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| Omar needs to learn from Mufti art of disarming critics with a hug | | | Early Times Report
Jammu, Feb 29: Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah, has said that he is not as good a media manager as has been the PDP patron, Mufti Mohd. Sayeed. It is a statement which is 100 per cent correct. Omar goes on to add that he cannot be a good media manager like the Mufti because he (Omar) does not have the talent for hosting sumptuous lunches and dinners where mediamen are entertained with tasty and dainty dishes. This is incorrect.
By claiming that the Mufti's good PR work is the outcome of his art of throwing lavish luncheons and dinners for the mediamen Omar has not as much berated the PDP patron as much he has tried to soil the image of mediamen. If his brief statement on the floor of the Assembly is properly screened it means that any politician who has the means and the temper for entertaining newsmen with sumptuous dinners can woo the media to his or to her side.
Well Omar should not be faulted if he feels he has not proved a good media manager because it is part of his dynastic legacy. Those who have watched ups and downs in the political activities in Jammu and Kashmir since 1947 do firmly believe that if Sheikh Abdullah remained a darling leader of people of the state he had never been able to keep mediamen by his right side.
Why so? Sheikh Abdullah sed to bank on peoples' support which remained available during 50 years' of political career. He had grown as a political leader, with the idea of enjoying absolute power so long he had the support of people of the state. He had never believed that he can sustain political authority if he has the support from the media. That should have been one of the reasons for his anti-press utterances. He was heard saying that mediamen can be saleable over bottles of whisky.
As far as Omar's father, Dr Farooq Abdullah, is concerned his relations with the mediamen has been the saga of love-hate relations. Sheikh Abdullah, Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah have never learn the art of disarming the enemy in the media with an embrace. Disarming the enemy within the media with a smile or a huge has been the forte of Mufti Mohd. Sayeed.
Those who have watched former Punjab Chief Minister, Pratap Singh Kairon, from close quarters know it well that Kairon used to hug his political enemies and unfriendly mediamen and shake hands with his friends simply to disarm his critics.
When Omar talks about the art of the Mufti throwing dinners for the mediamen he does not know it was not the dainty dishes, served in the dinners, that brought smiles on the faces of mediamen but the attention he (Mufti) paid to each newsmen while finding whether he or she was comfortable or not.
This art of good PR work had been learnt by the Mufti when he was in the Congress, when he was a minister and when he had headed the Congress in Jammu and Kashmir. Compared to this good PR exercise one feels astounded by the absence of this art among the National Conference leaders, except for Ajay Sadhotra, including Omar Abdullah.
And it can happen only during the NC led Government that a widely circulated newspaper in Jammu has been denied Government advertisement during the last two years.
In fact most of the top political leaders including Chief Ministers and their cabinet colleagues lack PR expertise which is made up by the senior functionaries in the Department of Information. One instance. Sheikh Abdullah had learnt good PR work because of the good work the then Director Information, Mohd. Syed Malik had done. If the Mufti did not come into conflict with the mediamen credit needed to be given to K.B. Jandial who had functioned as Director Information. |
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