[Reader-list] Spin doctors?

[Shivam]

Nothing's wrong with 'Youth for Equality' having hired Genesis (
http://indiapr.blogspot.com/2006/05/pr-and-medical-students-strike.html
) or whatever PR agency they hired. In the interest of transperancy,
they indeed may want to clarify this, and also where they got the
money from. But what is wrong here is that the PR company allegedly
sent fake SMS-es (
http://www.ibnlive.com/news/got-an-antiquota-sms-its-a-hoax/11079-3.html
) that 96 students had collapsed in the hunger strike at AIIMS and
another message that one had died, and that the media was not being
allowed to cover such news (
http://www.ibnlive.com/news/sms-claims-media-gag-on-quota-stir/10851-3.html
). Now that's wrong.

There are of course those (
http://www.theotherindia.org/media/mamma-will-give-you-a-kit-kat.html
) who don't have the funds to hire PR agencies to get their message
across. That does not mean they should not be heard.

Best,
Shivam



Cause & EFFECT

There are suggestions that a PR firm has a role in the reservation
drama The issue has left ugly scars as students from reserved category
say they are looked down upon by others

By Anupam Thapa


It can't get any queerer. The latest on the reservation hullabaloo is
that a Gurgaon-based public relations company has been hired to spruce
up the cause of the striking doctors. This, apparently, happened just
a couple of days ago, before the government announced the
implementation of reservation for the Other Backward Classes (OBCs)
from 2007.

While it sure sounds stunning, the details of who is funding the PR
operation are still unknown. It's a tight-lipped affair handled by
that division of the company, which interacts with the government.
Vested interest While the doctors' tussle with the government gets
dramatic by the day — with Rang De Basanti flavour, and support coming
in from across the country, one wonders if some vested group is adding
fuel to the fire in the minds of the agitating doctors and using them
for its own benefit? Is the work of the PR firm to lobby and gain
support for the cause in the government and get some policy changes
done, to help its clients?


Ugly scars

Meanwhile, the reservation issue has left ugly scars in the campus as
well as in the hospitals. According to a PG student of Lady Hardinge
Medical College, "Everybody looks down upon you if you are a reserved
category student. We have problems in vivas, thesis, everywhere. There
is competition even within the reserved category. With the kind of
marks I scored in my PG entrance, I could have easily got admission to
a PG course even if I was competing as a general category doctor." He
adds that after entry into the medical college, reservation doesn't
help much "as a student has to pass all the exams to become a doctor
and passing marks are same for all. So, you cannot question the merit
of a doctor from a reserved category" We've all been keenly following
the reservation drama. Is it really stage managed?