PMO defends Manmohan Singh, says PM hasn't got enough chances to speak in parliament

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has always preferred to talk about politics on the floor of the House but in the last five years "parliament has not given him enough chances to speak", prime minister's media adviser Pankaj Pachauri said

New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has always preferred to talk about politics on the floor of the House but in the last five years "parliament has not given him enough chances to speak", prime minister's media adviser Pankaj Pachauri said Friday.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. File Pic

But the interaction between the Prime Minister's Office and the media "has improved in the last two years", he added.

"The output of news channels in the last two years is 25 percent politics and about 10 percent entertainment and similarly sports. But those are the issues for which the PM has not talked too much," Pachauri said.

"He has preferred to talk about politics on the floor of the House and in the last five years the parliament has not given him enough chances to speak," he added.

Pachauri said Manmohan Singh had spoken on issues related to development on several occasions but did not get due coverage.

"Around 85 to 90 percent of the notifications from the PMO are on developmental issues like education, infrastructure, science etc. But only 2.1 percent of them got coverage on news channels and 4.5 percent in newspapers," said Pachauri.

"The PM has talked about development but most of the interaction on the issue is not registered," he added.

Pachauri added that Manmohan Singh had in the last decade given 1,158 speeches and there were over 1,600 press releases on the PMO site, but the media does not find the topics interesting.

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