'Prime Minister Manmohan Singh refused to allow us to project his real personality to let the people of India know exactly what he really was. He was always shying away from greater public exposure. Since the last two years we have seen enormous criticism, ridiculing the prime minister. He has been made into an object of jokes. It certainly hurts. I think this man deserves lots of good reviews... His contribution to social policy, his contribution to the economy, his contribution to coalition management, his contribution to foreign policy.' Dr Sanjaya Baru, Dr Singh's former media advisor who is in the eye of a storm over his book on the prime minister UPA speaks to Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt.
Dr Sanjaya Baru, editor, Business Standard, talks about the lack of respect for education and the need to reward excellence.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday returned to his residence at 7, Race Course Road from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences where he had undergone a surgery.
The Congress is nervous about the PM penning his memoirs.
Dr Baru and Dr Singh struck up a close relationship when the latter was finance minister in 1991; in fact, when Dr Singh resigned from Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao's Cabinet over the stock exchange scam in the 1990s, it was Dr Baru who broke the story.
Dr Sanjaya Baru answered our readers' questions on the Union Budget on February 28.
Say hello to the cast of The Accidental Prime Minister.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh continues to be unwell, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee has postponed his visit to Australia by a day and Communist Party of India-Marxist General Secretary Prakash Karat has warned that the Left will withdraw support to the United Progressive Alliance government by Wednesday if the UPA continues to pursue the India-US nuclear deal.
H Y Sharada Prasad, freedom fighter, columnist and the speech writer of three Prime Ministers of India, passed away in New Delhi on Tuesday. Dr Sanjaya Baru, former media advisor to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, remembers the man who was famous for a book that he never wrote.
His trip is now expected to take place after the Presidential polls on July 19.
Many will hope this is the beginning of a new phase in Dr Singh's tenure, when he lets his office, the government, his council of ministers, his party and coalition and the country know that he means business, that the buck stops with him, that his colleagues and officers must shape up or ship out, says Sanjaya Baru
'The day the Indian media moves away from its binary world view, its argumentative 'me and you' divides, and moves closer to the consensual frameworks of reference it will have created a new paradigm, a very Indian paradigm,' says Dr Sanjaya Baru.
'People, who are objecting to the movie now, should have objected in 2014 when the book came out. But nobody did.'
In the backdrop of a furore created by the prime minister's former media advisor Sanjaya Baru's book, Finance Minister P Chidambaram in an exclusive interview to CNN-IBN, said that Dr Manmohan Singh is reticent, withdrawn and shy by nature.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday underwent an eye surgery for cataract removal at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Delhi. Dr Singh, 75, underwent an intra-ocular lens implantation in the right eye after a brief surgical procedure, PM's media advisor Sanjaya Baru said.
'Given his stint in Beijing, as India's longest serving ambassador there and that too through some challenging and interesting times, Jaishankar ought to have been appointed as foreign secretary in 2013 itself,' says Sanjaya Baru.
Dr Singh has sent his condolences to the family members of Lone and spoken to Tarigami enquiring about his welfare, Baru said.\n
'Whenever you see him on television or anywhere else, he gives off grandfatherly vibes.'
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leaders on Sunday attacked ruling Congress and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh over a book written by a former aide of Singh, saying it is a confirmation of what the world already knew that he is a "weak" PM and Sonia Gandhi had the last word in government matters.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is convalescing at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences after a prostate surgery.
"The procedure was performed to treat benign prostatic hypertrophy of the prostate (benign enlargement of the prostate gland)," Prime Minister's Media Adviser Sanjaya Baru said.
They discussed the legislation on the N-deal.
Hansal Mehta will write the screenplay; debutante Vijay Gutte will direct the film.
There was more to him than he let on, asserts Aditi Phadnis.
'The makers of The Accidental Prime Minister would have to get an NOC from Manmohan Singhji, Sonia Gandhiji and all the other politicians who are part of the narrative,'
'People have a certain perception about my political leanings -- and rightly so.' 'But I am an actor first, and then an activist.' 'And I am not an accidental actor.' 'There was no way I was going to be dishonest with my acting,' Anupam Kher tells Veenu Sandhu.
Sanjaya Baru, Manmohan Singh's former media advisor and author if The Accidental Prime Minister defends his controversial memoir
Nothing 'accidental' about this movie, feels Syed Firdaus Ashraf.
'While it may not be an out-and-out hit job on the Gandhi family, the movie is all about one aspect: How Dr Singh struggled with the family and the party all through his prime ministership,' notes Utkarsh Mishra.
'While they were respectful of the PM, it was clear that as ministers, they owed their positions as much, if not more, to Mrs Gandhi.' 'When attacks were mounted on the PM, there was very little coordinated effort by the Congress, UPA ministers or other politicians to speak up in his favour and strongly defend him.' B K Chaturvedi, Cabinet Secretary during the early years of UPA1, reveals how the Manmohan Singh-Sonia Gandhi equation worked. A riveting excerpt from Chaturvedi's memoir, Challenges Of Governance: An Insider's View
"Who will be his men?" a distinguished official close to the prime minister asked. Frankly, nobody has an idea. Hardly seven weeks are left for a regime change, but the idea of Narendra Modi on Raisina Hill looks abnormal, if not unreal. Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt captures the uncertain mood in the capital's bureaucracy ahead of the largest democratic transfer of power in the world.
Former media advisor to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Dr Sanjay Baru, the author of the controversial book 'The Accidental Prime Minister' that put Dr Singh in the dock over his alleged unassertiveness on policy issues, however points out that it was during the Indo-US nuclear deal discussions that the prime minister put his foot down and even staked his political future 'for the honour of commitment'. Bikash Mohapatra reports.
Chief Minister Kamal Nath said that he 'doesn't have any intent to impose a ban or any prohibition on any movie'.
The five-state assembly elections are seen as a now-or-never, no-holds battle for the Congress, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
The Congress leaders maintained that such propaganda against the party would not work and the truth shall prevail.
Sukanya Verma looks at the recent spate of book-to-screen adaptations.
From bikinis to superhero spandex, it's all in a day's work for these film folk!
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