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Ahead of what promises to be a very difficult session of Parliament, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has agreed to speak to Indian television channels on Wednesday around 10.30 a.m. The question-answer session will be telecast live, government sources said.
The government, these sources added, was considering whether it should also invite foreign news channels based in the country such as the British Broadcasting Service and Al-Jazeera.
The modalities of the telecast are still being worked out — whether to permit the channels to bring in their cameras, or just have Doordarshan record the interaction, and share the feed with them.
Evidently, the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government — especially the Congress — has finally felt the need to provide a platform for the Prime Minister to directly answer the charges that are being hurled at him by the Opposition. For, what began as an attack on various Ministers and Chief Ministers, involved in a range of corruption cases, has now reached his door.
At the Congress plenary session last December at Burari, Dr. Singh made some effort at damage control when he had accused the BJP “of falsely propagating” that the government was opposed to setting up a joint parliamentary committee to probe the 2G spectrum scam as it did not want the Prime Minister questioned by it. Saying he had “nothing to hide from the public at large,” Dr. Singh offered to appear before the Public Accounts Committee, “even though there is no precedent to that effect.”
Wednesday's interaction, of course, will be not be the first of its kind: on September 6 last year, after the monsoon session, which saw the government receiving a bad press, thanks to intra-party rivalry, the Prime Minister met print editors and took questions on a range of issues.
The government, these sources added, was considering whether it should also invite foreign news channels based in the country such as the British Broadcasting Service and Al-Jazeera.
The modalities of the telecast are still being worked out — whether to permit the channels to bring in their cameras, or just have Doordarshan record the interaction, and share the feed with them.
Evidently, the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government — especially the Congress — has finally felt the need to provide a platform for the Prime Minister to directly answer the charges that are being hurled at him by the Opposition. For, what began as an attack on various Ministers and Chief Ministers, involved in a range of corruption cases, has now reached his door.
At the Congress plenary session last December at Burari, Dr. Singh made some effort at damage control when he had accused the BJP “of falsely propagating” that the government was opposed to setting up a joint parliamentary committee to probe the 2G spectrum scam as it did not want the Prime Minister questioned by it. Saying he had “nothing to hide from the public at large,” Dr. Singh offered to appear before the Public Accounts Committee, “even though there is no precedent to that effect.”
Wednesday's interaction, of course, will be not be the first of its kind: on September 6 last year, after the monsoon session, which saw the government receiving a bad press, thanks to intra-party rivalry, the Prime Minister met print editors and took questions on a range of issues.