Living in Mumbai, it’s been difficult to avoid the deluge of 26/11 commemoration. But the most interesting facet of the media coverage is the machinations behind the scenes: the PR approaches of the two major hotels at the centre of the attacks. The Oberoi Trident with its standard issue 80s architecture and diligent-but-impersonal hospitality style has always seemed colder and less endearing than the legendary Taj Mahal. But in the walk-up to the anniversary, The Oberoi has maintained a stoic and dignified silence, which I think is admirable. From the beginning, most of its staff had been instructed not to speak with the media, and though that’s a pain for us, I respect that strategy. But the Taj, fiercely guarded by its public relations representatives at Vaishnavi Communications and their powerful leader Nira Radia, I believe has made a misstep. As any media professional who has ever tried to set up an interview with a Taj employee knows, Vaishnavi handholds the hotel as though the media are filled with pit bulls, but this time I think the PR company did the hotel a disservice. The fact that Mr Karambir Kang was on the front page of the Times of India (November 13 issue), on television and then in several foreign publications, including The Telegraph and Vanity Fair, felt as though the hotel was using a painful story to push the point that it had been resurrected from the ashes of 26/11. While readers may not think twice about story placement, I can tell you that national newspapers rarely place what they call a ‘human interest story’ front and centre of their cover page, unless of course it is of interest to a company as powerful as the Tatas, and engineered with the considerable clout of someone like Radia. Bombay House, the Tata HQ, does not make accidental choices, and neither does its PR agency. And the fact that ToI was the chosen national newspaper could also mean that the Tatas have reached a truce with Bennett Coleman, ToI’s publishers. (For a slice of the history of bumpy media relations between the two companies read this Exchange4media article. At any rate, I think The Oberoi elicited more sympathy from what it didn’t say.

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