All’s fair

Tourism is a coveted sector, no doubt about it. And the Surajkund crafts mela in Haryana is evidence of this. There were two groups enthusiastically promoting it. First it was state Tourism Minister Kiran Chowdhary who held a press conference on January 30, two days before the mela began, surprising the Centre which was to hold the customary briefing the following day. And when Union Tourism Secretary Sheelbhadra Banerjee arrived for the scheduled press interaction on January 31, Chowdhary was there too, inaugurating some of the stalls—and ruffling some feathers in the process. In the midst of this drama, Tourism Minister Ambika Soni was conspicuously missing from action.