Friends,
Do you want to know what change the presence of @narendramodi in New Delhi has made in media circle in last 4400 days?
My young journalist friend who covers @INCIndia.
She admires @priyankagandhi.
When one meets her it’s visible she believes in ethos of Congress while reporting it.
She comes from humble background, has faced terrible hardships to settle down in Delhi.
It took 20 plus years to carve a career as a reporter as she knows only Hindi.
She had once shared how difficult it was to cover Congress during the UPA regime without knowing English as most senior ministers spoke only English.
Last week, we were discussing ‘the Modi Raj’ and PM overtaking Nehru’s tenure.
During our conversation on the strengths and weaknesses of the Modi government she said something profound.
‘ Ab Delhi main Hindi bolne se jijhak nahi hoti! Bahut bada farq hai.’
(Now, there is no hesitation in speaking Hindi in Delhi. It’s a big change.)
In 2012 it was considered meek to ask a question in Hindi in @MEABharat press conferences.
Now, @DrSJaishankar to @MEAIndia responds in fluent Hindi if asked question in Hindi.
Since last many years, the reporters and editors of English media have been enjoying correcting desi pronunciations of Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Bengali or Kannada speaking journalists in full public view.
But, their fun has gone, now.
I think, by plan @narendramodi and @AmitShah speak in Hindi.
Recently, at @BJP4India event, when journalists asked questions in English Shah responded in Hindi.
For millions of non-English speaking Indians this is a fantastic thing to happen.
First time since days of Nehru someone who has total grip on levers of power and has been governing India for more than a decade is not an English speaking Indian.
Those of us who have only working knowledge of English loving this change.
Just watched the finale of @TheBoysTV . It ended on expected terms but seemed it didnt get the grandeur closing this series deserved. Could've been done far better. Also why tf did they have to kill Frenchie? It didn't make any impact to the story at all.
🚨 Hyderabad's Central Jail has launched 'Feel the Jail', a paid initiative where citizens can experience prison life for 12 or 24 hours.
Priced at ₹1,000 and ₹2,000 respectively, the programme includes recreated prison barracks, prison-style meals and regulated routines.