Delhi Confidential: Amit Shah’s peacock tale reveals PM Narendra Modi’s ‘sensitive’ side 

Home Minister Amit Shah, who has known Prime Minister Narendra Modi for decades, on Wednesday revealed many facets of his personality during an event to launch a book on the PM’s political journey. While talking about how sensitive the Prime Minister was, Shah narrated an incident of a peacock disturbing a serious meeting at the PM’s office. Shah said he was then the BJP president. During the meeting, a peacock came and started hitting the window panes with its beak. After watching this for two or three minutes, the PM rang the bell and told his staff to feed the peacock as it was hungry. “To think about a peacock while engaged in such a serious meeting shows how sensitive he is,” Shah said. In 2020, PM Modi was seen in a video, which went viral, feeding a peacock at his residence.

Prompt action: Most Union ministers are active on social media. But Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia is among the ones who take swift action if alerted on it. A few days ago, Scindia got a message on his Twitter handle from a passenger who complained about a window of a SpiceJet aircraft. Although it was not a serious safety issue, the minister ordered stalling of the flight to get it repaired. It was allowed to fly only after 12 hours. Scindia also directed the officials to do an audit on the SpiceJet aircraft to see that every aircraft was in good condition. According to people close to the minister, Scindia keeps reminding the officials and the airlines that customer is king and their complaints have to be taken seriously.

Power of speech: The government has never admitted openly that demonetisation was a mistake and failed to achieve its stated goal. However, Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu on Wednesday made an oblique reference to this while praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his communication skills. “Because of his communication skills, in spite of demonetisation, he was able to win the elections. Because he could communicate with the people and people trusted him. This sort of confidence he has built in the people because of his power of communication,” Naidu said at an event to launch a book on 20 years of Narendra Modi in power in Gujarat and at the Centre.