FLIP SIDE - Speech skills

Yogesh Mishra

There are few ministers in the Chief Minister Raman Singh’s Cabinet who have been advised by their fellow ministers as well as by the Opposition Congress to hone their speech skills. One such minister, who is rather a novice in the Cabinet, when addressing a group of investors arrived recently in the capital from different parts of the country, quickly comprehended that he would have to adopt an eclectic approach while interacting with non-political brains. He must be thinking that extolling his government’s works in state Assembly was a job more comfortable than to convince the investors that the money they spend in the state would give them high returns. Another minister, who hails from Bilaspur district, always speaks through the craftily knitted words served by the officials of his department. The Opposition Congress sporadically cracks a joke on him for groping for words when he has to answer any query pertaining to his portfolio. However, he has gained little confidence now after giving a long written reply to the flurry of the questions shot by former chief minister Ajit Jogi on irregularities in his department. Why does the state BJP unit not invite the party’s firebrand figures and speech-maestros like Narendra Modi, Shatrughan Sinha or even the entertainer Navjot Singh Siddhu to train its ministers and legislators, and of course, the workers to enrich their political vocabulary ?