The buck stops here, PM seeks to assure editors

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today sought to rebut the widespread belief that he is a 'stop-gap' prime minister with no real decision-making powers, saying it was a clever canard spread by the opposition parties.

The prime minister said he had the full cooperation of party president Sonia Gandhi (considered by most observers as India's eminence grise). He said she has ''done a superb job as Congress president''.

At the same time, he added that he has no objection to Sonia's son Rahul Gandhi becoming the prime minister, but no such discussions were currently taking place within the Congress.

Singh is widely perceived as holding the top position only till Rahul is ready to take over – assuming of course that the Congress-led UPA wins the next general elections.

In his eagerly watched meeting with some five newspaper editors this morning – which is supposed to be the first of a series of such media interactions – he said nothing startling, and stuck to bromides.

Criticising the media, Singh said it has become an ''accuser, prosecutor and judge''.