Manmohan to break silence, meet senior editors today

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has decided to go public. He will hold regular interactions with some senior editors from time to time, starting tomorrow, to let the world know what he is thinking.

The first such meeting will be held beyond the glare of television cameras and klieg lights. Singh will meet editors T N Ninan (Chairman, Business Standard), Raj Chengappa (editor-in-chief, Tribune), Kumar Ketkar (Editor, Divya Marathi), Alok Mehta (editor, Nai Dunia) and M K Razdan (editor-in-chief and CEO, Press Trust of India). The Prime Minister will meet other regional and national editors over a period of time.

Although officials have been told to keep a transcript of the conversation ready, whether it would be made public or newspapers will have to use the copy released by PTI is yet to be decided.

Amid rising demands from civil society groups, the media, the opposition and even some of his own party members — including Home Minister P Chidambaram who told a TV channel that he wished the PM would ‘step up to the plate a bit more’ — over a perceived communication gap, the Prime Minister has conceded that being media shy in a TV-dominated world does not serve him well.

The PM’s silence had given rise to speculation that the party was unhappy with him and there was a government-party divide. For instance, Congress General Secretary Digvijay Singh’s statement that Rahul Gandhi had all the qualities of a good Prime Minister and was ready for the job. The party had, however, distanced itself from Singh’s comment the very next day, but the PM was said to be deeply hurt and had reportedly conveyed as much to the party.

The media interactions are expected to clear the air and stem such speculations. Officials said they would judge the response of the first round and then decide how to space out the interactions.

They also said tomorrow’s interraction was planned more than a month ago, but because the issue of Lok Pal and corruption was at its height it had to be postponed.