Dinner sans diplomacy

Last week, Principal Director General of Press Information Bureau Neelam Kapur invited a select group of journalists for dinner at India Habitat Centre's Jacaranda. But soon, Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar's office texted journalists who routinely cover his twin ministries as well as members of his party for a dinner at the India Habitat Centre's Silver Oak. It was sheer chance, claim sources in the know, that the two dinners were to take place on the same day, at the same location and within metres of each other. Eventually, the two events were combined. The dinner, for which the list of invited journalists kept lengthening, turned out to be a tepid affair. Javadekar refused all requests for interviews or let slip little of consequence while Kapur was unusually reticent.