Indian PM plans regular chats with media to boost flagging image

After being "comatose" for the better part of a year, India's ruling United Progressive Alliance government is finally showing the will to fight — announcing that beleaguered Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will today begin regular interactions with top local news editors to address growing concerns about his government.

Reporting that Singh may now begin addressing the media as frequently as once a week (grumble grumble), the Economic Times noted that "Singh, a low-key former academic, has addressed only three nationally telecast press conferences in the last seven years and has given few one-on-one interviews."

Talking may not be enough. 

The government's continued opposition to a civil society proposal to include the PM and the higher judiciary among the bodies monitored by a powerful new ombudsman's office has eroded public confidence in his "clean image," and raised the volume among critics who claim that Singh is just a puppet for Congress Party president Sonia Gandhi.

Now Singh is playing catch-up, having missed his moment in the early days of the corruption scandals related to the Commonwealth Games and the allocation of 2G telecom licenses (among myriad others). At that time, the PM held all the cards, and had Singh (privately) offered his resignation unless he was allowed to root out corruption wherever he found it, the inevitable arrest of former telecom minister A. Raja and various business tycoons would probably have made him look like a hero. Instead, by pretending to have no power or failing to realize the leverage that he did hold, Singh allowed the government to drag its feet and niggle over the way that an investigation should be conducted and who should lead it.

Then, the last time he spoke out to "save" his reputation and protect the UPA from further embarrassment, he essentially said that he couldn't do anything about corruption because the alleged perpetrators were his coalition partners and his government needed them to stay in office.  (Oh! That explains everything. Sorry about the bad press!)