Loud is not lovely

Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister of State (with independent charge) for Petroleum and Natural Gas in the Narendra Modi-led government, was the chief guest at the Vivekananda Urja Utsav held at the India International Centre on Monday in Delhi. While calling him on stage, moderator Vijay Prakash Saha, founder and mentor, South Asia Forum for Energy Efficiency, offered a long-winded and gushing introduction of the minister for the benefit of the audience. In his reply, Pradhan appeared to be critical of verbosity. Pradhan said that the editor-in-chief and anchor of a popular news channel seemed to be inspiring a lot of people these days. "They have started believing that unless they shout at the other person, they will not be able to register their point."