New Delhi, May 30 (IANS) It was dubbed as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s first national press conference since 2004, but while the prime minister earned plaudits for his performance his media adviser got brickbats for his handling of the event and for his exclusion of some of the industry’s pundits who promptly made a big issue of it.
And the issue continues to make the rounds of media circles.
With nearly 500 journalists itching to ask questions, there were quite a few left whining at the end of the show. Journalists from three big newspapers were not given a chance to play the inquisitor.
A senior journalist with a leading daily, who did not get to ask a question, even threatened to write a letter to the prime minister, complaining about what he considered motivated exclusion.
Harish Khare, the media adviser, who otherwise leaves it to the spokesperson of the external affairs ministry to conduct the prime minister’s conferences during foreign tours, looked perplexed. ‘I can’t make everyone happy,’ he was heard saying.
-*-
Food for thought
Sam Pitroda, whom many see as a technology evangelist, continues to be big draw among young professionals and techies. But not many may know that he has moved on to food security.
The internationally respected development thinker, telecom inventor and entrepreneur, who has to his name about 100 worldwide patents, is working with an international food bank in Chicago, where he is based, to set up a network of food banks in areas of chronic shortage in the country.
Born to a Gujarati carpenter in the Bolangir area of Kalahandi in Orissa, which has become a modern day metaphor for food scarcity, Pitroda knows what hunger is and is hoping to make a dent in the area of child and maternal malnourishment that in his view is impeding India’s productivity and hampering economic growth.
-*-
Africa Day fiasco
India may be trying to expand its diplomatic footprint in the African continent, but the much-touted Africa Day lecture turned out to be a no show. External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna was supposed to deliver the lecture, but due to a death in his family he had to rush back to Bangalore.
Finally, Vivek Katju, the seniormost diplomat dealing with Africa in the external affairs ministry, had to read out his address at the Indian Council for World Affairs. Barely a dozen African ambassadors turned up.
Keeping the importance of the occasion in mind, a senior diplomat suggested that they could have recorded the minister’s speech or even a token message to send out the right signals to the African diplomatic corps.
-*-
Rajya Sabha mandate a Congress priority
Two months after Congress chief Sonia Gandhi was re-appointed its president, the National Advisory Council (NAC) is yet to get its members. And it may still take a few weeks as the party leadership is busy finalising candidates for elections to the Rajya Sabha.
Congress sources say the finalisation of the NAC team is taking time as their leaders are caught up with the high-stakes business of candidates for the biennial elections.
The Congress strength in the upper house, according to insiders, will come down as the party is currently in a position to win 13 seats though the number of its retiring members is 17. The party can win two more seats with the help of regional parties.
-*-
WHO cares?
The World Health Organisation (WHO) might be on a mission to stop happy hours, flat rates and promotional discounts – the usual marketing tricks to seduce the youth to pubs – but there is no stopping Bollywood honchos.
Actor Ranbir Kapoor and director Imtiaz Ali were spotted club hopping here as a part of location hunting for their next film ‘Rockstar.’ While they gorged on mouth-watering kebabs at Khan Chacha at Khan Market, they checked out locations at F-Bar and Lounge, actor Arjun Rampal owned club LAP and the Agni bar and Aqua lounge bar at The Park Hotel.
Instead of targeting happy hours, the WHO should perhaps wage a crusade against film stars glamourising drinking in their films.
-*-
Congress clearing Bihar mess
A change of guard in the Congress’ Bihar office is likely. A little birdie at 10 Janpath tells us that the party is looking for successors of state in-charge Jagdish Tytler and state unit president Anil Sharma.
Their differences are seriously threatening the party’s electoral ambitions in the National Democratic Alliance-ruled state that goes to the polls by the year-end. ‘Consultations to clear the mess in the state leadership have already begun,’ a source said.
Congress’ crown prince Rahul Gandhi had set the ball rolling for poll preparedness in February when he visited Bihar. But much of the goodwill generated by the visit has already dissipated due to factionalism in the party.
-*-
Joshi in Jaswant’s footsteps?
After he took over from Jaswant Singh as the head of parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Murli Manohar Joshi is doing exactly what the now expelled Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader did – challenging the party’s stated positions.
At a PAC meeting, Joshi, a seasoned politician, openly opposed caste-based census in India saying it would further divide society.
Singh was expelled from the BJP after he praised Pakistan founder Mohammed Ali Jinnah. Is Joshi following suit? ‘No,’ says an insider. Joshi is after all close to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh ranks that too has spoken out against caste-based census that many in the BJP too are advocating.
-*-
A bureaucrat under his own gaze
Usually, it is pictures of Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and the president and the prime minister that adorn the walls of government offices. But Law Minister M. Veerappa Moily’s advisor T.K. Vishvanathan, a former law secretary, is an exception.
Apparently he feels inspired to work under his own gaze – his office is decorated with his own portrait! It is the same office that he once occupied as law secretary.
Ironically, when the tradition of mounting the photographs of law secretaries on the wall was initiated in the office in 2000, Vishvanathan had fiercely criticised it.
