Bogged down by scams, PM to face media on Feb 16

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is ready to catch the bull by the horn.

PM Singh is likely to meet senior editors of television news channels on February 16, just five days before the budget session of the parliament begins on February 21.

The meeting will be telecast live, says sources.

There has been widespread criticism of PM Singh and his government by political parties and the media. Political cartoonists are deriding PM Singh a daily basis.

Media and critics are condemning PM's silence in stepping forward and offering an authoritative explanation from the government side over allegations of various scams that have choked its proceedings and tainted its public image.

Hopefully, nation would get the true picture of his office's role and his government's level of involvement (or absence) behind the many scams that are hitting the headlines, since the Commonwealth Games scam has caught the public attention.

Even though PM Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi have met twice to discuss the setting up of the Joint Parliamentary Committee, PM Singh is reluctant and the party is impatient.

Party men want parliament to function without a break and they don't want Congress' image to slide any further. The arrest of former Telecom Minister A Raja in the 2G spectrum scam has given them the respite -- which it badly needed.

It's expected that PM Singh would put his best argument forward on the action taken in various scams and will 'expose' Bhartiya Janta Party's stance on the issue. BJP is blocking the running of parliament over the 2G scam issue.

PM is, also, likely to give explanation on the S band scam that how his office was not in the know of the agreement entered between Indian Space Research Ogranisation's commercial arm ANTRIX and Devas in selling spectrum so cheap.

There is a long list of charges PM Singh needs to defend.