Cavilling about Manmohan

IN Opinion | 06/02/2006

You don`t say!

Darius Nakhoonwala

Where leader writers are concerned, press conferences by prime ministers are like a huge 5-star buffet lunch spread. There is a lot of choice, and they can keep going back - which, as we shall see, is what the Hindu did after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh`s press conference last week. His first one had been in September 2004.

Manmohan Singh, unlike Rajiv Gandhi, is not the sort who makes waves at press conferences. Indeed few prime ministers do. So, as ever, the leader writers were unfair to Sardarji. "The Prime Minister who took questions on Wednesday did so like a pro — not just self-assured and politically savvy but also adept at evasion and obfuscation" moaned the Hindu.

"Dr Singh has also picked up a few tricks of the trade" groaned the Deccan Herald, adding that "he was rather economical about sharing information… On most of the issues he only reiterated the known positions of the government. Only a doze (dose, surely?) of populism was resorted to when he also compromised his reform instincts and availed of the opportunity to announce plans to set up the 6th Pay Commission for Central government employees."

The Pioneer was stupidly carpy. "If there is any one purpose that has been served by Wednesday`s press conference by Mr Manmohan Singh, it is to let the country know that he still occupies the Prime Minister`s office." 

But it did have a point when it said that a Prime Minister does not hold a press conference merely to reiterate bureaucratic inanities or fob off journalists by telling them he has already answered their questions at some other time in some other place."

The Hindu, which never seems to be able to make up its mind whether to be nice to him or nasty, also wrote cattily that "the trademark humility was gone; in its place was on view political smugness, only too evident in the way he dealt with critical posers on foreign policy, the Government`s track record in office, and the Congress` relationship with its allies… Dr. Singh showed no remorse for his Government`s mishandling of the Bihar issue." 

The Indian Express went off a tangent about the announcement that a new pay commission for civil servants would be set up but took a surprisingly different view. "It is illogical and unfair to argue that government employees do not deserve a compensation review even nine years after the fifth pay commission awards. At all levels, government salaries are pathetically low… this is ridiculous… This is also why government jobs do not attract the best and the brightest, why they become mired in the politics of mass patronage."

The Pioneer also had something to say on the subject. "The impact of a further upward revision in the salaries of Government employees will be devastating… If Mr Singh is truly not a `weak` Prime Minister, as he would want people to believe, then he should cut back on expenditure by reducing the size of Government and redirect funds for health, education and housing, and force State Governments to do likewise. Fatter pay packets for our babudom will not help India achieve 10 per cent growth rate that Mr Singh promised during his press conference."

Like I said, it was a buffet lunch of magnificent proportions and you had the option of not eating, too. Which is what the Telegraph did.