New Delhi, December 13: The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation, (IRCTC), one of the leading public sector units, sent out nearly two crore emails over the past five days to highlight the Narendra Modi government's initiatives for the Sikh community. The timing of the mails, coinciding with the farmers' agitation led by the agrarian bodies of Punjab, raised questions whether the IRCTC was attempting a political outreach.

Taking cognisance of the reports claiming that the messages were aimed only for the Sikh community, the IRCTC issued a denial. An official statement claimed that the mail was sent to the entire database of registered website users. Arvind Kejriwal to Fast Tomorrow in Solidarity With Protesting Farmers, Demands Repeal of Farm Laws.

"The mails have been sent to all, irrespective of any particular community. This is not the first instance. Earlier also such activities have been undertaken by IRCTC to promote government welfare schemes in public interest," the IRCTC statement read.

The mail entailed a 47-page online booklet, and was available in three languages - English, Hindi and Punjabi. The booklet was released on December 1 by Union Ministers Prakash Javadekar and Hardeep Singh Puri. The IRCTC began mailing it to its database of users from December 8, and continued till December 12.

The booklet speaks of the justice given to the 1984 riot victims, FCRA registration granted to Sri Harmandir Sahib, Jallianwala Bagh Memorial, no taxes on langar and the facilitation of Kartarpur corridor among other initiatives.

An official of the IRCTC, while speaking to news agency PTI, defended the decision to highlight the government's relation with Sikh community through the latest communication exercise.

"Which professional company or corporate doesn't analyse the demographic profile of the audience where the communication is to be delivered to? Why are some surprised if a government organisation is able to do as much or even better than what the corporates do day in and day out? One should be happy that the government of the day is as good in disseminating information in public interest," the official was reported as saying.

(With PTI inputs)

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Dec 13, 2020 10:06 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).