The Congress today faced a barrage of questions on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s ‘‘first interview’’ to RSS mouthpiece Panchjanya, coming days after his first ‘‘full-fledged’’ press conference.Congress spokesperson Jayanti Natarajan said ‘‘nothing much’’ should be read into it. ‘‘It was a routine request by the editor of the journal for a meeting and the prime minister granted it. The editor wrote what transpired at the meeting.’’ Pressed further, Natarajan said: ‘‘I have this preliminary information. I will try and get more details and come back to you.’’Congress media cell chairperson Girija Vyas dismissed the controversy as ‘‘unnecessary’’. ‘‘It is normal for a prime minister to meet with people of all shades of opinion. What is bad about the PM granting an appointment to the editor of a weekly irrespective of his ideology and the latter writing an article on the basis of this meeting?’’ she said.The PM’s media advisor, Sanjaya Baru, who is in the eye of the storm for having facilitated the ‘‘interview’’ with Panchjanya editor Tarun Vijay, told The Indian Express that the PM had met with several editors in the past three months. The Panchjanya editor had also requested for a meeting, which was granted.Baru said contrary to what was being projected, it was not an interview, for Vijay neither carried a questionnaire nor a tape-recorder during the 10-minute interaction. ‘‘The quotes are authentic,’’ he said, adding ‘‘it is the second time Panchjanya has praised a Congress Prime Minister, the last time being in 1971 after the Bangladesh War when it hailed Indira Gandhi as Durga’’.Despite the party stand, the ‘‘interview’’ has caused a stir in political circles. Manmohan Singh’s comment at his first conference that he was against ‘‘fundamentalism of both the Left and the Right’’ has already riled the Left which feels that equating Left and RSS historians only fulfills the Sangh Parivar’s agenda.Sections in the Congress and the Left feel the UPA Government came to power after winning an ideological battle against the Sangh and now, the PM cannot afford to be ‘‘apolitical’’, a stance that could be seen as legitimising the RSS-BJP ideology.The ‘‘interview’’ comes close on the heels of a few laudatory articles by Tarun Vijay on Manmohan Singh. While the articles could be interpreted as part of the RSS’ gameplan of driving a wedge between the PM and others such as Arjun Singh, the PMO’s decision to grant Vijay an interview indicates that the PM — or at least his media advisers — were appreciative of the articles, it is felt.Sources in the BJP and RSS said there was nothing unusual in the Panchjanya providing space to leaders outside the Sangh fold. ‘‘Our paper, unlike the organs of the Communist parties, even give space to Communist leaders,’’ an RSS member said.
