Opinion Stealing his thunder
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has perhaps spent more time out of the country when Parliament is in session than any previous prime minister....
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Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has perhaps spent more time out of the country when Parliament is in session than any previous prime minister. He recently returned from a 10-day trip to the US and Port of Spain and is soon to leave for Russia. Singh will now attend the Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. But while the Opposition has targetted his predecessors for neglecting Parliament,Singh has not been taken to task. Even Singhs party colleagues appear unaffected by his long absences. In fact,some seem to be following his example.
The prime minister enjoys the accolades he receives abroad where he is treated deferentially as an elder statesman and scholar whose opinion is much respected by world leaders. American newspapers normally bury news of the visit of an Indian prime minister in an obscure corner,but Singhs recent trip to Washington was big news even in a section of Middle Americas media. The only sour note was that uproar over the Liberhan report stole much of his thunder back home.
Not leak proof
Perhaps one reason why the US authorities refused to allow the Indian delegation of sleuths from RAW and IB to meet David Coleman Headley and Tahawwur Rana is that they feared that the Indian authorities would not keep the interaction secret. Washington is irked by several leaks from the Indian side. For instance,a top official confided to the media that the agreement with US regarding nuclear reprocessing arrangement would be concluded during Manmohan Singhs visit (In fact,the agreement was not finalised). The CIA briefed Indian officials on Headley and Rana and discovered that soon after,the Indian media was splashing confidential details of the case.
Long and short of it
US President Barack Obama is at least half-a-head taller than Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the difference in height between Michelle Obama and our first lady is even more pronounced,with Gursharan Kaur only reaching Michelles shoulder. Photographs of them together appeared a trifle awkward at times. However,when Singh and Obama made their opening statements at the White House from the same podium,somebody thoughtfully provided a little footstool for the Indian PM.
Strange silence
During the current Parliament session,the AIADMK,which is normally a vocal opposition,has kept a low profile. The AIADMK did not join the rest of the opposition on the farmers agitation over sugarcane prices. Even on the spectrum scandal,the AIADMK attack has been unusually mild. It appears that the 15 AIADMK MPs met party chief J Jayalalithaa before the start of the session and she instructed them not to oppose the Congress. Their brief was only to target the DMK. This has triggered speculation in Tamil Nadu that the Congress is contemplating switching horses midstream if its ally the DMK continues to be intransigent.
Playing hooky and cricket
Usually it is the media badgering spokespersons at international conferences for news and soundbytes but at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) at Port of Spain the roles were reversed. Because of the tight security at the conference,correspondents found themselves pushed to the sidelines and decided to spend their time more fruitfully playing cricket at the Queens Park,Oval. The photographers were left behind to take photographs of dignitaries. Unfortunately,while the cricket match was on,India and Canada successfully concluded a bilateral agreement on the nuclear deal. The media spokespersons from both countries looked desperately for journalists to brief but discovered that except for the photographers,everyone was playing hooky.
Resignation withheld
After the release of the Liberhan Commission,Makhanlal Fotedar pointed out proudly to the media that he was the sole member of Narasimhan Rao cabinet who resigned the day the Babri Masjid was pulled down. Fotedar says that on the evening of December 6,he met then President Shankar Dayal Sharma to submit his resignation. Sharma even confided to him that the then UP governor B Satya Narain Reddy had informed him that he had wanted to submit a report recommending the dismissal of Kalyan Singh as UP chief minister prior to December 6 but Rao had asked him to wait. Fotedars recollections are slightly flawed. The Lok Sabha secretariat lists Fotedar as Minister for Health and Family Welfare till January 17,2003,which is more than a month after the Babri Masjid demolition. Either Fotedar suffered a memory lapse or else Sharma sat on the resignation for a couple of weeks.
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