PM may skip media address

On completion of the UPA Government’s one year in office on May 22, PM Manmohan Singh will not be among those crowing about its achievements. The PM has also indicated that he was not interested in addressing the media that day.

Instructing that the celebrations be kept ‘‘a low key affair’’, the PM handed over its management to Minister of State in the PMO Prithviraj Chavan. At Thursday’s meeting, chaired by PM’s Principal Secretary T K A Nair, Chavan was told to identify the ministers who would be employed to highlight the Government’s achievements.

The media would be handed out features, backgrounders and ‘Report to the People’ on the initiatives taken by different ministries on implementation of UPA’s National Common Minimum Programme.