Media management: Rahul Gandhi style

Pallam Raju’s resignation ploy

Planning Commission blames it on JNU

Cashing in on Modi

Hindi panel or ‘gift committee’

All this and more in this week’s Dilli Gupshup

Rahul Gandhi’s style of media management is baffling many. He first instructed everyone in the Congress to seek prior clearance from two lowly functionaries R V Ramani and Deepak Amin before speaking to the media.

Rahul then instructed AICC general secretary in charge of media, Ajay Maken to invite electronic media representatives to set some ‘rules’. Maken reportedly told guest coordinators from various television news channels that he alone would decide about choice of leaders representing Congress point of view on their screens.

He said if channels do not abide by this directive, they will get only Renuka Choudhury or Jagdmabika Pal. The threat, although in lighter vein, has worked. Channel wallahs dread both Renuka and Jadgambika, known to speak a lot without clarity or sense of purpose.

At a broader level, editors of these channels wonder if such directives should work when freedom of expression is at premium and Rahul is projected as modern, youth icon.

Next: Pallam Raju’s resignation games...

Human Resource Development Minister M M Pallam Raju led the way. When protests over Telangana reached its crescendo, Raju was first to offer his resignation. But he was careful. Instead of tendering resignation to prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh, he sent it to Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

His ministerial colleagues followed, thanking him privately.

Next: Blame it on JNU...

Blame it to the Jawaharlal Nehru University. Middle-rung officials in the Planning Commission have learnt to pass on the blame to JNU academics.

Responding to the row over definition of persons below the poverty line, babus at Yojna Bhavan allege that professors and academicians, acting as consultants, described the poor in such a manner that commission’s observation became a subject matter of ridicule.

Is this Montek Singh Ahluwalia’s line of defence too?

Next: Cashing in on Modi...

Buoyed by Narendra Modi’s popularity, several senior BJP leaders are toying with the idea of contesting Lok Sabha polls. But list of these leaders that includes Arun Jaitley, Ravi Shankar Prasad and others, faces a minor hiccup.

Apparently, Modi has made it clear to aspirants that unless the BJP officially declares someone as a nominee, nobody should try to indulge in self-promotion. As a consequence, many BJP bigwigs are seeking Modi’s blessings to get into the electoral fray.

Next: Hindi panel or ‘gift committee’ ...

The parliamentary standing committee on Hindi is reportedly earning some notoriety. The honourable MPs are perhaps unaware of it but some over-enthusiastic government departments have earned them a name ‘gift committee’.

Somehow word has spread that each time the Raj Bhasha panel visits a public sector undertaking, the concerned PSU presents some lavish gift. Thus, instead of focus on quality and quantity of work done in Hindi, PSU officials spend more time scouting for appropriate gifts.

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