hard at divestment of state-run companies, he has not given up on the idea.
He is learnt to have told people in parliament’s Central Hall that in India things often get done quietly, and he criticised the noise made on the issue by Arun Shourie and Arun Jaitley, ministers in the NDA government that finally could not get any big-ticket divestment through.
Only, Mukherjee says the public-sector character of these companies will remain unchanged with the government still holding a 51 percent majority.
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No more ‘flying high’ for Air India employees
For the employees of Air India, it’s a touch of ground reality. Having always maintained they are a cut above their colleagues at the erstwhile Indian Airlines, the feeling continued even after the two carriers were merged last year.
But after a 15-day delay in salaries, the staff of international operations may now have to move out of the large Air India office in New Delhi’s central business district of Connaught Place, for which the carrier is reportedly paying an annual rent of Rs.4 crore.
What is perhaps embarrassing them most is the prospect of moving into Airline House, the headquarters of the former Indian Airlines. The strict warning by Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel has quietened them a bit though.
