New Delhi, June 30: The Prime Minister on Wednesday, in a meeting with editors of newspapers,tackled the most embarrassing question – the Rahul Gandhi -for-PM demand – with the same straight bat, neither hitting a boundary nor giving his wicket away. “I have no objections to Rahul becoming PM,” he said, only to add the non-controversial caveat that this specific issue “had not arisen before the government and the party”.
In general, he seemed perforce to welcome the idea of a younger leadership stepping up. On the all-consuming corruption issue, he said he was all for a strong Lokpal institution, though he did not think it was a one-shot panacea that could cure the ill like “a magic wand”. Indeed, personally, he did not mind his office too being under its jurisdiction, but there has to be “national consensus” on the issue and his Cabinet too had to agree.
At the same time, he said he respected all inputs from civilian society and wished to work with them. However, he took potshots at the Comptroller and Auditor General and a Parliamentary Committee (obviously, the M M Joshi-headed PAC) for doing their “post facto analysis” of government decisions/policies.
There were “difficulties” with the alliance (with the DMK), but these were the usual vagaries of coalition politics, and things would be sorted out in due course, he reportedly said. He ducked a direct question on the Dayanidhi Maran issue, giving a wishy-washy reply on his continuance in the Cabinet. The much-awaited Cabinet reshuffle itself, he added, was “a work in progress”.
This unexceptional and status-quoist approach is what one associates with Manmohan Singh the politician. However, it’s his characteristic reticence that has heightened the sense of drift in the time of crisis.
–Agencies