Recently, Modi visited Times office on the Ashram Road in Ahmedabad. The occasion was the first anniversary of the Gujarati Edition of the Economic Times. And Modi had to play the guest editor of Gujarati ET.
Despite his not so good relations with the Times of India journalists , Modi is the most sought after celebrity in the ET Gujarati. In fact, the Gujarati edition was launched by Modi.At that time he had quipped that how strange was the diametrically opposite behaviour of two boys of one group. Probably, it is the business acumen of the business paper ( paper of mahajans in plain Gujarati) to have good relations with the government(Shaashan) !
Modi was to be the guest of the ET only in the building which also has other publications, TOI and newly launched midloid Ahmedabad Mirror. The engagement diary at the Chief Minister's Office had 20-30 minutes for the function. But, Modi visited the office of the TOI also. He stayed in the premises for more than two hours.
Staff here is still reverberating with the visit of Modi. Senior journalist Himanshu Darji is happy that he successfully took the dictation of Modi's edit. A day after even TOI reported how its women staff was all for Modi.There was literal scramble for handshakes and photographs with Modi. The Chief Minister made sure that cameraman included all in the photographs by his remark that see that none is left out otherwise I (Modi) wii have to bear the brunt.
It was certainly a matter of great joy for Modi and his brand builders who are meticulously crafting his macho image ( desi bhaashaa me marad chaap).
What was surprising to all including Modi that Times had another set of photographs of Modi day after the report of his visit. What was the most striking was the photograph of Resident Editor Bharat Desai along with Modi, in quite a pleasant mood. Insiders say, that this made Bharat's phone ringing from the morning. People wanted to know if there was patch up between Bharat and Modi!
It so happened that Bharat was on leave previous day. He had asked his staff to have some photographs of cheerful Modi since earlier photographs had shown Modi in quite a serious mood of editor. Boss not being in the office, the staff had its way and there was Modi and Bharat in cheerful mood.
A senior journalist of TOI quipped that Bharat should have a heavy dose of anti Modi stories to clear the picture.
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