An embarrassed Congress on Wednesday played down the controversy stemming from the fact that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh gave his first ever interview to any publication to saffron RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) mouthpiece Panchjanya. The party, however, came out in the PM’s defence. "The PM responded to an editor's request for a meeting… That was published as an interview… Nothing further should be read into it," said AICC spokesperson Jayanti Natarajan.
Though party leaders maintain that as the head of the government, the PM should meet all shades of opinion, the discomfort over the Panchjanya report was evident. "Atpata toh hai," (it is unusual) said an AICC general secretary, referring to the PM's interaction with and interview to the Panchjanya editor. "It is an embarrassing controversy which was highly avoidable," said another leader, shifting the blame on to the PM's spin-doctors while underlining that Manmohan Singh was "non political." The "explanations" notwithstanding, AICC leaders privately admit that they were embarrassed by the report in a publication which propagates an ideology that the party is opposed to and determined to fight.
In his "interview," the PM said that he did not view the Opposition as an "enemy" but regretted that Parliament was not allowed to function even though there were "decent" leaders like A.B. Vajpayee and L.K. Advani on the other side. Stating that he wasn't disturbed by the "foul language" used against him, the PM also said that his focus was on tackling issues like inflation and corruption and giving an impetus to economic and administrative reforms. "I believe that the main task of politics is addressing the country's problems and not to level allegations against each other," Singh said.
