Royal Skirt or Royal Bow?

The Queen's third, and supposedly the last, trip to India 

would be remembered for wrong reasons!  

By S.Narendra

(Former Information Adviser to PM and Government Spokesperson)

Queen Elizabeth Regina of Britain visited India, the erstwhile ‘jewel in the crown’ of British empire, in 1997,the year  India was celebrating her  50^th anniversary of independence. This third visit (she had come to India in 1961 and 1983) of the present British monarch was supposed to be her last. Unfortunately, this ceremonial visit became the most memorable for the wrong reasons.

The sour points of the visit began with the itinerary itself, as she was to arrive in India after a visit to Islamabad. India has always frowned upon the big western powers linking the two nations with a hyphen India-Pakistan. As I said in my last column, the then ruling labour government of Tony Blair and its foreign minister, Robin Cook, had taken the stand that Britain as a former ruler of the subcontinent had a mediator’s role in the bilateral Kashmir dispute. Further, the Labour Government had   reiterated its support for holding a plebiscite in J&K, a demand of Pakistan that  had been long ago rejected by  India.

The officials of the Buckingham palace who had arrived in advance   for making arrangements for the royal visit had irked the Indian side, thanks to their overbearing behaviour. Like most ceremonial visits, this royal one was a big lens photo op, mainly to be presented to the people in both the countries through pomp and ceremony feeding the visual media

This story concerns the Queen’s proposed visit to Jalianwalabagh martyrs memorial near Amritsar, that was included in her itinerary. The British government had suggested this visit as a political gesture to the Indian, especially the Sikh community back home, who form an important political constituency. This proposal had run into considerable controversy as the sections of people in Punjab had demanded that the Queen tender a public apology for the atrocity committed in Jalianwalabagh in 1929 and the media in Punjab had taken up this call. It will be recalled that General Dyer had used his troops to shoot   on a peaceful assembly of people on Baisaki festival day, April 13, in which thousands had been killed, although the official records showed only 329 as dead. It became a turning point in India’s freedom struggle.

After the independence, India has built a martyrs memorial at the site. The entire national media, particularly the visual media (about 60-80 strong in Delhi and their brethren in Punjab) were keen to be present for covering this historic visit by the Queen.

In the normal course, it used to be one of my responsibilities to oversee media arrangements for such visits but for some reason I had not been involved in this instance! It so happened that when prime minister Inder Kumar Gujral was attending a function in Delhi, the visual media association representatives complained to him that the arrangements being made for the Queen’s visit to Jalianwalabagh were inadequate and they were bring excluded. The prime minister then and there took me to task (I did not mind it because it was more for effect) and instructed me to take a helicopter and visit Jalianwalabagh, accompanied by the office bearers of the Visual media association and officials of the External Affairs ministry.

I held a preliminary meeting with representatives of the ministry of external affairs, visual media, British high commission, and officials of the Buckingham palace. The latter were very reluctant to revisit the arrangements they had planned. I, with my journalistic instinct, had earlier suggested to the visual media representatives that they should threaten to boycott the entire visit if they were excluded from the Jalianwalabagh coverage. When they aired this threat, it had the desired effect. Accompanied by representatives of the British government, MEA and visual media, I visited the site. On arrival, the officials of the   Punjab government poured out the difficulties they had faced in dealing with the London officials on the one side and from the protests they were facing from the local media on the other.

On site what I found was a small platform built at a height of six feet that could hardly accommodate about a dozen people. The British representatives had insisted on accommodating all British visual media, leaving barely room for the Indian official media.  The platform itself had been placed about 30 to 40 feet away from the actual memorial where the queen was to lay a wreath and spend a few minutes. The platform was positioned at the back –end, instead of facing centre point of the memorial where visitors pay the floral tribute.

I made notes and a sketch of the site and the platform’s position and informed the accompanying Indian and foreign team members that I will apprise the prime minister of what I had witnessed and recommend my plan. On return I submitted my conclusions to PM and requested him to direct the MEA to invite the senior officials of the British commission and Buckingham palace for a meeting with me in my chamber.

A meeting was duly held in my room in Shastri Bhavan where the British Deputy high commissioner along with the Buckingham palace officials were present. Expressing my dissatisfaction with the arrangements, I argued for maximum access to national and state level visual media. One of my suggestions was to totally change the position of the platform and place it in such a way that it faces the royal visitor.

The memorial consists of a structure where a visitor has to enter from the from the left, place  the wreath at the memorial and move right to exit. The British team was willing to enlarge the platform to accommodate a larger media contingent but averse to my suggestion to place it facing the visiting dignitary. After exasperating negotiations, I explained : “Gentleman, I am  sure Her Majesty would be wearing a skirt, and while placing the wreath, she would bend, making the skirt go up and the visual media located as it is at present could capture something we all don’t want them to capture!”

