Reporters’ diary: Caught on the wrong foot

Caught on the wrong foot

Sarbananda Sonowal — the Union minister from Assam — received a royal snub when he was made to feel the need to do more hard work by none other than Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The 51-year-old bachelor recently received a phone call from Mr Modi. The call was not quite new for Mr Sonowal — who headed the BJP unit in Assam during the Lok Sabha elections and constantly briefed Mr Modi on issues afflicting the state. However, this time the questions were different. The Prime Minister wanted a briefing on the progress on issues in the purview of his ministry.

If sources close to Mr Sonowal are to be believed, the minister was surprised as Mr Modi seemed more well-versed with micro-level issues than him. As the minister failed to satisfy the Prime Minister’s queries, the minister is now reportedly spending extra hours familiarising himself with the micro-issues bothering India. Mr Sonowal obviously doesn’t want to be caught on the wrong foot again. “He is monitoring every task and managing affairs in his ministry even at the micro-level,” revealed an insider.

The hoarding war

The Samajwadi Party’s (SP) national convention in Lucknow spelt a windfall for publicists and mobile operators. Enthusiastic SP ministers, legislators, leaders and workers vied with each other to set up hoardings along the route from the party’s state headquarters to the venue of the convention and as a result over 30,000 hoardings of various shapes and sizes crammed the eight-kilometre route.

Since there was an obvious shortage of space, hoardings were placed one on top of the other, completely cutting out road visibility at the traffic intersections and leading to a record number of accidents. Some overzealous party workers sent out bulk messages on mobile phones, welcoming delegates to the convention. It is another matter that majority of the messages went out to those who had nothing to do with the SP or the convention. Some went a step ahead and sent out their photos welcoming delegates on WhatsApp too.

Publicists were saddled with bulk orders for posters and each leader wanted his poster to be better than his rival’s. Some even requested photo-shopping to improve their “looks”. With business running into hundreds of crores in just three days, many are praying that conventions of this kind are held more often in Lucknow. Amen to that.