In a recent far-from-usual meeting with the press held in New Delhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh complained that 'at least 25 percent of Bangladeshis swear by Jamaat-e-Islami' – Bangladesh's largest Islamist political party – 'are very anti-Indian, and [are] in the clutches, many times, of the ISI.' Now Chhetria Patrakar grants that Prime Minister Singh is a mere human, entitled to his opinions and free to voice them off the record – as in this case, reportedly. But if he is serious about rectifying the perception in the media that he is more than just a 'lame duck' leader, he had better make some heads roll in the Prime Minister's Office and the Press Information Bureau. After all, we all know that politics isn't about the tiny slips of passion, insight, truth or blatant opinionising, but about how well the spin doctors do their job. In this case, the public was unaware of these statements until the transcript of the meeting was posted on official websites for 30 hours without any omission of 'off-the-record' remarks.
Still, politics, bilateral relations and sober thinking be damned, right? Although unintentional, CP lauds this unobstructed flow of information, highlighted by the official made-a-mistake-by-mistake response: 'We put it out by mistake.' The prime minister's Bangla-slip is no longer online. Thank goodness the official response from Bangladesh so far has been limited to one minister dismissing the statements as 'irrelevant', with Prime Minister Singh's planned visit to Bangladesh in early September remaining on track. As for the response from the prime minister: it has been, well … silence. The press corps must maybe wait another several years for a similar chance to grill Manmohan Singh.
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Speaking of official embarrassment, the Chinese government has another public-relations fiasco to adorn its already befeathered hat. In late June, the official website of Huili county, in the southwest, carried a picture of three local officials inspecting a newly constructed road. The problem: the men appeared busy posing while floating several inches above the paved street. The public gaped, but put the phenomenon down to the wonder that is the official process in China. As it turns out, the provenance was far less divine: a photographer dissatisfied with his original photos decided to do some quick editing, slapping images of the officials against a prettier background. Upon notification of the hilarity that ensued, the country's PR department in Beijing apologised and withdrew the picture. Bloggers have since taken up the gauntlet and, perhaps while applying for a position as Official Kiss-Ass Photo Editor, placed the three officials in a range of different scenarios: on the moon behind an astronaut, with dinosaurs in the middle of a lake, on a battlefield examining prostrate soldiers, among others. CP's favourite is one with US President Barack Obama laughingly sizing up one of the officials placed on a weighing machine while the others look on.