The post of media advisor to the Prime Minister is much coveted by journalists, past and present, as the very apogee of their careers. A number of worthies have held the title: H.Y. Sharada Prasad, H.K. Dua, Prem Shankar Jha, Harish Khare, Pankaj Pachauri. And there are at least a dozen journalists hoping to be…
Tag Archives: Harish Khare
Is ‘Modi Media’ biased against Rahul Gandhi?
In a cash-strapped election season which has seen “corporate interest and media ownership” converge, it is arguable if Narendra Modi is getting a free run. Every whisper of the Gujarat chief minister and BJP “prime ministerial aspirant” is turned into a mighty roar, sans scrutiny, as the idiot box ends up being a soapbox of…
Nehru fellowships for T.N. Ninan, Harish Khare
Two top journalists, T.N. Ninan of Business Standard, and Harish Khare, formerly of The Hindu and The Times of India, have been awarded the Jawaharlal Nehru fellowships this year.
Who wrote the Prime Minister’s TV address?
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh‘s televised address to the nation on 21 September, the day the Trinamul Congress withdrew support to his Congress-led UPA government over the hike in diesel prices and FDI in retail, has set tongues wagging about its authorship. In her column in the Indian Express, Coomi Kapoor suggests that the media advisor…
PM’s ex-media advisor robbed again and again
The postman always rings twice? Harish Khare, the former Hindu chief of bureau in Delhi who became prime minister Manmohan Singh‘s media advisor, has been robbed. Again. Image: courtesy The Times of India Also read: How well is Harish Khare advising the prime minister? Because when dog bites dog, it’s news—I Because when dog bites…
Is the PM’s media advisor Missing in Action?
Former NDTV Hindi anchor Pankaj Pachauri took over from Harish Khare as prime minister Manmohan Singh‘s media Man Friday barely six months ago. It was seen as a scam- and scandal-tainted UPA’s desperate attempt to reshape the prime minister’s image in the eyes of the media and its consumers. Now, as the economy goes into…
At 7, Race Course Road, this is Pankaj Pachauri
In what is perhaps the first acknowledgement of the fact that the UPA government could do with slightly better media schmoozing, Pankaj Pachauri, the host of NDTV Profit’s magazine show, Money Mantra, has been roped in as communications advisor at the prime minister’s office. Pachauri, 48, has previously worked at The Sunday Observer, India Today…
Roasted almonds, biscuits & tea for gang of five
The prime minister of India, Manmohan Singh, with the five newspaper editors he met for an interaction in New Delhi yesterday. Seated from left, clockwise, are the national security advisor Shiv Shankar Menon, Divya Marathi editor Kumar Ketkar, Nayi Duniya editor Alok Mehta, the PM’s media advisor Harish Khare, The Tribune editor Raj Chengappa, PTI…
Is the prime minister right about Indian media?
Like a bad host, who abuses his guests after calling them home, the prime minister of India launched into the media today after calling a bunch of five editors for a much-delayed interaction. It took Manmohan Singh just 25 words in his 1,884-word opening remarks to stick it into the editors. “An atmosphere has been…
Express, NDTV, Tehelka, HT & the Bhushans
PRITAM SENGUPTA writes from New Delhi: Three weeks ago, Tehelka magazine ran a profile on the father and son lawyer-pair, Shanti Bhushan and Prashant Bhushan, who are on the Lokpal drafting committee. Authored by Rohini Mohan, the piece inter alia repeated the canard that had been artfully spread about the Bhushans: that they had been…
What the media toilet at PMO says about India
The state of Indian newspapers and news channels (and magazines*) can be judged by the condition of their toilets. And so, it seems, can the state of the most important address in the country—that of the prime minister of the democratic, socialist, secular republic of India. A correspondent for an English news channel forwards a picture of…
The minister, the prime minister & the advisor
*** Was the information and broadcasting minister Ambika Soni invited to the prime minister’s inquisition on television? Or not? Depends on which paper you read. If you read The Indian Express (top) on Monday, for instance, she was informed by the PMO about the interaction but then told about the space crunch and asked to…
How well is the PM’s media advisor advising him?
Of all the reasons being trotted out for prime minister Manmohan Singh‘s declining equity, his media management skills rank somewhere near the very top. Despite a full-fledged media advisor in his entourage, the bush telegraph is that Manmohan has been poorly served by Harish Khare, the former deputy editor of The Hindu. Although Manmohan Singh…
Radia effect on PM’s invitees for TV pow-wow?
Prime minister Manmohan Singh‘s much ballyhooed pow-wow with “editors” of television channels to clear the air over the scams dogging his government, was, as was to be expected, a typically tepid, bureaucratic affair. Only the national English TV channels—Headlines Today (represented by Aroon Purie), CNN-IBN (Rajdeep Sardesai), NDTV 24×7 (Prannoy Roy), Times Now (Arnab Goswami)—were…
Never believe anything till it’s officially denied
Can anything be off-the-record when the prime minister of the largest democracy in the solar system has a rare celestial confluence with the stars and satellites of the media galaxy? More importantly, should anything be off the record? And merely because a media minder says so, should it remain off the record, howsoever important the…
How (free) India treats Foreign Correspondents
PRITAM SENGUPTA writes from New Delhi: Indian politicians and patriots have long held the belief that the “western” media only relays bad news from Bharat. That, despite all the towering progress made by the emerging superpower, foreign correspondents based out of India only tell their news consumers about death, disease, despair and disillusionment in our…
Because, when dog bites dog, it’s news—II
For the second time in three months, Shekhar Gupta‘s Indian Express sticks it into the prime minister’s media advisor, Harish Khare, former chief of bureau of The Hindu: Also read: Because, when dog bites dog it is news
Why Manmohan should talk to the media more
B.V. RAO writes from New Delhi: Today, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will address a press conference in New Delhi to unveil the report card of his government’s performance in its first year. The press conference is going to be unlike any other before it. It will not be limited to Delhi journalists. Reporters from Mumbai,…
And who’s afraid of the face-to-face powwow?
Manmohan Singh, prime minister of the world’s largest democracy, completes six years in office on May 22 without once being subjected to hard-nosed questioning by an Indian journalist—print, television, radio or internet—in a face-to-face, one-on-one, on-the-record interview. He will, however, seek the safety of the crowd once again when he addresses the media at a…
Because, when dog bites dog, it’s news
Shekhar Gupta‘s Indian Express sticks it into Harish Khare, the former chief of bureau of The Hindu in Delhi, now the prime minister’s media advisor. Image: courtesy The Indian Express Also read: Because, when dog bites man it’s not news
IJR 