Food over news

Disinvestment targets and achievements always make news. That was quite apparent at the lunch hosted by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee recently. When a finance ministry official was confronted with a question on which public sector unit could be divested next, he was quick to say, “I could line them all up, if I could...” When journalists started taking notes on that comment, the official demurred that it was all said in light humour. What he left unsaid was, not everything can be headline news. Indeed, at the same lunch, the finance minister was more forthright. He told reporters and editors to focus on hard food rather than hard news.