Sunday, May 26th 04:17 AM IST
 

BJP has won the perception war against Congress

Akshaya Mishra

If the battle was about winning the perception war in the coalgate debate, the BJP appears to have scored a victory over the Congress. The party managed to stall Parliament for two weeks and hogged the media space aggressively to draw national attention to the issue. It dug up murky details on a daily basis to embarrass the government. The Congress launched a belated fightback but media clearly is not its favourite turf. Despite fielding its best men to counter the charges, it came up with a lackluster performance. It failed to put across its arguments in a coherent fashion. So the round one – one expects many rounds are still left -- goes to the BJP.read less read more

Arun George

A Parliament session being washed out by slogan shouting is never a pretty sight and does not mean the BJP has done anything beyond perhaps deafen a few MPs. When it wastes crores of the taxpayers money, the BJP seems to have little conscience beyond claiming they will recover it in auctions. Unfortunately, whether they would like to accept it or not they are a political party and are meant to do their debating as much in Parliament, as in television news studios and press conferences. The BJP has managed to raise a ruckus but has a long way to go before it wins the war of perception.read less read more