Like swearing-in, Narendra Modi government’s first anniversary to be big affair

NEW DELHI: The NDA government appears determined to make a splash on its first anniversary, for which it has even coined a phrase ‘360 degree’ media campaign, and there’s talk that PM Narendra Modi may hold a press conference on the occasion.

Top bureaucrats held a high-level meeting on Thursday to chalk out the media splash for the anniversary.

Secretaries of nearly 20 ministries and departments, including principal secretary to PM Nripendra Mishra and additional principal secretary P K Mishra, attended the meeting where information & broadcasting secretary Bimal Julka and Press Information Bureau director general Frank Noronha unveiled the media plan for the event.

“As per the plan, senior ministers of the government will hold press conferences in different state capitals to talk about the government’s various initiatives, as well as appear on all social and other media platforms like Twitter, Google Hangout and participate in talkathons, etc.,” said a top source in the government present at the meeting.

Julka informed secretaries that letters seeking information on the government’s achievements and targets had been sent to all ministries for a

booklet to be released on the occasion. Julka reportedly described the 24-hour news cycle as a “monster which needed to be fed” and that plain vanilla news could not be expected to satisfy the needs of the coverage.

As for the PM holding a conference, an earlier date of May 23 had been decided at a meeting nearly 10 days ago where Arun Jaitley had been present.