JAVADEKAR, THE FAST LEARNER

UNION HUMAN RESOURCES development minister Prakash Javadekar is a fast learner. He, perhaps, does not require much prompting while on a political mission to other states. A few tips from local leaders come handy for him to fire from all cylinders to attack rivals. After arriving at Bhubaneswar airport on Thursday, the Union minister, who is in charge of three Lok Sabha constituencies in Odisha, was surrounded by journalists for his comments on a range of issues and his rating of the Naveen Patnaik administration.

The minister, as it seemed, had well-anticipated these queries and had got his answers ready after talking to the party’s state leaders at the airport lounge. He walked into the crowd of journalists and fired one after another salvo at Mr Patnaik. He used many adjectives, including “hijacker” and “inefficient”, to snub the CM.

What surprised the journalists most was his claim that the rice given to the people at subsidised price (`1 per kg) was “Modi rice” not “Naveen rice” as claimed by the BJD.

When the journalists pondered how the subsidised rice scheme introduced by the previous UPA government became “Modi rice”, the local leaders accompanying Mr Javadekar said: “PM is giving a subsidy of `27 and Naveen is giving `2 on every kg of rice. Tell me whose rice it is?”

The journalists realised that the minister had undergone a complete crash course at the airport lounge and as a fast learner he had grasped the whole content.