Out of favour

Fluctuations in oil prices may raise questions about a public sector oil company's profitability and its under-recoveries from the government for selling petroleum products at a subsidy. But what's the hardest question Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) Chairman and Managing Director R S Butola had to face at a press conference to announce the company's results? It came from an angry journalist from a regional language newspaper about the complimentary leather bags that were piled up at the entrance to the venue for journalists to pick up if they wanted to. He was aggrieved that IOC's staff personally gave the bags to some journalists and not to others. "Why were only selected journalists given big gifts and small newspapers discriminated against? Is this suitable behaviour for a public sector undertaking? Even the Directorate of Advertising & Visual Publicity recommends a 20 per cent discount on advertising to small newspapers. Then why this?" he demanded. A politically correct Butola promised to check with his corporate communications department, but the incident could not have done much to raise the already low perception of the media.