Omar Live

Omar Live

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah seems to have enough time on his hands to put out regular Twitter updates. He tweeted several times on Rahul Gandhi's visit to Greater Noida, a couple of which were targeted at his Uttar Pradesh counterpart Mayawati as well. "Anyone taking bets on how quickly Mayawati come out with her handbag swinging," he said in a tweet. He also had time to "welcome back" a television anchor who he "missed". "Hey welcome back. I'd say you were missed but someone will tell me I'm flirting so will just say — you were missed :-) ," the chief minister tweeted.

Ploughing a lonely furrow

While Rahul Gandhi has decided to go on the warpath against the Mayawati government on the issue of land acquisition, his enthusiasm has not found much support from Congress party cadres. When he was arrested by the Uttar Pradesh police, no more than two dozen Congress workers were present, the rest having returned from the site earlier that evening. Even at the party headquarters in Delhi, there was no activity at the office of the Kisan and Khet Mazdoor Congress — the AICC cell for farmers and agricultural labourers — with its office locked as it usually is.

Broadcasting its priorities

For two trips in succession, the Prime Minister's Office has decided not to take television journalists on board the special aircraft carrying the Prime Minister. It was never clear what provoked the decision, but was widely speculated that this had to do with differences over ways in which certain facts pertaining to the UPA government were projected. But when the decision came under sharp attack from the electronic media, the PMO did a sudden U-turn and decided to take the electronic media on board the PM's aircraft for the visit to Kabul. What's worse, it went to the other extreme and left out print journalists while inviting only the important television channels. The MEA went even a step further, ostensibly on security guidance, to ensure the Afghanistan Embassy did not issue a visa to any news organisation other than those shortlisted to travel in the PM's aircraft. This strange cocktail of security and media management is yet to be decoded fully.

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