The Hindu : National : I have lost my freedom: Manmohan

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, May 28, 2004

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National

I have lost my freedom: Manmohan

By Vinay Kumar

NEW DELHI, MAY 27 . A week after being sworn-in Prime Minister and coping with the pressures of managing a Congress-led coalition Government at the Centre, Manmohan Singh feels that the country's top executive office has robbed him of his privacy and freedom.

"I had not imagined in my wildest dreams that I will be the Prime Minister of India. It was a mandate for Sonia Gandhi not for me but she made me the Prime Minister. It is an onerous responsibility. It will be my endeavour to do my best and come up to the expectations and trust of the people," Dr. Singh said.

Interacting with mediapersons on the lawns of the 7 Race Course Road soon after the release of the Common Minimum Programme here today, Dr. Singh said that despite his limitations and the pulls and pressures of managing a coalition ministry, he would try to do his best.

Self-effacing, simple and mild-mannered that he is, Dr. Singh appears to have made efforts to adjust with the pressures of the Prime Minister's office. "Pressures in a democracy and a coalition will be there," he says surrounded by a battery of cameras, microphones and jostling reporters. "I have lost my freedom and privacy but such is life,'' Dr. Singh, a distinguished economist, added rather philosophically.

When asked how he viewed having in his Government "tainted ministers" who have been chargesheeted in a number of cases, Dr. Singh said the law of the land would be allowed to prevail. "If there are cases going on in the courts, the Government will do nothing to affect the course of such cases. There were chargesheeted Ministers in the previous Government,'' he pointed out.

How will you manage contradictions in a coalition government? "Well, life is not like a straight line, it follows a zig-zag path,'' he says smilingly.

Earlier, responding to a question if the Government would register a case against the former Defence Minister, George Fernandes, on charges of corruption in defence deals, Dr. Singh said that the Congress had boycotted Mr. Fernandes in Parliament because he was re-inducted into the Cabinet even though it was explicitly promised that he would be kept out till the Tehelka Commission completed its probe.

Specifically on the possibility of a case being registered against the former Defence Minister, he said: "I cannot announce anything on other issues. If there is any visible evidence, then the law of the land will take its own course.''

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