My govt is being termed most corrupt ever: PM

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday said that his government was described as the most corrupt-ever, adding that corruption has become a big issue and has caught the popular imagination.

The stunningly frank remark about the huge image problem his government has came during an interaction Singh had with a select group of editors. "...in the situation that we are faced today, day in day out I think we are described as the most corrupt government", Singh told his select audience.

Corruption which has been seized upon by the Opposition to torment the government and the Congress party took up a huge chunk of Prime Minister's inaugural remarks at the session with editors. It figured prominently also in the question-answer session that followed, with Singh admitting that the telecom scam and Commonwealth Games have taken a toll on his government's reputation and have anguished the middle classes. "Some events –the telecom scam, the Commonwealth Games -- have caused genuine concern among large classes of middle class opinion that cannot be wished away", he said.

He said that "corruption has emerged as a big issue and has caught the imagination of people", although he cautioned against radical steps which could turn the country into a police state and lead to the return of the inspector raj.

Indeed, one of his visitors told Singh that while his personal integrity remains untarnished, perception has grown that he has "allowed things to happen". Interpreting the question as echoing the view that he failed to stop A Raja from perpetrating the 2G scam, Singh suggested that he was betrayed by the sacked telecom minister. He said as Prime Minister he had to trust his minister when he promised to abide by rules. "How can I conduct a post-mortem? I am not an expert in telecom ministers. As Prime Minister, it is not that I am very knowledgeable about these matters. Or, that I can spend so much of my time, to look after each and every ministry."

Singh also criticized Raja for wrongly claiming that he had PM's endorsement. "One observation that my private secretary recorded, that the PM says that there must be transparency-the minister should have said that it was his responsibility-rather than saying that the Prime Minister has also endorsed it."

When told that the government failed to take notice of newspaper reports about the irregularities in the allocation of 2G licences and spectrum, PM said that he could not have gone by newspaper reports alone." There were people on both sides writing to me. If I go by the newspapers everyday, I would have to refer everything to CBI, and the CBI would sit in judgement. And if I continued in this vein, our public sector would not be able to perform. It would greatly weaken the (entrepreneurial forces) that have unleashed, and willy nilly install a police raj".

The interaction was held against the growing perception that a time when the government was faced with an image deficit on the issue of corruption and other challenges, PM has not been communicating enough with his constituency. In the fourth interaction he had with media in his second term, PM stepped out to rebut the perception that he had been reduced to a lame duck and could be asked to make room for Rahul Gandhi.

He hit out at the Comptroller and Auditor General whose reports on 2G and alleged favors to oil firms have embarrassed the government for overstepping its constitutional mandate. "It has never been in the past that the CAG has held a press conference as the present CAG (Vinod Rai) has done. Never in the past has the CAG decided to comment on a policy issue. It should limit the office to the role defined in the Constitution".

In his opening remarks, Singh said that their post-facto analysis of decisions by CAG and parliamentary committees did not recognize that the government had fewer facts when decisions were made.

He criticized media for creating the perception his government was under siege and for simultaneously playing "the accuser, the prosecutor and the judge" I think there is a growing perception that his government is in a siege, that we have not been able to deliver on agenda. An atmosphere has been created in the country- and this I say with all humility – the role of media in many cases have become that of the accuser, the prosecutor and the judge", Singh said.

At another point during the interaction, he said sections of media had lent ear to Opposition's clever propaganda that his government had become a lame duck government.

The reporting of the court cases by media also came in for criticism from the Prime Minister who disclosed the issue he had discussed with the issue with judges." They (judges) say that the way press reports creates a real problem. I think everybody should exercise restraint...... press reportage causes sensationalism", he said.