A SMART MOVE

Union tribal affairs minister and senior BJP leader Jual Oram is very blunt and fearless, at least when it requires him to behave politically or for that matter airing his views on a particular issue.

Two days before his arrival in Bhubaneswar to jointly launch the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana with Orissa chief minister Naveen Patnaik, Mr Oram posted the invitation card of the programme on the social networking site, Facebook, calling upon his fans to grace the ceremony. The event saw large number of BJD supporters attending it and Mr Patnaik himself stealing the show. And Mr Oram did not get adequate coverage the next day.

Apparently seething in anger ever since Mr Patnaik severed ties with the BJP in 2009, Mr Oram made his own media plan — his office sent his speech delivered at the event to the media houses conveniently ignoring Mr Patnaik’s presence. Also, selected photographs sent to various media houses showed only Mr Oram interacting with eminent persons and distributing bank accounts to the beneficiaries.

Whether it was a brave act or not, but Mr Oram definitely knows the art of getting things done.