PM’s image-building exercise, a failure

From the moment “1760000000000” entered our collective consciousness, the prime minister, previously described by foreigners as mild-mannered and academic, was disgraced.

He is now seen by Indians as culpable through silent acquiescence, if not worse, in the loot of national property.

During his seven years, the government was often seen as adrift; now, such a description seems positive. The negativity is sucking everything down. This, in the absence of any policy pronouncement, is probably the reason for Dr Manmohan Singh’s meeting with TV editors on Wednesday.

Did it work? We don’t think so. On one hand, Dr Singh said his was not a scam-driven government, but, on the other, he said the corrupt would be punished. On one hand, he said the telecom and finance ministries were both on board when A Raja was given the go-ahead to auction 2G spectrum; and on the other, he admitted there was governance deficit. On one hand, he said his hands were tied due to the compulsions of coalition politics; and on the other, he asserted that he was no lame duck prime minister.
The prime minister’s is a political office; his main job is political management of his cabinet. Yet, the only time

Dr Singh looked comfortable during Wednesday’s interaction was when he spoke about inflation or Egypt. Despite his apolitical image, he appears to be the beneficiary of Rahul Gandhi’s reluctance to take up the reins of the government.

Dr Singh showed us on Wednesday that he will cling to power. That makes him no better than run-of-the-mill politicians. So, as an exercise in image-building, his press conference was a depressing failure.