Fear factor

When the aftershocks of the April earthquake were felt again last week, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav was attending a function in Lucknow organised to felicitate Uttar Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation drivers who had ferried victims back to India. As fresh tremors shook the hall, journalists trooped out, followed by Yadav. When the function resumed, Yadav thanked the media for alerting him about the tremors, and quipped that if he had tried to leave the venue ahead of the journalists, the following headline would be splashed all over media the next day: "CM runs away in fear".