The Author
(sunarendra@gmail.com)

The British negotiating team had a hard time in suppressing their embarrassed laughter and agreed to shift the platform. Addressing the visual media representatives, I told them: “Gentleman, given the controversy surrounding the Jalianwalabagh, our attempt should be to enable the visual media to get a good view of the Queen and the expression of her eyes. I am sure Her Majesty would also slightly bow her head while standing for a few minutes in front of the site. Such visual coverage would convey the intended message more than any words’.  

The Queen’s floral tribute at Jalianwalabagh went down very well with the people and the media. Here is a headline from a British newspaper: In India, Queen Bows Her Head Over a Massacre in 1919.

The queen’s consort, Prince Phillip, who had visited the Jalianwalabagh site before the Queen, had put his foot in the mouth by questioning the casualty figures. But the Queen’s bow made amends for her husband’s indiscretion. 

 

PRCI jury award: Rotary News

PrezSpeak: Going Global, Shining Local

Friends,

I hope you have been noting our activities on PRapport and via mails from Jayaram.

This week, I have a lot to talk about!

PRCI-International

First and foremost, we are all set to see our dream of going global coming true. PRCI-International will soon be a reality, and not a mere promise or announcement.

With our dynamic Vinay Kumar, Director –PRCI-I, getting into action, we shall open our UAE Chapter in December.

Dubai is calling us! Let’s go there in good numbers and spread the PRCI movement.

Please indicate your confirmation to join the team to Dubai so that we can block your tickets. You are aware as to how airfares shoot up as we get closer to the travel date. We are negotiating with travel agents to do bulk booking at concessional tariff. The tickets can be blocked ex the city of your choice.

To give you an idea of return airfare by Indigo to Dubai:

Rs 16,800 (ex-Bangalore) Rs 19,600 (ex-Kochi) Rs 23,800 (ex-Mumbai and Kolkata) RS. 15,700 (ex.Delhi ) VISA expenses come to another Rs 5,000 each

So, please rush with your confirmations latest by May 31, 2015. We can make the payments within a month. PRCI HQ is compiling the list.

Other details have been mailed to all Chapters.

Our next international destination can be either Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Oman or Sharjah.

We are also working aggressively on PRCI-I USA (with multiple chapters), Australia and even SAARC.

Daughters’ Day

Getting back to India, suggest we plan for our annual the Daughters’ Day programmes for July 03, 2015 (coinciding with PRCI formation day) onward as per local convenience.

This year, our focus can be in sexual harassment at work places.

We have decided to set up a Compliance Cell which is mandatory for any organization with more than 10 people working. It is applicable to organizations like PRCI and even sports events and clubs.

We are happy to inform you that ComplyKaro – an organization spearheading awareness about meeting the compliance – has agreed to be our honorary advisor in setting up and running the Compliance Cell @PRCI. Please check Vishal Kedia’s interview (Comply or face Jail) to PRapport for details - http://prapport.blogspot.in/2015/04/comply-or-face-jail-must-comply-with.html

The Cell details will shortly be announced in consultation with the GC.

We can plan activities related to preventing sexual harassment at work places and Vishal Kedia will be happy to guide us.

Chapter, YCC Activities

I am sure we are all working on and conducting local level activities. Please flood us with reports and pictures for PRapport.

Soon, we will have the PRCI mag Chanakya and YCC mag Kautilya out.

Please send in your contributions in the form of:

• Activity reports
• Planned activities
• Opinion pieces

We shall soon float a topic for your and other PR professionals’ opinions which we can carry in Chanakya.

Till then....

Zombies in the Cloud!

Officials at all levels, from central ministries   to local governments and mini departments have invested vast sums of money in their own websites.

But users   seeking latest official data and information or current policy line are often frustrated. Many pages have not been updated in years.

Some agencies that were long ago disbanded or merged with others have left their old web pages floating around the internet like space junk.

Some sites work only with certain web browsers, some do not work at all and some contain malware.

This assessment by the Economist (18/4), though relates to Chinese official websites, could as well be true of Indian official websites.

A website should not hang like the piece of muscle that covers the hind part of   a quadruped. - S Narendra, Former Spokesperson, Govt of India

He said and he didn't! Britain, a 4th Rate Power?

And how I survived the litmus test for PR credibility!

By S.Narendra

(Former Advisor to PM and ex-spokesperson, Government of India)

Ceremonial visits are normally filled with visually rich ceremonies and banquets and above all photo ops. When the British Queen Elizabeth’s  visit to India was proposed  in 1993, during prime minister John Major’s  India tour, it was supposed to be a goodwill visit filled with symbolism and sentiments for strengthening  a historic partnership. But when the visit actually happened in 1997 October, it was trailed by controversy and left a further trail of avoidable bitterness.

