Minister’s Media dinner called off on PM’s day of fast

On Thursday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party ministers, Members of Parliament and its top leaders kept a fast against the stalling of Parliament by the Opposition. An embarrassing situation was avoided on that day, thanks to an alert senior government media advisor.

On the day of the fast, Union Minister of Rural Development, Panchayati Raj and Mines, Narendra Singh Tomar briefed the media on annual achievements of his ministry and about Gram Swaraj Abhiyan in New Delhi in the evening. He wanted to invite the media for dinner later. When the dinner proposal reached the Press Information Bureau, asking it to issue invitations to journalists, a senior official immediately asked the ministry’s top brass how this could be organised on the day of the PM’s fast, high level ministry sources told The Sunday Guardian. The ministry officials tried to justify the dinner idea by saying that “it would be after PM’s fasting hours”.

Sources said that the seasoned media advisor stuck to his view that the dinner should not be held on a high-profile day of fast and should be postponed. He apparently told the ministry officials that there was a high risk that the media would talk of the minister’s “lavish dinner” so soon after the PM ended his fast. It is said that he was apprehensive that this fast would become a major controversy like Congress leaders eating a hearty chhole bhature breakfast before their day-long hunger strike at Rajghat.

“This forceful argument worked and the Ministry dropped Tomar’s dinner for media,” sources said, refusing to identify the “wise” media advisor.