Impetuous think tank, Blurred Vision and Media Cacophony

Yesterday was a big day in the history of social media after its  evolution as a broad way of free speech communication .  Twitterati went frenzy after a post in English US daily The Washington Post by  Simon Denyer where PM Manmohan Singh was criticized  to cite him as http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/indias-silent-prime-minister-becomes-a-tragic-figure/2012/09/04/a88662c4-f396-11e1-adc6-87dfa8eff430_story.html
“ a dithering, ineffectual bureaucrat presiding over a deeply corrupt government.”  Well the Prime Minister Office was quick to react, Simon Denyer was called up, made to meet government officials and The Washington Post was told to clarify its stand. Apparently, in afternoon, it was announced by PMO, that a formal apology has been made to PMO by Washington Post on the issue and later few renowned journalists tweeted  about the authenticity of the matter. 

The shrewd Simon was quick to react on the occasion, twitted about the spurious details and even had tweet to tweet battle with few journalists ,finally made the Twitter aware of the fact that neither The  Washington Post has said sorry on the matter nor he intends to take his piece back on such a important  issue which effects one of the strongest economic power house of the subcontinent.

Later, The Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blogpost/post/indian-prime-ministers-office-responds-to-washington-posts-profile-on-manmohan-singh/2012/09/05/89b66e24-f784-11e1-8b93-c4f4ab1c8d13_blog.html took a stand on it and even replied Mr Pankaj Pachauri (Official Media Advisor to PM)  in his  official reply mail about the stand taken which was written  by Anup Khaple.  The whole chain of events was enough to prove two things. First, the PMO’s myopic, ineffectual , intolerant stand on Media rants on his performance and also highlighted  a deep concern on how such officials have retaliated and shown bigotry towards free media and speech. To add, they lied , spread rumors and even made people believe that the matter has been resolved. Outrageous!

The incident too made us feel about the impetuous think tank and blurred vision of PMO office which never  tolerated criticism and looked severely juvenile, babyish, immature in handling the matter. The Twitter reacted very strongly emphasizing the fact, had there not been something called twitter, the social medium, the PMO would have somehow made a fictitious story look real with all added masala in it , as it’s a general belief that main stream media would never have told real story and the rumors might have converted themselves as  anecdotes of Indian op-eds , purposely  finding lacunae in Western media Journalistic methodologies. 

But things are little different because of Twitter and yes I thank Twitter for the insights and Knowledge management where every wrong information is being criticized and challenged. The government  stand looked diminutive and passive with twiterrati lampooning its intellectual think tank which literally became a serious cause of concern. A ex DGP twitted that he had heard something called “ Ram Nam ki loot” but never thought he will be able to see that in his life time.

As Shekhar Kapoor twitted that he thinks Government is on collapse mode and probably Army will take over, lot of people expressed concern, and asked him not to spread rumors to which he replied with ease that people have actually forgotten the dark days of emergency. To add support to my views of Government  intolerance and impatience are also the facts which happened few days back, where few twitter handles were deliberately blocked as they  seem to question lot of government policies and issues in a pragmatic, intellectual way.

Every Democratic State or government has been questioned, has been put through the Stress test  of policy makers, Intellectuals, Socialists, Historians but they had the patience to hear and perseverance to resolve the burning issues. Even Obama is challenged with his debt policies , Romney has to give his tax details, so what if Indian and Western Media wants to get clarified from PM on  issues of Coalgate. What is the problem if Sonia has been asked about her  secret illness( in quotes as it is not secret any more) and the cost associated with it.

The canards and cacophony of Main Stream Media will always be there, but if the government remains sincere and honest in answering it, noone will question mark the Will and “ Vivek” of Governance.