Right to mediate in Paradise on Earth?

The then Labour government of Tony Blair in London had openly declared its intention to play a mediator’s role in the Kashmir dispute between India and Pakistan. What was more galling was that this government had claimed that such a role falls naturally on Britain as a former ruler of the sub-continent! And this stand was being articulated by its foreign secretary Robin Cook, who was to accompany the Queen during her India itinerary that coincided with India’s 50^th anniversary of independence. Another sore point with India was that the Queen was arriving in India after a visit to Islamabad, where Pakistan was bound to put the Kashmir issue in front.

Gore-Bhoot: In Delhi, the British envoy was Sir David Gore-Booth, had not endeared himself to both the British and the Indian media with his public pronouncements on the Kashmir issue and his unwelcome comments on the Punjab people’s demand for a royal apology for the atrocities committed by British officials at Jalianwalabagh in 1929. While the British media referred to him as blumbering Sir David, the Hindi media had begun to refer to this envoy as ‘Gore-bhoot’ (white ghost).

The visits of ceremonial heads of states such as that of the Queen are largely surrounded by atmospherics and high but empty diplomatese. In this case the atmosphere was getting more and more polluted with indiscretions on both the sides. The advance party that came to India from the Buckingham palace were very arrogant and had obviously forgotten that India was no longer their colony. A brief circulated by them  to Indian business persons and others who were to interact with the visiting head of Britain contained tips like, when you meet the dignitary, address  her as ‘Your Majesty’ first time and then onwards ‘Ma’m’ pronounced as xxxx etc.

As they say when things go wrong, they tend to go very wrong. The government was keeping its   fingers crossed and was treading   very carefully to ensure that the Queen’s sojourn passes off without more controversy. In the meanwhile, there was news in media circles that a London based journalist of Indian origin, Shyam Bhatia (known for his off –beat new stories) was in the capital. He is the son of a great editor (late) Prem Bhatia whose columns were noted for their elegance as well as insights. Senior Bhatia belonged to a fast eroding generation of media persons who were sticklers for facts and propriety.  I had the privilege of knowing  him as an elderly friend, who would  make it a point to  seek an  appointment  with me every month  for a briefing. Senior Bhatia  was  a contemporary of  the then prime minister Inder Kumar Gujaral  as well his  family  friend from Punjab.

Back to Bhatia Jr. His presence in Delhi on the eve of the Queen’s visit shadowed by controversies  and I had requested   the prime minister’s personal office to inform me if  Shyam Bhatia  soiught a meeting  (as he was bound to do as a family friend) with Gujral. I learnt a few days later that Shyam Bhatia had departed, taking this matter off my mind.

The Queen’s arrival in Delhi was just a few days away.  On not-so fine morning around 5.30, Mike Wooldridge of BBC New Delhi bureau rang me up. He first apologised to me for phoning at such an early hour. The foreign correspondents rarely call at inconvenient hours unless the matter brooks no delay. Wooldridge of BBC, was indeed checking up  an important story circulating in London. He said: “Narendraji, has the prime minister called Britain, a fourth rate power? The Observer of London is publishing an interview of Prime Minister Gujral,  and if he has given the interview, BBC would like to use the story. London wants me to get confirmation’. Wooldridge also mentioned that the Observer seems to a have had a recorded tape of the interview. I requested the correspondent for 30 minutes to respond.

With some difficulty the PM was woken up (as I said in my previous column he was a late riser!) and I informed him of the interview. His first reaction was to deny the interview. When I told him that his interview was on tape, and gave him a gist of Wooldridge’s query to me, he seemed to be very upset.

Off-the-record, On the record

He told me that what he had spoken to Shyam Bhatia was not supposed to be on record. I submitted to PM that we cannot prevent BBC from broadcasting the story, since the Observer interview would be carried by almost all the British media. I suggested that during the course of the day we could perhaps say, as a face saving measure, that the PM has been misquoted. I also requested him to immediately advice the foreign ministry about the diplomatic steps they should take for damage control.

When I returned Wooldridge’s call and told him that BBC could go ahead with the story, he could not believe: “Sir, you are not denying it”.

Spokespersons’ Credibility: A government’s (or for that matter any organisations’) interests are best served, if and when it helps the Spokesperson retain his or her credibility, rather than make him defend the indefensible. A compromised news source is not an asset either to the organization or to the media. In the episode narrated here, if I had denied the PM’s interview or asked BBC not to use the story, not only my credibility as a Spokesperson would have suffered a major dent, but also any attempt to put pressure on the media not to use a factual story would have dissuaded the newspersons   from   contacting me for checking up facts or stories.

