Govt losing 'communication battle': Khurshid

The government is "losing the communication battle" because its skills do not match up to the proliferation of media where many people are "screaming and shouting that something has gone wrong" without explaining the basis, Law minister Salman Khurshid said here today.

"The media has transformed itself faster....social media, electronic media, print media there has been a proliferation of media. And the communication skills that we need for modern media, we don't have, unfortunately. Therefore we are losing the communication battle," Khurshid said.

He was speaking at the Global summit organised by the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Khurshid's remarks come at a time when the government is under fire from the opposition on the issue CAG reports on
coal blocks allocation.

"Much of our work we are doing now is trying to improve our communication skills. Communication skills come naturally to some people and some people have to be taught it," he said. "You cannot explain something in simple terms unless you know that thing yourself. What a lot of people are doing is that they are just screaming and shouting that something has gone wrong. Nobody is telling that what has gone wrong," he added.

Khurshid said many people were making allegations over coal allocations but they had failed to appreciate that if a higher amount is charged for the coal, the prices of several products would also rise.

"What has gone wrong is that coal has been given to someone without charging anything for it. We will charge that person a much higher amount. Are you willing, therefore, to pay much more for the steel you use for your home or the electricity that you consume or for that matter for the cement
that you use your home?" Khurshid said.

"What you require in India is communication skills, people who are good storytellers," he added. The law minister said he was not sure that most people think there is something wrong. "Moods change...public moods shift from time to time...they may shift again. That's why they say a week's time is a long time in politics," he said. He also said the country was losing a lot of time due to not functioning of the Parliament.