Show and tell

The old, familiar faces of political party spokespeople on TV, sometimes on multiple channels in one evening, has become something of a joke but Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi has decided to do something about it. To this end, the Congress has started a series of workshops both to train new spokespeople and to hunt for fresh talent. In a recent five-day workshop, aimed exclusively at training potential candidates to appear on TV debates, select Congressmen were put through their paces in a mock studio, with each taking turns at being an aggressive anchor, an attacking Opposition representative, an articulate Congress spokesperson capable of fending off such attacks and a policy or subject expert.