The author

Ours is a very difficult and delicate role where we have to guard (and balance) the interest of the organisation that we represent as well as the media person who is our gateway to the media world. During my stint as the Spokesperson of Government of India, I had tried to build a record of not misleading the media as well as not to put pressure on media when their facts were correct, except in cases where the very survival of the government was at stake or when it involved matters of national security.

When I took over as the Principal Information Officer and Spokesperson, I had announced to the media that I would be available on 24x7 basis for them to check any information relating to the government. As a result more than once (for instance during   the break-out of Surat Plague, seize of holy shrines in Kashmir), I was woken up by agencies at the dead of night for checking on rumours. The foreign correspondents stationed in India rarely picked up a story relating to government   from  Indian media or wire agencies before verifying its veracity from me. Because of my public announcement, no one in media could have an excuse for not checking up information before publishing a story (sunarendra@gmail.com).

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Fonte by ‘One Source’ @Press Club is super hit

Members from Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad 

join in networking event

Ashish Chauhan

A movement that started with the creation of one WhatsApp group of 30 people on the 22nd of July last year, has now turned out to be an 850-member strong community of media professionals.

The online group One Source organised its inaugural member off line meetup Fontè at the Press Club-Mumbai Mumbai in association with event partners, Public Relations Council of India  last Thursday.

Mr. Ashish Kumar Chauhan, Managing Director & CEO of Bombay Stock Exchange and Mr. Gurbir Singh, Deputy Editor, Business World  and Chairman, Press Club-Mumbai were the guests of honour.

While Mr. Chauhan spoke on the importance of in financial services, Mr Singh dealt with the issue of media expectations from PR professionals. PRCI National president B N Kumar announced the launch of a guest faculty pool by PRCI to depute veteran professionals to mass communication colleges.

The effort behind the deliberations was to educate the community members present on how public relations as an industry has the potential to become a national game changer, rising beyond the cliché of clip-counting and media relations.

Sandeep Rao, founder member of One Source, said in his welcome address: “The group’s endeavour would be to act a knowledge platform apart from facilitating the members exchange industry information and media contacts. For this, we will be happy to tie-up with professional bodies like PRCI.”

Gurbir Singh

“We hope to build bonds and strengthen mutual trust among the professionals encompassing PR, advertising, media and HR practitioners,” he said.

BNK

Started with the objective of opening channels of communication within the industry of communication and facilitating knowledge flow within the industry, One Source has members across more than 40 traditional and full service communication agencies, personnel across news media houses such as the BCCL group and Business Standard, brand custodians across names such as DSP BlackRock, Cairn India, NSE, Myntra, BSE, FICCI, Housing.com and CII, as well as allied service professionals such as digital influencers, content providers and head hunters, all of who come together to help the community drive value for itself.

Encouraged by the success of the event with over 100 people participating, One Source now plans Fonte at other cities, including Delhi and Bangalore.

Contact: Sandeep: +91 97690 79273 or Harsh: +91 98706 31557.

PRCI Delhi Chapter gets new blood!

Happy to announce the list of new list of office-bearers of PRCI's Delhi Chapter.
We are glad that Mr Gaganjit Singh, Executive Director of Institute of Marketing & Management, has agreed to lead the efforts rejuvenate the Chapter and we are quite sure that with the infusion new blood the Chapter will perform well and keep PRCI flag flying high in the Capital City and NCR.

Senior journalist Ritukant Ojha (Ex Express Group) will help as strengthen our base and activities in the NCR as well. We are sure he will get all support from Mr S Narendra and Deepak Jolly.

We sincerely thank Mr N D Rajpal, Mrs Vijayalakshmi, Ms Renuka Salwan, Mr S K Kaul and Mr S R Radhakrishnan for their tireless efforts in putting together all good people who are needed to revitalise the Delhi Chapter.

Let us all congratulate the new office-bearers and the Executive Committee members and wish them all the best.

Name	PRCI Designation	Company/Position
	Chairman	Executive Director, Institute of Marketing and Management
Mr Gaganjit Singh
Mr Arun Arora	Vice Chairman	Cairn India
Mr V K Cherian	Vice Chairman	COAI
Mr Molijit Lal	Secretary	IMM
Mr Chiranjit Chakraborty	Joint Secretary	Concept PR
Mr Ramesh Kumar	Treasurer	NHPC
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
Mr R H Pathak	Member	Essar Group
Mr Sanjay Vashisht,	Member	ITPO
Mr J P Dhaundiyal	Member	Solar Energy Society of India
Mr Anoop Joshi	Member	SAIL
Ms Neelam Yadav	Member	Power Grid Corporation
Ms Neelam Jain	Member	Canadian Embassy
Mr Gaurav Anand	Member	NHPC
Mr Ritukant Ojha	Member	PROact Brandcom
Ms Sonia Sarin	Member	Aim High Consulting

Ms Renuka Salwan, Zonal Chairperson (North) and Mr S K Kaul and Mr S R Krishnan (Directors – NE) are the ex-officio members of the Committee.

