Media-savvy Javadekar

Thanks to his long years as a Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson, Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar ( pictured) understands the media like few others in his party. Javadekar has now taken to guiding his officials on media relations. He has asked them to desist from being aggressive with journalists even if they perceive a report to be incorrect. Instead, he has advised them to send “facts” of the case to the media house that has published the report in question by 3 pm on the same day. Recently, it was reported that a government audit of central universities had suggested the words “Muslim” and “Hindu” be dropped from the names of Aligarh Muslim University and Banaras Hindu University, respectively. The authors of the audit pleaded that the report wasn’t entirely correct as their suggestion was incidental to the audit and buried somewhere at the end. Javadekar was quick to reject the recommendation, but also defended the reporter. He said it was natural for the reporter to have found something like that “newsworthy” in the audit.