Although meant to be a compliment, the above remark could well ruffle Left feathers, particularly when taken in conjunction with the Prime Minister’s subsequent comment of the need to ‘‘overcome the hurdles at home and the roadblocks in our mind’’ to realize our full potential—an apparent dig at the Left’s refusal to go with the current ‘‘consensual’’ flow.

But then, Singh went beyond his favourite quote from Victor Hugo (‘No one can stop an idea whose time has come’) to invoke Karl Marx today. Referring to Marx’s famous ‘‘when an idea captures the minds of men, it becomes a material force’’, the Prime Minister said the media was in the business of capturing the minds of people and transforming society.

But whether the idea of consensus will capture the minds of the political class and become a material force to guide the

UPA’s future remains a challenge that the Prime Minister chose not to dwell on today.

And the awards went to
(From left to right)
• Varghese K George; Journalist of the Year, Print (The Indian Express)
• Praveen Swami; Journalist of the Year, Print (Frontline)
• Punya Prasun Bajpai; Regional Award, Hindi, Broadcast (Aaj Tak)
• Barkha Dutt; Journalist of the Year, Broadcast (NDTV, 24X7)
• Sopan Pandharipande; Regional Award, Print (Lokmat)
• Sutapa Deb; Regional Award, North-East, Broadcast (NDTV 24X7)
• Swati Thyagarajan; Environmental Reporting (NDTV 24X7)
• Ratna Bharali Talukdar; Regional Award, North-East, Print (Freelance)
• C Vanaja; Uncovering India Invisible, Print (Freelance)
• Vikram Choudhary; Regional Award, Jammu and Kashmir, Broadcast (NDTV 24X7)
• Shikha Trivedy; Uncovering India Invisible, Broadcast (NDTV 24X7)
• Vikas Dhoot; Business and Economic Journalism, Print (Business World)
• Mir Ehsan; Regional Award, Jammu and Kashmir, Print (The Indian Express)
• Menaka Doshi; Business and Economic Journalism, Broadcast (CNBC-TV18)
• The two other recipients were Ramesh Menon; Environmental Reporting, Print (Freelance); and Somini Sengupta, Foreign Corres-pondent Covering India, Print (The New York Times)

... contd.