Mr N D Rajpal (Chairman GC), Mrs Vijayalakshmi (Direcor GC) Mr S Narendra (Director NE and Advisor YCC) and Mr Deepak Jolly (Director NE) are the permanent invitees for the Chapter.

Standing ovation for A Standothon to ‘kill’ exam fever!

Organized by PRCI General Secretary Bharathi Singh’s

Sa-Mudra in association with Yuva Help

Examinations season always causes anxiety and distress among students, at times few fragile ones suffer suicidal tendencies. The number of youth committing suicides due to fear of failure or disappointments in results in increasing, last year more than 80 youth have succumbed.

In order to create awareness among students, parents and the public in general public - SA-MUDRA foundation organized a standothon themed #LOVE LIFE on Tuesday the 5^th May 2015. Over 800 students, parents and general public participated in this programme.

standothon organized is a right effort in a right direction.

Shri.  M.B. Jayaram, Chairman Emeritus, PRCI, Dr. T.S. Chandrashekar, Adolscent Psychologist and K.C. Janardhan Educationist were among the guests.

The students formed in human chain from margosa road from 18^th cross to 5^th cross Malleshwaam where in the pre university department and SSLC board are situated, holding placards with positive motivational   slogans like ‘ failure is not final’ ‘failure is not fatal’ ‘ failure is part of learning’ # LOVE LIFE !! and distributinDr. Nagambika Devi Sharma IAS - Principal Secretary, Department of Youth empowerment and Shri. Mohd. Mohsin  IAS – commissioner for Public instruction declared the campaign open.

Smt. Bharathi Singh, Founder and Chief SA-MUDRA FOUNDATION who was the main organizer of this campaign highlighted the need for such important and essential campaigns to create awareness among the youth/ students reflecting on the topic of the campaign ‘failure in Exams need not be Failure in Life’. Life is more precious than any exams and failures hence LOVE LIFE!!

Dr. Nagambika Devi lauded the honest and voluntary efforts of SA-MUDRA FOUNDATION in dedicatedly working to empower the youth/ bar students without any financial considerations. She said that 1000s of students were benefitted by the Foundation. 

Shri. Mohd. Mohsin complemented SA-MUDRA FOUNDATION - YUVA HELPLINE for helping the government during examinations and said that the g relevant handouts.

SA-MUDRA FOUNDATION which has been in the fore front of counseling the youth/ students addressing issues focused on educational, career and personal problems has been operating YUVA HELPLINE continuously since 2008. Especially, during examinations, the foundation has been working in collaboration with the SSLC Board and Pre university department, offers telephonic counseling. This has been appreciated by the students, parents, educationists, institutions, the Govt. and the public. So far nearly about 9000+ students have been benefited.

Stunning video: Responsible behaviour is also patriotism!

This 3 -minute clip will leave a lump in your throat!

A must watch for all, all of us!

How PM Gujral bore the brunt for Media kite flying!

Costly lesson – There is nothing like a friendly journo

By S. Narendra

(Former Spokesperson, Govt of India)

The distinction of giving the maximum number of media interviews in the shortest tenure as Prime Minister goes to former PM Inder Kumar Gujral. He was one political leader who could offer the most quotable quotes in Punjabi, Hindi and in English which the media would just lap it up. His tenure of 11 months as PM can be described as governance through media interviews.

I had the privilege of serving as his information adviser as well as the government spokesperson. Soon after his swearing in on 21^st of April 1997 in the Ashoka hall of Rastrapati Bhavan, he spotted me at the rear of hall and walked up to me and took my hand, and   said : “Narender, I will not let you leave the government ( I was contemplating early retirement then); you will be my information adviser.”

Breakfast Interviews: I had instructions to meet the Prime Minister   daily at his   breakfast table for a briefing. He was not in the pink of health (was  very hard of hearing  in one ear),  and a late riser. As a result the breakfast time was anywhere around 9.30 AM and at times could stretch up to even 11, unless he had some official engagement early in the day. What I found was that on most days, besides me, there would be some senior media person as well for breakfast, often a team of them, and the breakfast would be followed by an

interview. Despite being the designated information adviser, I was in dark about such media meetings. I was not the lone person to be so surprised by morning media  visitors; even his close personal staff, who were supposed to arrange his day’s schedule were more than once caught off guard by the prime minister’s   morning media engagements!

