Of red envelopes and a larger malaise in PR

When I wrote in the last issue that I had seen journalists receiving envelopes with cash at a Mudra Ignite press conference, Pratap Bose called to say that no such incident took place; he had made enquiries and was absolutely certain of that.It was difficult for me to deal with this as I had seen a journalist looking questioningly at an envelope that was offered to him, open it and then return it with distaste. However, Pratap, whom I first met more than 25 years ago, wouldn’t say it didn’t happen unless he believed it didn’t happen.