The Week That Was: It was a week when Manmohan Singh finally spoke and the CBI at last woke up
On Wednesday, Feb 16, two days after Valentine's day, Manmohan Singh romanced the media. This time he took a different route. Instead of inviting the entire media to the sprawling Vigyan Bhavan, he invited just the editors of the electronic media to his house for tea, biscuits and served a few teaspoon full of anti-scam `medicine' (read excuses) . Signs of changing media preference. Poor print media!!
In the televised interaction with the editors, Singh proved that he has learnt a lot from his guru - the late P V Narasimha Rao. For those who have not known Rao, he was a master of silence. He allowed things to drift, maintained a stony silence and spoke a line or two only after all the dust had settled. But the difference then - there were no noisy and nosy TV anchors to grill the PM on shouting debate-packed news hours who, if given a choice, could be booked by Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh for noise pollution.
That he had to place adharma before dharma due to coalition compulsions. He could not take action against A Raja, former telecom minster, precisely for this reason - fearing that the DMK will withdraw support and plunge the nation into a crisis or early election. He made it obvious that he was helpless. He said coalition dharma means some `compromises' had to be made. A Prime Minister who cannot take action that he is constitutionally bound to take is as bad as one who takes a wrong decision.
Singh also said he was `dead serious' in fighting corruption. Really? The why did he not take action against Raja when the facts were out in the open? Why is the government not serious in revealing the names of those who have stuffed black money in Swiss bank vaults? What about the Commonwealth scam? No action has been taken against Kalmadi. What about Sonia Gandhi's call for setting up fast track courts to try corruption cases?
How will PM defend the way Antrix Corporation, the commercial wing of ISRO, entered into a secret deal with Devas Multimedia? Now that the contract has been annulled, what message is the government sending out to the private sector? That legally binding contracts can be scrapped one fine day?