He was extremely warm and open with me, gave me free access and sought and appreciated my inputs. As a former I & B minister, one of the most  outstanding  in that slot, Gujral not only  was very familiar  with the  media world but had close contacts with owners and senior professionals. As Mrs Indira Gandhi’s trusted lieutenant in the 1960s and early 1970s, he had taken some pioneering steps to get more of Indian news across to the world and had contributed greatly to the development of All India Radio and DD. I had the occasion to be associated  with this area of work and as a result, we  had  developed a close bond.

On one   particular morning,  I went to  join the Gujral  at his breakfast table, and found a very familiar senior financial journalist already closeted with him. Amidst the breakfast, the journalist and the prime minister would break into conversation in Punjabi. It so happened that Gujral knew the journalist and her family and their talk often dwelt with old times and exchange of information about common acquaintances. The prime minister asked me to go ahead with my briefing, as the media person was present in her capacity.

Besides conversations in Punjabi, the journalist representing the Economic Times began to slip into English and sought PM’s views   on some very delicate  monetary policy issues. While popping such questions, the journalist would also thrust   a tape recorder into PM’s face.

As I said, Gujral was very hard of hearing in one ear and unfortunately the journalist was seated on the side of the bad ear. Each time a question on the monetary policy was shot, the prime minister would turn to me to ask “what was the question”. Not only I was repeating the question, so that Gujral hears it properly but also cautioning  the  prime minster about the tape recorder. More   than once I   told  Gujral that issues concerning the monetary policy was the  exclusive domain of the Reserve Bank of India and thjat the journalist should be directed to RBI. And. Gujral  would ask the lady to follow my advice.

It is necessary   to explain here that the prime minister, was not very familiar with the complex issues of monetary policy ( this was as expected, because most PMs  leave such financial matters to their finance ministers and the central bank). The   Journalist was trying to extract answers from Gujral about the day-to-day management of the par value or exchange rate  of a currency. 

As the breakfast lengthened, the journalist’s questions started drawing the PM into questions like whether his government would prefer to float the Rupee in a band. An exchange rate band means the value of a currency (Rupee) against another currency ,in place of being a  fixed one, is allowed  the  by the central bank (in this case RBI) to fluctuate within a certain predetermined limit.  (Chinese remmimbi is allowed to float in this fashion).

The information sought was highly sensitive, and even the finance ministry would prefer to stay out of it. And this was the subject of speculator in the forex market where millions of Rupees would be at stake on such piece of information. As Gujral was not hearing the questions properly their import was getting lost on him. At this stage I got up and took the tape recorder away from the journalist and pointed out to the PM that the journalist was misusing her family relationship. 

Not a single question had been answered by the prime minister, as I had firmly intervened every time the journalist was trying to convert an informal meeting into an interview on such a sensitive issue. I had repeated  every time that the journalist should direct her questions to  RBI .The journalist , before leaving assured the PM that  she would not use any information  (and there was none!) that she had gained in that meeting.

A Telephonic Blast: Early next morning, there was a blast   on telephone from a highly upset finance minister,  P. Chidambaram: “what kind of interviews you arrange for the prime minister. Have you seen Economic Times? Do you know what are the  consequences ......”.No amount of explanation by me that there was no such interview could convince him. The Economic Times had a banner story:  Rupee to Float in a   Band, attributing the information to the PM himself.

When I spoke to the editor of the newspaper and protested about the story, he first threatened, stating that I was forcing him to run the transcript of the interview. I told him that he would be doing a great service to the country, and the PM,  if he were to do so. I asked him either to run the transcript or sack the reporter concerned. An hour later the editor rang  up to apologise, confirming that there was no tape.

RBI Loses Millions: There was mayhem on the exchange market, as the Rupee wobbled violently, because of the newspaper story. The Government and the RBI were caught in the situation of a person who faces the question ‘have you stopped beating your wife?’ Whether

the story was denied or met with a  ‘no comment’, they would send signals for speculators to gamble and put pressure on  the Rupee. According to sources, the RBI had to intervene in the exchange market to shore up the Rupee and lost about Rs 800 crores in one day.

There is nothing like a friendly journalist! This advice was given to me by a former journalist,  Lajpat Rai Nair, who went on to become the Principal Information Officer initiated me into the  Indian Information Service in 1964. Nair was one of my predecessors as well as the founder -Director of the Indian Institute of Mass Communication. He had served under Jawaharlal Nehru. He had told our first batch of trainees at IIMC that  we should be very friendly towards the journalists but not to  mistake them for friends. He had explained that   news sources (PR)   and news users (media)   ought to have an incestuous relationship,

The Author

but each has different obligations and loyalties.  While each should carry the trust of the other, both should respect   each   others’   professional positions and obligations, and draw   a mutually understood grey line between the personal relationships and professional ones. 

PM Blamed, unjustifiably: Noted economist and commentator S.L. Rao in his book Elephant Can’t Dance ( a collection of his articles in media) blamed former prime minister Gujral , for speaking out of turn to media on a subject he did not know that cost RBI  a huge sum. But, now, you know where the blame belongs. There by hangs a lesson for us in media relations.

