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| PM just made re-election a little |
| PM just made re-election a little harder for Congress
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| INDIA
, 3-January-2014
5:52:3 AM |
| It was always going to be an uphill battle but I think the Prime Minister has just made the task of getting the Congress elected to power for a third time at the Centre a little bit harder.
At what was being seen as his valedictory press conference on Friday, Manmohan Singh not only said the wrong things on key issues but failed to articulate a single positive reason why people should vote for the Congress when elections are held a few months from now. (No third term. PM to 'hand over baton' after general election)
In all, I counted eight blunders of commission and omission at his press conference. That's quite a lot, for an interaction that lasted a little over an hour. (Watch the PM's media interaction | Rate his answers here)
First, on corruption - one of the biggest issues to have contributed to the unpopularity of his government - Manmohan Singh used specious arguments to make light of people's concerns. The big allegations of corruption - of tainted allocations of spectrum and coal -belonged to his first term as Prime Minister and not his second, he claimed. Despite knowing this, the electorate brought the Congress and United Progressive Alliance to power again in 2009, he said, arguing that in the eyes of the people, the coal and spectrum scams were obviously not a big deal. (10 big quotes from the PM's press conference)
This argument is bogus on factual grounds because the facts about the shady coal and spectrum allocations came fully to light only during Manmohan Singh's second tenure, even if the scams themselves pertain to his first period. As for his logic, is it any different from the BJP's dodgy argument that Narendra Modi's handsome performance at the hustings in December 2002 meant he had been absolved of any responsibility for the 2002 communal massacres that wracked Gujarat?
Second, Manmohan Singh insisted he had tried his best to ensure that coal and spectrum were allocated in a transparent manner.
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