india

Updated: Dec 28, 2014 19:11 IST

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, known to be a hands-on administrator, has started keeping a closer tab on “negative” media reports about his government and the BJP in order to get a well-rounded feedback of the NDA’s performance across the country.

A special report of 5 to 7 “top negative” articles, printed in national and local papers, is being sent to the brass of the Prime Minister’s Office daily by the Press Information Bureau (PIB), the government’s media interface.

Sources said the ‘negative report’, which PIB started making in October, is in stark contrast to a long list of only positive stories regularly delivered by the PIB to the Manmohan Singh government.

“After Modi came, our brief changed completely. The PM insisted on feedback on both negative and positive stories,” said an official. Apart from the special report, the PIB prepares a report titled “Modi personal” that compiles political or other stories written about the PM.

There’s another report on print media’s coverage of Modi’s engagements. A third report is about national political developments and the last two reports are on editorials and op-ed pages and reports on NDA allies and opposition parties.

Modi is already quite tech-savvy getting his morning dose of news on the net and social media, but the PIB reports source material from its regional and branch offices too.

Newspaper reports on “ministers speaking in different voices over HRD circular on December 25”, PM’s recent meeting with Sangh Parivar bigwigs and Sadhvi Niranjan jyoti’s “ramzaade, haramzaade” remark are all marked to Modi. In one report, an article from a regional press was highlighted about how a cricket ground was damaged due to preparations for Modi’s rally.

The reports are also marked to Modi’s principal secretary Nripendra Mishra, additional principal secretary PK Mishra, national security advisor Ajit Doval, Modi’s private secretary Sanjiv Kumar Singla and his media advisor Jagdish Khattar.