New Delhi: The office of Prime Minister on Friday offered a defence of Manmohan Singh amid criticism over "policy paralysis" and his ineffective leadership by the opposition as well as insiders.
Two books - by a former aide and a bureaucrat - have given more ammunition to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which is showcasing Narendra Modi as a dynamic alternative to Singh who can undo the misrule of the Congress-led UPA government in the last 10 years.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has made more than 1000 speeches in last 10 years, Pankaj Pachauri, communications adviser to the PM, said on Friday.
Countering the charge that Manmohan Singh has not communicated with the public as much as he should have been, Pankaj Pachauri said, "It's not that the PM has not been talking, but because of the nature of the media, his messages have not reached the general public."
Pankaj Pachauri was speaking to mediapersons in New Delhi. He also said that newspapers tend to cover the Prime Minister more than TV channels.
Pankaj Pachauri also added that in the last five years, there was not much scope for the Prime Minister to speak in Parliament.
When asked that the PM hadn't been seen much in Congress's poll campaign, Pankaj Pachauri replied that Manmohan Singh has addressed four rallies so far in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections. "It is the Congress party which decides about the PM's election rallies," he said.
On the issue of writing a memoir, Pankaj Pachauri said, "I have been offered to write a book."
It may be recalled that two recent books, one by former PM media adviser Sanjaya Baru and other by former coal secretary P C Parakh, have alleged that the PM failed to assert his authority on critical issues and it was Congress party president Sonia Gandhi who wields ultimate authority in the UPA.
BJP PM candidate Narendra Modi has been attacking the PM over a book written by Baru, saying the current Lok Sabha poll was all about a "decisive" Prime Minister. "This election is for a decisive and accountable Prime Minister. A Prime Minister who has a voice in his own government," Modi said at a recent election rally in Erode.
Modi's remark was an obvious dig at Singh in the wake of a book by Sanjaya Baru where he had claimed that the Prime Minister had been "defanged" by Congress in his second term with party president Sonia Gandhi deciding on key appointments to Cabinet and PMO as he seemed to "surrender" to her and UPA partners.
