Upset over the negative publicity that her government has been receiving lately, UP chief minister Mayawati has now decided to make a conscious effort to refurbish the image of her government.
The chief minister, according to sources, has directed her officials to go out of their work to establish a rapport with the local media and then use the relations to get the government’s version on various issues published prominently.
“For more than three years, some of our officers have been arm-twisting the media, misbehaving with journalists and cutting down the favours. This has led to a breakdown of communication between the media and the government which has worked to our disadvantage. The result is that here is virtually no communication with the fourth estate and our version on crucial issues gets tagged at the end of the stories, diluting its impact. The chief minister is now going to increase her interaction with the media and will be closely monitoring the behaviour of senior officials with media persons,” said a senior BSP minister.
It is noteworthy that in this Mayawati regime, the relations between the media and the government have touched rock bottom. Senior journalists are not invited to attend the chief minister’s press conference and even those that are invited, often, prefer to stay away owing to harassment during security checks.
Officials are unwilling to communicate with the media and their interaction is restricted to press statements.
The state information department that is supposed to improve public relations has kept itself busy doling out advertisements to selected publications and meddling with media politics. Officials of this department have no communication with senior journalists, particularly those in the national print media. Their interaction is restricted to representatives of TV channels since the chief minister is known to personally monitor the stories on TV channels.
“All this will not happen now. The chief minister has directed the state information department to get ‘success stories’ of the state government published in leading dailies. Information officers have been asked to develop a rapport with journalists and go beyond getting just press releases published. The chief minister will be now monitoring the impact of her directives on the print media too,” the minister said.
Of late, the Mayawati government has been facing negative publicity, mainly due to the involvement of its ministers and legislators in criminal activities. The Banda rape case and the involvement of two BSP leaders in shielding the rape accused in Allahabad and Etawah has tarnished the image of the BSP government. The high-handed behaviour of the police investigating the rape and death of 12-year-old Divya in Kanpur has added to the government’s woes.