The Hindu Business Line : Casual confusion

Competition in the media is giving nightmares to some political leaders and this happened in front of some journalist friends. Chatting in the Central Hall of Parliament, a small bunch of scribes requested a Congress leader if the party President, Sonia Gandhi, who was at a separate table, would spend some time with them. Sonia Gandhi obliged, but with a polite diktat that no politics would be discussed.

The conversation veered around many socio-economic issues such as the progress of rural development programmes, the fate of the Women Reservation Bill, etc. The Congress chief admitted that much more needed to be done in the rural sector and that consensus had to be built on the Women Reservation Bill. A passing scribe from one of the TV channels noticed the gathering and called out to a colleague to find out what was on. When told it was just a casual conversation, he wanted to know if Sonia Gandhi had said anything of significance. Hearing about the comment about consensus on the Reservations Bill, he promptly rang up his office and the channel soon had the news on the scroll saying that the Congress President was not hopeful of getting the Bill passed.

Alarmed party spokespersons ran to Sonia Gandhi, wanting to know where and what she had said about the Reservation Bill, only to find out it was just a casual chat over a cup of coffee. But the damage had been done and party functionaries had a tough time explaining that there had been no change in the Congress stand on the issue.

Dharnas go mobile-free

Thursday saw another nation-wide protest by the Left parties with rallies being taken out in various cities. But wiser after the last such occasion, many Left leaders did not carry their mobile phones with them this time. It so happened that the last time around, in the melee of protest dharnas, many of the leaders were mobbed by "supporters'' which gladden their hearts no end. It was later that some of them realised that not all were supporters among the crowd and taking advantage of the commotion, some pickpockets had pinched their cell phones. Once bitten twice shy, some of the leaders have decided to leave their phones back home or in the office on such occasions.

Media-savvy netas

PR agencies have found a new avenue for business. Out-of-office political leaders looking for some media space are now engaging such agencies to gather journalists and provide coverage to their functions. So it was a surprise when a leading PR agency, normally dealing with corporate news, flooded newspaper offices with invitations for coverage of a rally organised in the name of Dr B. R. Ambedkar and followed it up with SMS reminders many times that day. The business press, which normally steers clear of purely political events, too was targeted.

This week, the business press received another invite for coverage of a rally planned by a Haryana leader and in typical corporate style, the media have been invited to a pre-event dinner so that they can be "properly briefed'' about the upcoming function. Incidentally, the rally has nothing to do with business or economics.

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