(Coming up: Britain –A Fourth Rate Power and 

Royal Skirt or Royal Bow?) 

PrezSpeak -5: Harnessing Youth Power

This week, I have an interesting development. PRCI-Mumbai is getting associated with a WhatsApp group called One Source for a get together of young PR professionals. The Group predominantly has young and upcoming professionals.

The event will be held on Thursday evening. BSE CEO Mr Ashish Chauhan will be the chief guest. We will have veteran journalist Gurbir Singh also addressing the professionals on What Media expects of PR professionals and many Dos and DONTs for the new comers.

PRCI should have many more such networking events and talk about them. It will help us bring in professionalism among upcoming PR stars.

The Going Global endeavour is working well. Vinay Kumar, the PRCI-I director, has done quite a bit of ground work. We have begun to feelers from the US – Atlanta and New Jersey – and even Oman.

Hope all these efforts will fructify shortly.

Once a BBC correspondent was asked as to what do they when there is no breaking news. He said: “We do homework and study the areas where we work.”

On YCC front, I am sure Geetha Shankar and Co are working on some plans. It is time to plan now since the colleges are shut for summer holidays. We can launch activities in June-July.

The newly appointed YCC Secretary (National) Shreya Banda, I guess, is getting set to take new responsibilities under Geetha’s leadership.

Meanwhile, your e-mag continues to do wonders across the world. Our friends in the US seem to be in a hurry to give a 1,000 pageviews and in Germany they are racing towards 200.

Mr Narendra’s piece on Pak N-Bomb is literally becoming viral with 107 views already!

Will be back next week with some more exciting developments.

Have a great time!

How 'Pak N-Bomb Blast' was averted at Indian Press Conference!

By S.Narendra

Former Spokesperson, Govt. Of India

An Untold story, for the 1st time in PRapport

Buddha had smiled a second time on Operation Shakti day - May 11, 1998! 

The decision to explode the nuclear bomb had been taken by Prime Minister Vajpayee heading the first NDA government and the US and its allies swiftly tried to make India a ‘nuclear pariah’ by imposing strict sanctions. Even while the diplomatic pressure and tension was mounting on India, 

another kind of unease was palpable in top echelons in nuclear establishment. Quoting unidentified sources from the latter, media was reporting that the  nuclear establishment headed by Dr Chidambaram (chairman of Atomic Energy Commission),  and Dr Ani l Kakodkar (head of Bhabha Atomic Research  Center) , (and their predecessors)  were  unhappy  that  their  stellar, silent , role in  making India  a nuclear power, was receiving less  media attention.

DRDO (defence research and development organisation) headed by Dr.Abdul Kalam and his deputy K.Santhanam, had  not only provided the logistics for the explosion, but deceived the American hawk-eye satellites.  This particular  feat  of DRDO, especially making the Americans red-faced, was greatly relished by media , and the limelight was on DRDO heroes. K.Santhanam was media savvy and   was prepared to walk   where angels feared to tread.

AEC and DRDO Roles: Dr.Chidambaran,   had shown me how his team had successfully developed the computer model of the device and   had succeeded in conducting   the test and it only needed to be physically tested for materialising a bomb. The DRDO and defence personnel had played a critical role by planting the nuclear device in abandoned wells in Pokharan desert  and laying in the darkness of night miles of wire   for connecting it to the  station where the trigger was located, and their nocturnal  labour  had avoided the American spy satellites. But the actual assembly of the device, according to nuclear establishment, was   the result of their expertise.

Vajpayee at Pokhran site

When the first nuclear test was carried out on Buddha Purnima, in May 1974, the goal was to move towards   a nuclear weapon. The nuclear establishment was, however, ready for carrying out   a test for weaponisation long before 1998 as Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) had initiated nuclear research way back in 1944 under Homi Bhabh’s leadership. In fact, prime minister Narasimha Rao had also given the go ahead  at the fag-end of 1995 for such a test but could not carry it  out ,as his decision had leaked out to the US that pressurised him to abandon it.

Media Visit to Pokharan: PM Vajpayijee, accompanied by the leaders of Atomic Energy commission and DRDO, visited  the blast site at Pokharan and I had taken a C-130 Hercules plane load of Indian and foreign media for coverage. I had specific instructions to ensure that Dr.Chidambaram and Dr.Kakodkar    received   sufficient visual media exposure. As the media was hungry for details about the way India had managed the blast , it was decided to arrange  a few days later a  joint press conference to be addressed by Dr. Chidambaram and Dr. Kakodkar on the one side and Dr.Kalam and K. Santhanam from DRDO on the other.

