PMO trashes Sanjaya Baru's book on Manmohan Singh; cites PM's economic record

NEW DELHI: Trashing Sanjaya Baru's book 'The Accidental Prime Minister', Pankaj Pachauri the communications advisor to PM on Friday said, "PM Manmohan Singh doesn't need to make a statement as PMO, Congress & family have spoken."

To substantiate claims of India's growth under Manmohan Singh, Pachauri said, "GDP tripled in the last 10 years. Our per capita income tripled in last 10 years. But people don't know, as media are priorities different." "PM has made more than 1000 speeches & more than half of what he said has been achieved in last 10 years," Pachauri said.

"In last two years the communication between media and PMO has improved," he added.

In his book, Sanjaya Baru, former Media Adviser to the PM has written, "Pulok, who was inducted into the Manmohan Singh PMO at the behest of Sonia Gandhi, had regular, almost daily, meetings with Sonia at which he was said to brief her on the key policy issues of the day and seek her instructions on important files to be cleared by the PM.

"Indeed, Pulok was the single most point of regular contact between PM and Sonia. He was also the PMO's main point of contact with the NAC, a high profile advisory body chaired by Sonia Gandhi, with social activists as members. It was sometimes dubbed the shadow cabinet."

As the observations created a flutter, Baru said, "it was not a secret." He said it was well known that Chatterjee was Sonia Gandhi's secretary when she was the leader of opposition and had also worked with the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation chaired by her.

Last week, the PMO hit out at Sanjaya Baru, saying his book contending that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was undermined by Congress Chief Sonia Gandhi smacks of "fiction" and is a "coloured" view and rubbished as "baseless and mischievous that its files were seen by her.

"The statement being attributed to a former Media Adviser to the Prime Minister that PMO files were seen by the Congress President, Smt Sonia Gandhi is completely baseless and mischievous.