Meeting with Indian Prime Minister
Had an opportunity to interact with the Indian Prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh at his Race Course Road residence in New Delhi on May 30, 2005, as part of a meeting of foreign media organised by the Foreign Correspondents Club. Since it was meeting with foreign media based in New Delhi, the PM spoke most of the time on foreign policy issues - ranging from situation in Nepal to India's bid for security council seat. On most of the issues, he merely repeated the stated position. Perhpas the only deviation was his statements on talks with Pakistan. He used different words to make the point that India is not going to negotiate Kashmir's boundaries in any case.
Keeping up his image of a working PM, Dr Singh said that he wanted to meet the foreign media earlier but he could not because he was simply not prepared for it! In reply to most of the questions, he made long winding comments, reminding many of us of his earlier days as an economist and academician. In informal conversaion with us over tea, he was quite relaxed and very frank about his views on touchy issues like relations with the Left, other allies like Paswan, his 6/10 rating of his government's performance etc. He revealed that all decisions in the cabinet are taken unanimously, to drive home the point that there are no differences among allies and the congress.
Article on oil diplomacy in Bangkok Post
New Delhi _ India is not a major oil producer, but is beginning to cause a flutter in international energy markets.For a change, major players in the oil market are sitting up and taking note of India as a leading consumer of petroleum products. The country is teaming up with other Asian consumers, including China, to project Asia as a bigger oil buyer than the United States and is trying to tilt the energy equation in favour of Asia.India depends on imports for over 70% of its petroleum products requirements. New Delhi has been engaging in aggressive oil diplomacy for the past one year or so. As part of its larger goal of achieving energy security, India has been actively talking to both oil producers and consumers in the region, while Indian oil companies are buying equity and property in far-off countries in Africa and Latin America.
Full article at :
http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/31May2005_opin33.php
What's this blog about
Hi everyone. In Hindi language, Vichar Manch means a platform for expressing one's views and ideas. This is what this blog is going to do. I intend usng this as a platform for discussing ideas, views, criticism on India media. Many of professional journalists in India today feel strongly about the state of affairs in India media. This is going to be a platform for all such fellow journalist and professionals. I will also be posting my personal published writings from time to time. Having written a lot on the subject of blogging in the past few months, I thought it is high time to try my hands at it myself.
