Prime Minister Manmohan Singh feels “stabbed in the back” by his former media adviser Sanjaya Baru who used his access to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) to write the book Accidental Prime Minister: Making and Unmaking of Manmohan Singh .
The book claims the Prime Minister was “defanged” by the Congress and its president, Sonia Gandhi, in the second term of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA). Highly placed sources in the PMO say Dr. Singh sees the book as Mr. Baru’s way of getting back at him for not giving him a government job on his return from a teaching assignment in Singapore.
Letter to PM Apparently, Mr. Baru wrote to the Prime Minister a week ago stating that he was traumatised by the events of 2009 when he came back from Singapore in the expectation of a government job, which did not come through.
Meanwhile, in an official response, the PMO accused Mr. Baru of misusing a privileged position for a commercial gain.
“It is an attempt to misuse a privileged position and access to high office to gain credibility to apparently exploit it for commercial gain. The commentary smacks of fiction and coloured views of a former adviser.”
When The Hindu contacted Mr. Baru for his response to the charge levelled by the PMO, he insisted he had only three words to say: “I am amused.”