No,Nos for Press Conference: A little before the scheduled press conference, principal secretary to PM Brajesh Misra called me for a meeting and gave me a detailed briefing of what the media interaction should not deal with and instructed me to ensure that both the sides confine themselves to the technical details   of the latest blast, and should not stray into any nuclear weapon policy issues or ongoing diplomatic stand -off with the US. Another No-No was   the nuclear arms race in the sub-continent. Paksitan had not yet conducted its own nuclear test   in response to the Indian success. He also asked me to ensure that the nuclear establishment   had   plenty of opportunity to speak.

There was some apprehension that   Dr.Kalam, who was associated with the development of missiles (weapon delivery systems), might be trapped by media into answering questions about   nuclear weaponisation and their delivery vehicles. Post-Pokharan, India had already declared a moratorium on further testing of nuclear devices and had declared ‘No-first use’ of nuclear   weapon. The bomb was meant as a deterrent and primarily for defence purposes. A tricky issue thrown up into media space by both the defence minister George Fernandez and Pramod Mahajan, soon   after the blast, was that the Indian nuclear bomb was aimed at China and this had created considerable embarrassment to the government.

I was told to skip such questions. On instructions from Misra, I met both Dr.Chidambaram and Dr.Kalam and without disclosing the instructions I had received, I discussed the broad framework of the press conference and requested them to allow me to intervene whenever there were any political questions.

Pak Bomb News amidst Press Conference: There must have been more than 400 media persons   from India and broad, with dozens of TV teams present at the press conference,   and almost everyone wanted to shoot questions from the word go. I had the privilege of sitting between the two teams of eminent scientists of DRDO and the nuclear establishment   and broadly set the rules for the media persons, emphasising that the eminent scientists were available to answer questions solely about the technical aspects of the blast.

The press conference was proceeding smoothly and had reached the half-way mark. I had managed to ensure that the questions were    equally thrown at both the teams. As could be expected, the media was not so much interested in the technical details but was pressing hard to get answers for political aspects, like   how India was likely to cope with the US sanctions,   future of the nuclear programme   such as weaponisation  and  the  development of  delivery vehicles,  China vs India, India vs Pak-arising out of India becoming a nuclear armed power. I had to delicately move the deliberations away   from   what then seemed to be strategic and diplomatic mine-fields.

Even as we were busy in responding to the volley of questions amidst the  din, my able assistant Ravichandran,  rushed into the press conference hall and pressed a chit into my hand and whispered that the principal secretary to PM was calling me on the secret phone  (RAX)  in my room and  was insistent  that I speak to him urgently. I was in great dilemma because I did not want to leave the room, lest   some unwelcome question on tricky diplomatic issues crop up: nor could I not attend an urgent phone call from the brain behind the nuclear test.

I managed to excuse myself and went to the phone. Brajesh Misra, at the other end spoke in a hushed voice : “Narendra,  Pakisitan has exploded the bomb.  Please tell this to Dr.Kalam and Chidambaram. Later let me know how the press conference went “. I returned to the press conference, apologised to the media for leaving the room   but did not tell the eminent scientists about the call I had just received. I did not want the focus of our press conference to be diverted.

Meanwhile, the senior  foreign service officer,  Hardeep Puri (who retired as India’s permanent representative to the UN in 2013) entered the  conference room and passed  on  a message  about the explosion conducted by Paksitan and expected me to announce it. When I did not show any reaction, he prompted a media person to ask : “Have you any news  about  Pakistan conducting a test’?

I intervened: “This press conference is about the Indian nuclear explosion. If Paksitan has exploded one, they will announce it”. And the press conference   continued.

OMG point and RAW info: Again, my assistant, Ravichandran appeared in the conference hall and whispered into my ears: “Sir, the principal secretary is on the line. Insists that you speak to him and he is not disconnecting the line.” Displaying a fake   smile to the media, I excused   myself and went to the phone. Misraji:  “Narendra, have you told Dr.Kalam  and Chidambaram about the Pakistani  bomb” With some timidity, I told him: “No, Sir. Why should we announce the Pak bomb in our press   conference’?”

Narendra - The author

Thank God, I was misled by RAW (Research and Analysis department that specialises in external intelligence). Good you did not announce, it would have been highly embarrassing. Come and have a cup of tea later in the evening ‘.

I later learnt from Misra that someone in RAW had misread earthquake tremors in Pak region and reported it as a nuclear blast. Don’t blame RAW, because   instrument s like seismograph do   not make any distinction between different kinds of tremors. Around that time, Pak was expected to respond in haste to India’s explosion.

Actually, Pak nuclear test took place on May 28^th, several days after our press conference!

(This is the 4th in a series of exclusives to PRapport by S Narendra, former spokesperson of the Govt of India and ex-adviser to Prime Ministers)